Snowmageddon

Winter is here. Well, not officially, but the weather certainly reflects it.  Over the past few weeks we've gotten a decent amount of snow.  Not really more than 6-8 inches, but compared to what we're used to from Arkansas, that's a lot!  The snow really makes things tough.  My morning walks have been put on hold-- I'm going to have to start walking around inside the apartment building.  It's too icy outside for safe walking.  It also makes going to work a bit difficult.  Not only are the buses slower, but the ice hasn't really melted much, so it just keeps getting slicker.  Plus, last week we had some freezing rain.  That was super fun.  It was like we were ice-skating to work.  Needless to say, I am certainly looking forward to some milder weather back in Arkansas next week.

Which brings me to my next exciting point!  As you all know, we'll be coming home for a week.  /cheer.  We catch the 5:30am airport shuttle on Saturday morning, and our flight leaves at 9:10am.  We'll be flying from Incheon to Tokyo to Minneapolis to Memphis.  LONG day.  But that'll put us arriving around 3-ish Saturday afternoon in Memphis.  Man, it's going to be so strange to see signs all in English, to hear people speaking English, to understand everything!  Sensory overload ahead.

Ben and I are super excited.  We'll be leaving Sunday morning to go spend the first half of the week with his family in Russellville, then on Friday we'll be coming back to Jonesboro.  Sprinkle in some visits with friends, and it'll be a terribly busy, extraordinarily good week.  We are very much looking forward to hugging friends and family.  We're also looking forward to the food.  And I am looking forward to the shopping!  We have a long list of things we need to buy which we can't get in Korea, so look out Turtle Creek Mall.

This week is bound to be busy.  We have a lot to get done in a short amount of time-- report cards, Christmas cards and gifts for the kids, final lessons for the year, last loads of laundry, packing, getting ready to go.  We're going to be pretty ready for some rest.  Too bad we won't be getting any! :p

As for everything else, just thought you guys would be interested in knowing that Koreans have the best space heaters ever.  They are heat fans! Shaped like a fan, but it's actually a heat source.  Terribly dangerous, but we haven't had to turn our ondol (electric floor) up since we purchased it.  It's going to save us a bundle on our electric bill.

Lastly, I just wanted to pass on that my photoshoots with Jessica Hollingsworth went extremely well.  If you haven't seen the pictures from them, check out my Facebook page.  More to come after the New Year!

Well, that's about it.  I'll likely update after we return to Korea.  We get back on New Year's Eve, so be thinking of us!

Peperooooo!

Good morning, blog-o-sphere.  It's Friday morning over here, and we are definitely ready for the weekend.  It's hard to believe it's already November!  Soon to be December, which means we'll be home soon!

This week I had my second root canal (I know, my teeth are terrible).  I used a new dentist this time, and they were able to complete the root canal procedure in just a day (as opposed to 3 weeks at the other clinic).  The downside to this is that my mouth feels like someone got angry and punched it.  My teeth and gums are extremely sore, but I'll make it through.

It's getting really chilly here in Seoul, and you know what that means.  Snotty kids who don't wash their hands or cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze!  Hooray, germs!  So it's no wonder I woke up this morning with the beginnings of a cold.

Of course this would happen right before my birthday.  :p

In other news, I've booked two photoshoots with a fashion photographer!  The first one is set for a week from Sunday, and I'm very excited about finally getting some good beauty pictures for my portfolio.  I'll keep you updated when I get the shots in.  Also, I have updated my website to get ready for the new pictures:

Make-up by Beks

We have finally gotten some new students in at school after an open house our management put on last week.  It's good to have "new blood" in the hallways; it takes away some of the latent gloom of worry.

As far as birthday plans go, I intend to stay in for the weekend save for dinner Sunday night. We're going to a nice Italian place on Cafe Street in Jukjeon.  We were thinking of seeing Les Mis in Seoul for my birthday, but tickets are pretty pricey, so I'm not sure if we'll end up doing that.  It's ok, though! I'm just happy for the weekend and the promise of seeing family and friends very soon.

A precious birthday card from two of my students who happen to be cousins, Scott and Ryan.  All of my students are really amused knowing that my birthday falls on Pepero Day.

Well, that's all I have.  Enjoy your weekends, everyone! Happy Pepero Day this Sunday! Be sure to eat some Pepero/Pocky-- you can find it at Wal-mart in the Asian foods aisle or at Hastings!

A Visit, a Doctor, and a Wedding

I know this post has been a long time coming.  We have been remiss.  Forgive us!  Plenty of fun stories are ahead.

My mom came to visit us at the beginning of the month.  We had so much fun!  I wish she could have stayed longer, but unfortunately we only had a week.  Still, we did manage to do a lot in the 7 days she was here.  We went to the Korean Folk Village in Suwon, visited the aquarium in COEX, went to Insadong to shop souveniers, and ate a LOT of Korean food!  Mom tried gogigui, dak galbi, bulgogi, bibimbap, and lots of other only-in-Korea foods.  At school, she brought gifts for the kindergartners, who were (for the most part) very polite and introduced themselves. The only disappointment at school was that my one girl student, Michelle, refused to say hello to my mom.  Incidentally, she did not get her present.  Boo-ya.

An idea of what most of the shops are like at Insadong.

While Mom was here, our refrigerator broke down.  It was pretty ridiculous, and it also meant we couldn't cook too much while she was here.  We do have a Starbucks downstairs, though, so that helped out some.  :)  They just this week fixed our refrigerator.  Which means it took about 3 weeks to get it sorted out.  3 weeks with no refrigerator!  UNACCEPTABLE!

Also, I lost my Nook (the Barnes & Noble e-reader) on the bus to Incheon Airport when we were going to pick up Mom.  When my friend, Sunny, called the lost/found number, no one had reported it found.  I thought I'd never see it again!  I had resigned myself to reading my books on my phone for a while... when I got a message saying they might have my e-reader at a subway station lost/found.  IT WAS MY NOOK!  My very sweet Korean co-worker, Grace, went to talk to the people at the station, and she brought it to me this past Monday.  Three weeks after losing my Nook, it comes back to me unharmed.  One of the many reasons why Korea is awesome!

Mom and I on the way to a Buddhist temple in the folk village.

Eating some delicious galbi (beef) at the gogigui restaurant.  Note the bloody plate by Ben's hand.  We cook the meat ourselves.

Hey there, Buddha.

Us girls!

After Mom left, school started again for reals.  We're doing an advertising push at the beginning of next month, so we're really hoping to get some more students into the kindergarten and afternoon programs.  I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago due to some strange symptoms-- headaches, dizziness, ringing in ears, nausea, and fatigue.  The doctor looked at me sternly after taking some quick tests and told me I had very high blood pressure.  Bum bum bummmmm.  In his words, I need to diet, exercise, and "lose my weight".  *facepalm*  Having lost over 10lbs. since coming to Korea, this was just a reminder that I have more to go.

He prescribed me an 8-day pill which I recently finished to help take the edge off.  (I can only assume it was a beta blocker, having found nothing close to the brand on the internet).  Since then, I have put myself on a low-sodium diet, started walking early in the mornings, and cut caffeine.  It stinks.  I miss salt!  But I've already started feeling better since making those small changes, so I know it's all for the good.  Besides, I know I can have those things occasionally.  Just no more microwaved popcorn for dinner.  (I am that person.)

Yesterday I attended my first (in Korea) Korean wedding.  (Alycia, trying to explain to my Korean friends that I had attended a sort-of Korean wedding in America was a little hard!)  It was at a co-worker's church, and I was the only waygook there.  Therefore, I was an oddity which everyone seemed to want to say "hello" to and practice their English on.  The wedding was a mixture of traditional, contemporary, and theatrical.  The bride and groom wore modern wedding clothes, but the mothers of the couple wore hanboks.  There was... a fog machine.  And a song and dance number.  And trumpet-shaped guns that shot out ribbon confetti.  It was... an experience.

That's about all I have time to write about for now!  Thanks to all of you who keep up with this blog. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the updates.

YAY.

MY MOM IS COMING!
On Saturday, we will be picking her up from Incheon International Airport.  We have a fun week planned ahead.  Because of Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), Ben and I have no school Monday through Wednesday next week, so we will have Saturday through Wednesday free to spend time with my mother.  Thursday and Friday, we plan to drag Mom to school so she can meet the kiddos.  (The kids are so excited. I spoke to one of the kindergarten moms yesterday. Apparently he told his mom all about my mom coming to school.)  On our time off, we're going to go to the Korean Folk Village in Suwon, COEX (there's an aquarium in the basement and a Buddhist temple right across the street), and eat lots of Korean food.

I am so excited about seeing my mom.  It's been eight months since I've gotten to hug her, so it's pretty amazing that she's coming to Korea to see us!

In other news, Ben and I are coming home for Christmas! We got the tickets purchased last weekend. We will be arriving Saturday afternoon (Dec. 22nd) and leaving Sunday morning (December 30th).  We'll be dividing our time between Russellville and Jonesboro and walking around like zombies, but we're thoroughly excited to get to go home for a little while.

Well, it's time for school!  Will update when Mom arrives!

Open classes and friends.

Two weeks ago, we had our first open class of the year.  An open class is basically a chance for parents to sit in on a class and see how their children are doing.  In other words, it's like a performance.  We were all on needles worried about how the classes would go.  You can't predict how students will act, and Korean moms are extremely fickle.

The day of open classes came, and every mom was present.  We set up chairs in the back of every class and prepped all of our students for the big "show".

My class actually went fairly well.  All three of my students participated actively, and they were enthusiastic and speaking in full sentences.  Everything was going swimmingly until one of my students could not figure out how to spell "long ago," and he got flustered when I corrected him.  He started crying during the lesson.  His mom was so embarrassed that she apologized after class.

Overall I think the open classes were a success.  Nevertheless, we had several more students leave this past week.  It's been a pretty huge blow to the school financially, but we are trucking through it.  We are determined to survive!  The new semester starts tomorrow, and we have been making changes.

All of the classrooms got computers and projecting systems.

We got new laptops for the outdated computer lab.

 We are hoping these new changes will attract more parents.  I guess we'll see!

In other news, Fanni and Danny arrived yesterday and have moved into their apartment.  They have been cleaning since they got here, but I think they will eventually enjoy living in Seongnam.  Last night we showed them the basics around the neighborhood.  This evening we will be meeting up with Zach for a dak galbi dinner.  Dak galbi is a dish of chicken, rice cakes, vegetables, and hot pepper paste cooked over a hot plate in the center of your restaurant table.

We'll let you all know how the next couple of weeks go with all the changes.  Hopefully some good things are to come!

The Toothbrush Ajusshi

Several weeks ago, Ben and I had an encounter we promised ourselves we would not forget to post on the internet.  (We forgot until now).  We were on the subway going to or from somewhere when we were accosted by an ajusshi ("a middle-aged man", counterpart to the ajumma, both very notable personas of the Korean culture) who was presumably trying to sell us a toothbrush.  On the subway.  He had his own little cart and everything with which he was moving through the subway.

Now, having never traveled in American subways and very infrequently on subways in Budapest, I found myself bewildered by this sort of gig.  He was not the first person we had seen soliciting in a subway, nor has he been the last.  However, he was the first person we saw selling toothbrushes.  Typically it's a man or woman trying to spange (or "spare change") or proselytize.  As you can imagine, these attempts are hardly ever successful.  Most people ignore them-- I guess that sort of behavior is universal no matter what language you speak.

This blog post isn't particularly significant except to make note of an odd situation.  When the ajusshi got to us on the subway, we were standing near a door and trying to look unobtrusive.  (We didn't know how to say, "We already have toothbrushes, thanks," in Korean).  He was having none of it, however, and proceeded to peddle his oral hygiene wares to us.  We smiled awkwardly and said "No, thank you," in Korean, which is all we could really manage, and he nodded and toddled away to his cart and then to the next subway car.

Maybe we should have purchased his toothbrush.  Sadly, not knowing any substantial amount of Korean really hinders us from having even a shallow conversation with a stranger, much less asking why he decided to sell toothbrushes on that particular train that day.  We'll be eaten with curiosity for a while yet.

A treat for you!

Well, not much has changed recently.  Ben and I had a nice, quiet vacation, and now we're back at work.  We have been working very hard over the last couple of months with the new curriculum, and hopefully soon we will start to see some results with our students' scores and an influx of new students.

Ben and I have been looking at options for visiting home during our Christmas break.  It's slow-going because we still don't have our official vacation dates.  We still don't know for sure if we will be able to make it home, but we certainly would like to.  Tickets are unfortunately very expensive.  If we wanted a reasonable flight (without 10 hour layovers), we would be paying around $3500-4000 round trip.  That's a lot of money for a few days' visit-- we only get a week off for Christmas break.  We know family and friends are anxious to see us.  That's why we are trying to find a way to make it home for the holidays.

I thought I might treat you all to a nice nugget of P.E. time with our 6-year-old kindergarten classes.  In this video, you have a great view of our regular game of Freeze Tag.  The kids adore this game.  Also, you will see a pretty amazing high five.  Get excited.

Changes, changes.

We've been in South Korea for six whole months now.
In some ways, it feels like forever.  In others, not very long at all.  Some days I wake up and think I'll see my friends and family later, like we've never left.  Sometimes we get homesick, but overall the past six months have been a blessing.  Moving to South Korea was absolutely the best decision for us.  We have been able to relax some, to get our feet under us, and to grow as a married couple and as individuals.

Enough sentimentality, though, because IT'S VACATION!  Happily, we have a whole week to do as we please.  All of our co-workers made plans to travel, but we decided to stay around here and to take the opportunity to rest and relax.  Some people react to our lack of plans with mild disbelief-- we don't!  We're not concerned about traveling too much these days.  We're in Korea, after all.  We've traveled this year, haha.

Tomorrow Ben and I will be going to eat lunch at a Korean co-worker's home.  We have no idea what she will be serving, but we're bringing chocolates and dressing nicely.  It's our first home visit!

A lot of exciting changes and events are coming up over the next few months.  The first is that my friends Fanni and Danny are moving back to Korea after getting married, and Danny got hired at our school!  We are so happy that they're going to be so close.  Even though Fanni can't work at the school due to some visa issues, we'll still get to see a lot of each other.  It's a terribly small world, meeting up with a Hungarian friend in Korea and working with her husband.  We're very pleased.

Another exciting event is that my mom is coming to visit!  She will be coming at the end of September for the Chilseok holidays (Korean Thanksgiving) to stay for a week.  We're anxious for her to get here. I never expected anyone to come visit us.  It's not exactly cheap to fly out here!  So we are planning to make her visit very special.

Ben and I are as happy as we've ever been.  Korea has been so good to us.  Of course we have our stressful moments, but they don't cast a shadow on our time here whatsoever.

Plus, who can be stressed or unhappy when you have children who give you such beautiful drawings of yourself?  I'm the short one.  This is supposed to be of another teacher and me, running through a perilous obstacle course during P.E. class.

Continued thanks for all of you who read our blog and keep us in your thoughts.  We love you and hope all is well back at home!

"Sailors' Adventure"

The time since we last posted has been filled with changes at school.  Our new directors have upended the curriculum and set us on a new course filled with more freedom and more work.  Instead of our oppressing schedule of GETTHESEPAGESDONEINTHISCLASSORSUFFERTHEWRATHOFKHAN, we as teachers have the invigorating freedom of addressing problems with our students as they arise and going through material in a more realistic time frame.

When Ben and I started at Welton School, we were fairly ambivalent about the school as is.  Two months ago, a friend asked us if we planned to re-sign at the end of our contract, and we said, "Probably not..."  Now, I'm thinking a different answer.  With the newfound liberty to teach, Ben and I have actually become fond of our school.  Our students are dear to us, but we are really starting to feel proud of working at this establishment.  If our school survives the remainder of our contract year, we may consider re-signing after all.

We'll see.

The drawback to the changes has been the loss of students. Last week I lost three students in my homeroom-- half my class.  My dear twin girls and "Miss Thang" were pulled out by their mothers for vague reasons, leaving me with the two boys and a precocious girl we call "Shmeeshmu".

My three lost students, "Miss Thang" and the twins. <3

I didn't realize the extent of the feeling of loss that would ensue.  Ben has referred to me as a "Mother Hen" or a "Mama Bear" with my class.  Teaching in Korea often means being surrogate parents to these kids, but the parents will yank them out of a hagwon for the slightest offense.  I've taught these students for almost six months, and now I feel bereft.

The good, however, is that I'm now getting the opportunity to focus on a smaller set of children.  I will be able to cater more to their needs now than ever, and I am excited to see how they progress.  These students are 6-years-old by American reckoning (7 by Korean), and they're already doing things we don't do in America until 2nd or 3rd grade!  Take, for example, the vocabulary used by my student Aiden in this story he wrote last week:

"Sailors' Adventure"
Sailors go to a harbor.  There is one big ship.  Sailors ride a ship.  Then a wave comes to the ship! The wave finishes, but they get lost.  A sailor gets a compass.  The sailors go north.  After one hour, they see a harbor, and they go home to sleep.


My kids are so smart.  :)

Until next time,
Bekah

School Politics

We've had an interesting couple of weeks at work, and we're in for another rough week next week.  We've had a regime change, and it's been rocky.  Often in Korea, this means the school isn't too far from shutting down.  However, the good news is that our new directors are very nice and very capable.  They are actually Korean-Americans, and they have been successful in the hagwon business for a long time.

Remember when I shared my class schedule with you all?  Well, one of the big changes we're making is curriculum, and that's going to be a doozy.  We've had kids leaving already because of this upcoming change.  All of the students have had to be benchmarked, and we're starting over next week.

Gone are our lesson-planning-less weeks.  This is a good and a not-so-good thing... more prep work, but less stress due to poor curriculum.  And I think we will have more leeway in the classroom as far as activities and homework.  We'll see.  I'm just hoping the parents and students hold on while we go through this rocky period.  If we can pull it off, it will be amazing.  If not, well... the worst that could happen would be the school closing, and we could probably find another job within a week.  There are tons of schools around here, and waygooks are always coming and going.

Please keep us in your thoughts!  We're hoping for a little less chaos in the future.  :)

Things We Miss From the USA (List #1)

Since we arrived here in late January, we have discovered that Korea isn't that much different than the States in many respects.  We came here thinking we would have all sorts of difficulties finding things like medicines, toiletries, and the like.  Gladly, we were mistaken about most of it.  HOWEVER, for those of you who are curious as to what we miss about the United States, I'm going to make occasional lists!

Things We Miss
--Friends, family, and the cat (OF COURSE WE MISS YOU!)
--Garbage disposal (not having one in our sink has been mindblowing in a bad way.)
--Potatoes (potatoes here in Korea are sad, grainy, and small.  Mashed potatoes are rare and bland, and baked potatoes are a general disappointment.)
--Whole wheat bread (bread isn't as popular here.  They have bakeries, but it's difficult to find a good, grainy bread.)
--Cheese (good cheese is hard to come by.)
--Being able to buy OTC drugs in a supermarket without consulting a pharmacist.  They don't sell any OTC stuff in the supermarkets.  You have to go to a pharmacy and ask a pharmacist for what you need... in Korean or veeeery slow English and pantomime.
--Being able to predict whether someone speaks English or not when you order food-- or anything, for that matter.
--A dryer (supposedly our washing machine has a dryer, but it doesn't work.  So we hang all of our clothes now.  Mmmmm, starchy towels.)


Well, there you are.  I hope you enjoyed our current list.  Tune in next time for an updated list on THINGS WE MISS.  :)

Weight loss in Korea. HA. Haha.

One topic that I think should be addressed more often by waygooks here in Korea is weight loss.  Who has lost weight since hopping over?  Who hasn't?

I promise this isn't going to turn into a weight-loss blog.  I just think it's an interesting subject.  I've had several friends who said they'd lost weight since coming here.  To tell the truth, it isn't that hard.  For one thing, we aren't driving anymore.  We're walking, standing up and trying to maintain our balance in buses or subways, or walking a couple of blocks to hail a cab.  There is also something to be said for the physical impact of teaching.  We're standing up for most of the day, for one thing.  For another, we're constantly being accosted by children.

Seriously, this morning I had two children in my lap (one with her arms around my neck, pulling my hair) and one on each arm.  I literally had to pick them up, two by two, and carry them across the room to the gym for stretches.

Twice.

For some reason, these children seem to think that we're a bunch of funny looking jungle gyms.  Don't mind me, you're just screaming in my ear and yanking my hair out, little ones...

I digress.

Ben and I have been tossing around the thought of trying to lose weight here in SK for a while now, and though we both have been losing some weight solely by the increase in physical activity and the addition of kimchi (good Lord, the kimchi *blech*) to our diets, we've decided to go a more structured route.

We're using an online resource, but there is one nice thing about doing this in Korea.  Produce isn't that expensive, and almost everything is fresh.  Much fresher than the produce you get from Walmart that tastes like chemicals and GMOs.  You know what I'm talking about!  The spinach and carrots we buy here still have a light dusting of dirt!  (Naturally, we thoroughly wash them.  Can never be too careful.)

Another nice perk of dieting in Korea is that traditional Korean food ain't that bad for ya.  Take the kimchi, for example.  Once you get past the assault on your senses that this fermented, spicy power food  packs, it really isn't that bad.  Well, some isn't that bad.  Some is actually really very bad.  (Again, *blech*.)  Sorry, my kimchi-loving friends and readers!  It just ain't my thing!  But honestly, Koreans and every Korean restaurant serves kimchi as a never-ending side dish, so I'm trying to get used to it.  A second popular Korean side-dish is pickled daikon radish, which is really quite tasty in comparison to the kimchi.  A little weird and a little sour, but it's crunchy and healthy, and Koreans eat it all the time.

Then there is the great Korean barbecue, which consists of meat cooked by you on a little grill in a restaurant.  No carbs in this meal unless requested.  Usually, it's just the meat (can be pork or beef... don't know if there are other options as yet), leafy greens (to wrap the meat in), spicy sauces, bean paste, kimchi (so much better if you throw it on the grill, too), garlic cloves, bean sprouts, soup, and a few other unknown pickled vegetable dishes.  Probably the unhealthiest part of this meal is the salt on the marinated meat.

One particular downside to dieting in Korea, however, is not knowing WHAT THE HECK THE NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION SAYS ON FOOD BOXES.  For a country that has English on signs everywhere, they sure like to keep their food a mystery.  Never fear, though!  Here are some translations, borrowed from this very helpful message board source.


열량   Calories
탄수와물   Carbs
당류    Sugar
단백질    Protein
지방    Fat
포화지방    Unsat fat
트랜스지방    Trans fat
콜레스테롤    Cholesterol
나트륨    Sodium
칼슘    Calcium
식이셤유    Fiber

Before we found that board, we were Babelfishing everything, trying to get the translation right.  Ugh.

If any of you are in Korea or planning to come to Korea soon, and you want to diet, don't be discouraged!  So far the hardest part (aside from translation) has been figuring out how to categorize the food our cook serves at lunch.  Today was a potato/fish-with-bones-still-inside surprise.  ...............  Yeah, I ate a salad today.

That Time We Got Famous in Korea and a List of Gifts

Hello friends, family, and blog readers!  Happy May Day!  This week is sure to be a fun one, as we are celebrating Children's Day on Friday by hosting "Market Day" at school.  Basically, this is a school festival all day with games, candy, and general mayhem.  I'm looking forward to it and hope I'm going to be posted in the facepainting room!

Today's blog is going to be devoted to two topics:
(1) The time we were on Korean national television.
(2) The crazy gifts we get because we're waygooks (or foreigners).


Famous in Korea
Two weekends ago, we received a text from our boss asking us to come in for a television interview on a Sunday.  A SUNDAY.  We have a pretty busy schedule throughout the week, so the idea of coming in on one of our days off was not too appealing.  Unfortunately, we let ourselves get guilt tripped into doing the job, so on Sunday we found ourselves back at school.  We didn't know a whole lot about what we were going to do, but our boss told us it was just an interview on behalf of one of our better speaking students.

Turns out that we were being interviewed by SBS, one of the major broadcasting companies in Korea (comparable to CBS or NBC).  They set us up in funny little "scenes" where we acted like the professional teachers and K, the student, pretended like she had never met us before.

The whole filming process took about an hour, and the spot aired on national television at 7:30am the following Tuesday.  Here is the spot in full below:

So on Tuesday, all of our students told us they saw us on television (they were fairly impressed).  Apparently even a lot of our students' moms called the school to tell our boss that we "looked nice" on television.  But was that the end of our fame?  Oh, no.  On the way down the escalator to the subway station at home, an old man shouted at us ("HEY!") and waved.  He then gave us a giant thumbs up.  So yes.  We are now officially famous in Korea.

Let's Give the Waygooks a Gift!
I mentioned in my last post how an old man on the subway gave us candy.  Well, this isn't the only gift we've received since getting to Korea.  Almost every week we get something or other from our students or the kids' parents just for being teachers-- candy, fruit, cake, cookies, juice, coffee, etc.  These are normal gifts.

Funnier to talk about, however, are the gifts we get from complete strangers (or bare acquaintances) on the merit that we are waygooks, or foreigners.  Below is a list of the gifts we have received so far (and I imagine this list will continue to grow!).

1.  Candy from a total stranger on the subway.  We threw it away.  It was old man candy.
2.  Candy from a convenience store owner near our school.  He calls us his "friends" and often throws in a pack of gummy bears or M&Ms for free when we stop by.
3.  Nachos at a beer garden.  Granted, we were with a friend of the server's at the time.
4.  Shot of spiced rum from a bartender.  Again, we were with a friend of the owner/bartender.  And he took a shot with us.
5.  2 eggs in a plastic sack from our bus driver on the way home from work.  We had gotten up to indicate we were getting off the next stop.  He asked us "Oria?" (Ori Station?) to pretty much verify that we knew what we were doing.  When we said "Neh," (Yes), he held out a sack to me, nodding and smiling.  Inside were two eggs.  We thanked him and smiled.  And proceeded to throw away the eggs once we got home.  Sorry, bus driver.  We still follow the "don't take candy from strangers" rule, and I think that rule extends to eggs, too.  Besides... they were eggs.

never take candy from strangers!

We did so many new things over the past week! I will try hard to remember them all.

Thursday night, the girls and I went to the Shinsegae movie theater (remember, Shinsegae is the "uppity" mall) to see The Hunger Games.  While the movie itself was fairly entertaining, I did have some issues with the writing.  Everyone else said it stank...  I liked everything but the screenplay adaptation.  There was too much awkwardness!

Anywho.  This is not a film blog!  The movie theater was pretty fun.  You get to choose from regular, cheese, or caramel popcorn.  You can even have a beer or some Starbucks while you wait!  The theater itself is lush, comfortable, and impeccably clean.  Get this-- the seats vibrate!  Chalk that up to the 4-d experience.

Friday, I went with a co-worker to get manicures.  And Saturday, we all went to Jamsil to attend the season opening baseball game!  Though I confess I'm not too much of a baseball fan, we did actually have a lot of fun.  There were so many people there, and it was loud.  All of the Koreans were really proud and into the game.  We had more Koreans smiling at us there than we ever do on the street-- I hear because we are sharing in their "favorite pastime", something they are very proud of.

We were seated near that blue box in this picture (no, not the TARDIS. hehe) where the cheerleaders would do their thing.  The male cheerleader, who dressed in a Heroes baseball uniform and blew a whistle, would alternate between bouncing around on stage and getting frustrating with the crowd when they wouldn't do a cheer right.  Fairly entertaining.  ;)  Check out the video on my Facebook page to see him 

dancing!

One final funny story:  on our way to the baseball game, Kristin (a co-worker) met up with us in the subway.  We were sitting down quietly on the train, and this old Korean man walked up in front of us and started staring.  We're used to staring, so it didn't phase us too much (though Ben said that he was kind of leching on us girls).  But then the man spoke to us in English.  He complimented Ben.  "You have a very nice beard and mustache," was his opening line.  We all laughed a little and spoke for a few moments with the man.  He looked between Ben and me and asked if we were a couple.  When Ben told him we were married, he said we were "a match made in heaven."

Then he gave us candy and wished us a good day, then got off the train.  No, we did not eat the candy (Mom, I still follow the 'don't take candy from strangers' rule!), but it definitely gave us a funny story to tell.  Koreans as a whole are a surprising people.  Some of them are the nicest people you've ever met.  Some of them are fairly antisocial.  They aren't too different from Westerners.  It's just that we're always surprised not only when one of them addresses us in English, but also when they have something nice to say.  A lot of people think that Koreans are like every Eastern "Oriental" culture over here, and it's just not true.  Koreans are much more than that.  They are materialistic and humble, kind and very concerned with appearances.  They represent so many strange dichotomies.  There are as many Korean personalities under the sun as there are American, and even though their society still professes a "group think" mindset (where the group is more important than the individual), Koreans are constantly striving to improve themselves as individuals.  You can see this even from a very young age, when five- and six-year-olds are sent to three different hagwons to learn English, math, and music.

We're learning a lot about the world by being here.

Never a dull moment!

This upcoming weekend may be the first in a long time that neither of us has been sick.  There have been a lot of seasonal colds going around, and all the kids and teachers in the school have been hacking and sneezing for weeks.

Yesterday we had a fun morning.  Ben and I wanted to buy doughnuts for everyone at work, so we left early and caught a bus.  About 3/4ths of the way there, we hear a car honking loudly nearby.  Apparently our bus cut someone off in a turning lane (it happens a lot), so the driver of the car got angry and swerved into the lane in front of us and stopped.

Unsurprisingly, the bus hit the car.

It was interesting to watch how calmly the Koreans on the bus (even the bus driver) handled the situation. I imagine that if we were in America, there would be some very angry, very loud passengers.  Instead, the Korean passengers just sat quietly and attentively until the bus driver told us what to do.  He called another bus to come pick us up, and we transferred with little fuss.  It was all very civilized.  All of this took about 5-10 minutes, so even though we were in a wreck... we still managed to get doughnuts and coffee.

Win.

Tomorrow is field trip day at school!  We will be taking the kindies to an astronomy center, so I think that will be a lot of fun.  Monthly tests are later this week, too, so we won't be teaching a whole lot for the rest of a week.  That's good.  We could use the rest.

There's more to tell, but we have to go to work now.  I hope all of you are doing well!
<3

A new semester already!

Wow.  We have been here for a month and a half already.  It's mind-boggling how quickly time has flown, isn't it?

Last week was fairly easy for us at Welton School.  We taught for only half the week.  Thursday was a national holiday (and Ben's birthday!), so we got to stay home.  Friday we went to work, but we only had to decorate our classrooms.  I tied for best decorated (with Ben's help)!

Monday marked the start of a new semester for us and the kids.  Our seven-year-old classes from last semester graduated, so now my old class is a seven-year-old class, and we have a bevy of new six-year-olds who don't speak a lick of English.

I got to stay with my homeroom class from last month, but now I'm down to just seven students.  That's fine with me!  Less homework to grade and more one-on-one time with them.  For my afternoon kindergarten class, I get to spend two whole hours with the brand new six-year-olds.  They're really cute, but I have one whose mom is "famous" in Korea, and she can be a little, well... entitled.  It's a struggle to get her to understand that she has to stay in her seat, much less pay attention in class.

With my new six-year-olds, I've adopted a "star" system of reward and discipline.  They start out with a number of stars, and if they do something that breaks the rules (get up without permission, hit, talk excessively in Korean--still working on that one, or disobey), I make a loud buzzer sound and take away a star.  Call it my version of operant conditioning.  I guess I was wrong when I said I would never use my psychology degree!

In the afternoons, hardly any of the teachers have breaks.  We have many more elementary students signed up for this semester, so our class sizes are larger, and we have more classes.  I teach four elementary classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and five on Tuesday and Thursday.  Needless to say, by the end of today we will be ready to crash.

The high point of this week was speaking with my boss about my teaching style.  He sat in and observed two classes of mine yesterday (one kindy and one elementary), and I was concerned as I had never received any feedback from him.  He had almost entirely positive comments for me!  I feel much better about how I manage my classroom now, and he even called our recruiter to thank him for introducing us to him.

So all in all, a fairly good week.

Take care everyone.
Rebekah

A Shopper's Day

Today Ben and I had ourselves a little adventure!  We really wanted to go to E-Mart so Ben could get toys for his kids-- he promised them a goody if they remembered all their lines for their plays this week.  They did!  So we planned a day out.

It's fairly easy to get to the E-Mart...  We just took the subway up one stop to the Jukjeon station, which leads out onto this nice little view.  Most of the buildings you see are apartment buildings.

The Shinsegae building.

Right outside the subway station is Shinsegae, the "fancy" Korean mall around here.  We decided to go in and check it out.  We only saw three floors, but what we did see was pretty impressive/intimidating.  Cartier, Coach, Chanel, Bvlgari, Burberry, Gucci, etc.  Lots of sparkles and sophisticates.  They even had a VIP entrance with a red carpet and an awning out to the street.  I saw some interesting characters walk through that entrance with some couture-ish dresses.  They themselves were dressed like they were from Jem and the Holograms.

Nevertheless, I did take one really nice thing away from Shinsegae.  They have an amazing make-up section!  Make-up Forever, Benefit, MAC, and Bobbi Brown for starters.  And I think I spotted a shu uemura station across the way.  I'm a happy little make-up artist!

We finally made it across the street to E-Mart, the 3-5 story big box store.  It's like... a really confusing Wal-Mart if you need a comparison.  There were sooooo many people there, it was hard to stop and actually look for things.  We walked out with the toys, a hair straightener for me, and some school supplies.  I think I'd rather go back in the morning when it's not quite so busy.

Home sweet home!

We got home, dropped our stuff off, then went over to Home Plus to eat pizza and shop for groceries.  It was a bit of a long day, so we were glad to see this building up ahead.  Home sweet home!

Next week is going to be fairly easy for us.  Monday and Tuesday are the last days for our kindy (kindergarten) kids, and our elementary students take their monthly tests those days.  Wednesday is graduation for the older kindergartners, and Thursday we don't come to work at all.  National holiday!  Friday we may even come in late since the kindergartners will still be out... Wednesday and Friday will probably be dedicated to redecorating our classrooms for the new students.

Cheers!

The Welton Festival

As promised, here are some cute Korean kids!

This week was a big week!  We have been practicing almost everyday for our class play performances, and today it is finally over.  Every class in the school had to prepare at least one play and song to perform to their parents as well as student introductions (aka "Hello, my name is Brad.  My birthday is... My favorite color is...").

Here is my class, St. Louis class!  We were waiting in the library for our performance!  I entertained them by having them play the quiet game... which served to keep them quiet in the interim.  Oh, to be a sneaky teacher!

My kids did two short plays, sang a song, did student introductions, and laughed a lot.  The parents seemed super happy!  Many of the students, boys and girls, got flowers from their parents.  One of the parents even gave me some roses.  They took soooooo many pictures afterward, I felt like a celebrity. It was precious, and I really do love these kids.  I'm so glad we are here!

Next week begins a new school year for the students, and I don't know what class I will get.  If I don't get this class again, I'll be very sad.  They grow on you.  :)

Happy Friday!

Got a cold? Suck it up!

In South Korea, one doesn't just take off work from a cold.  Colds are an accepted part of life, particularly when you are working with small children everyday.  Well guess what-- I got a cold.

If you are coming to SK or planning to come to SK in the future for a teaching job, my advice to you is this:  fill your suitcases with as much cold medicine as you can.  My drugs of choice are DayQuil/NyQuil, cough drops, and Alkaseltzer tablets.  Koreans don't have the luxury of a medicine section in their HomePluses (their version of Walmart).  In fact, from what I've learned there are only a few ways you can really get medicine around here.

First, you can go to the doctor or to the hospital, which is actually pretty cheap even without insurance.  This option allows you to get prescription strength drugs... but sometimes they might just give you an antibiotic when you don't need it.

Second, you can go to a pharmacist, describe your symptoms (with broad gestures and a few Korean words you may have picked up), and hope that what they give you is appropriate for what you have.  Up until a few years ago, pharmacists could actually prescribe medicines for customers.  Since that has been shut down, their domain is the over-the-counter stuff.

Third, you can search for it on the black market.  I've heard of a few places around the Seoul metropolitan area where you can find Theraflu and other Western cold remedies.  These are often bought off of the American military supply trucks, so the prices are sometimes three times as high.  If you can find a place that sells it at a price you can stomach, I say go for it.

I strongly advise bringing your own stash, though.  I thought I brought enough medicine to last a year, but a week-long cold has knocked us down to about half our supplies.

Of course, I could also go try some accupuncture...

A Day in the Life - Bekah's POV

Good evening friends! I hope everyone had a delightful Valentine's Day.

It's been a little while since our last post, so I thought I would give you guys a much-needed update.

Everything is fine-- we're getting adjusted, and we already have lots of stories to tell!

The view at our bus stop on the way to school.  If you are looking for a business in SK, look up.

Today I'm going to give you guys a little look into what our average day is like.  The school day is different for Ben and me, but this can give you an idea of what we are up to during the week!

Tuesdays and Thursdays are long days for me, but today, Wednesday, wasn't so bad.

Here's what my Wednesday looked like today!

7:00am - Wake up and eat a bowl of a weird chocolate rice chex cereal.

8:50am - Leave the apartment to go catch the bus outside the subway station.

9:15am - Arrive at the school.  It isn't too far from us, and it's easy to get to.  We take the "810" or the "50" bus to a stop about half a mile up the road from the school, and we walk the rest of the way.  Our school is on the 7th floor of an 8-floor building.

9:40-9:50am - Stretching/warm-ups for the kids.  There are 6 "foreign" (American/Canadian) teachers at the school, and we rotate this "duty" all week.  Basically, it's all about wrangling about 30 kids and getting them to stretch before class.

9:50-10:30am - First Period.  My homeroom class is "St. Louis" class, which has 9 six-year-olds.  3 boys, 6 girls.  For me, first period is always focused on vocabulary and reading comprehension.  On a side note:  An interesting thing that you may not realize is that in Korea, age is counted from conception.  So if you ask the kids how old they are, you have to take into account that they are usually a year younger than they say they are.  My kids say they are 7, but actually, they are 6.  

10:30-10:45am - Snack time!  We have to line the kids up to go wash their hands.  Snacks range from fruit to rice pasta to tiny bowls of cereal.  This is a small break for us foreign teachers!

10:45-11:25am - Second Period.  This ranges from drama class (the kids have a performance next week of two plays per class!  EEK.  Talk about pressure to perform) to an Accelerated Reader program to P.E.  They have so many different classes in the school, and they rotate them all week.

11:30-12:10pm - Third Period.  Again, these classes vary.  By this time we are definitely ready to have a break!

12:10-1:00pm - Lunch!  We have to line up the kids again to wash their hands, and then we have to serve them.  They eat lunch in their classrooms-- they have their own personal lunch trays that they bring everyday.  Once we serve them, we can go eat in the teachers' room.  Lunch usually consists of rice, soup, some kind of meat, kimchi, and another vegetable.  The kimchi actually isn't so bad, once you get used to the taste (and the slimy cabbage texture).  We eat with spoons and chopsticks!

1:05-1:45pm - Fourth Period.  At this point in the afternoon, we switch to a different class.  My afternoon class is "San Francisco" class, and we usually focus on math, science, and vocabulary.

1:50-2:30pm - Fifth Period.  Same goes.  My afternoon class isn't as big as my morning class (6 students instead of 9), but they can still be a handful.

2:30pm - The Kindergartners go home!  We have a little break to prepare for our elementary classes at this point.

2:50-3:30pm - I had a break today, but Tuesdays and Thursdays I don't get a break at all.  This is the first period for the afternoon elementary classes.

3:35-4:15pm - MAP class (the Accelerated Reader class).  Ben and I teach this one together every Wednesday, which basically means that I get to be the nice one, and he gets to be the one that scares all the boys into submission.  Basically, they read books on their allotted reading level, we ask them basic comprehension questions, and then they take the AR tests on the computer.  Just like junior high, guys...

4:20-5:00pm - Seattle class.  In this elementary class, we study reading comprehension and vocabulary using a textbook as well as novels.  I have two students in this class, and today we almost finished up Alice's Wonderland.

5:05-5:45pm - Washington DC class.  This is one of my favorite classes because the three students are very advanced.  They speak English fluently, and we study science (using "Time for Kids" magazines) and novels.  They are almost finished with the book, Chemical Secret.  Our next book will be A Christmas Carol.  Fun fun.

5:45-6:30pm - Teacher prep time.  We have to stay until 6:30pm everyday except for Friday.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, classes run until 6:30, but on Mondays and Wednesdays, we have "Teacher prep time," which allows us to review material for the following day's lessons, grade homework, and work on evaluations, creating tests, and making props for our upcoming play performances.

6:30pm - We run to catch the bus home!  We take the same bus home, and we are usually too exhausted by the time we get home to go out much.

In the evenings, we usually watch some Burn Notice, eat some food (tonight we got take-out... we were tired), and relax.  Our apartment is pretty cozy, and we'll be glad to spruce it up whenever we get our first paycheck!

I hope you enjoyed my "tour" of the day.  Like I said, each day is different for us.  Keep your eyes peeled for a post from Ben soon!

If you have any questions or requests on blog topics, please comment below!  We are happy to accommodate!

Home sweet Ori...

A tour of our apartment in pictures!  I shall try to update more fully after work today.

Our Westernized bathroom!  Note the floral toilet...

This is our living area.  It's quite spacious and came furnished with
a tv, some seating, drying racks, and a bookshelf.
See our hanging laundry there?

Here is our kitchenette!  The "cabinets" on the left are
actually our refrigerator and freezer.  We have a microwave, a
washer/dryer combo, and a two-burner stove.

It's difficult to capture the hilarity that is our loft.  We have a little
bet up there, with some bars to hang our clothes... a couple of shelves...
and a three-foot ceiling.

Our lovely little hallway.  Lots of storage space
here, with a nice step that reminds us to kick off
our shoes!  We have sensor card access.  No keys!

First impressions.

After a long but more or less uneventful flight, we finally arrived in Seoul.  We had a driver pick us up and take us to our temporary hotel accommodations, and they are so nice!  We are staying at Hotel S.R. in Seohyeon-dong, just about 20 minutes from our school.  Though it's a small room, we have a big bed, fridge, computer, jacuzzi tub and wet room (shower that just ), heated EVERYTHING (floors, bed, toilet...) with lots of free toiletries and an extremely friendly staff.  Needless to say, we are glad to get a chance to relax.

The director of the school, Andy, came by the hotel to meet us and go over our schedule.  He was very charismatic-- I think we're lucky to have such a nice director to work with!  He gave us our teaching manuals and showed us a little bit of the town around where our hotel is.

Tomorrow we will go to the school to meet and greet with the students, teachers, and parents.  Andy told us that the parents will likely be coming tomorrow just to look at us... so we are going to try hard to be presentable!  We will have 3 days of training-- just shadowing the head teachers and getting to know the kids.  Apparently I have a really great kindy class of 7-year-olds, whereas Ben got placed with the rowdy boys!  That should be interesting.  :)

We still need to go to the hospital to get our 80,000 Won physical, then we'll need to apply for our Alien Registration Card so we can open our bank account.

It's turning out to be a busy life already here in South Korea, but we are so happy to be here!

-Rebekah

A grand adventure.

Hello, blog-o-verse!
Tomorrow morning, Ben and I will finally be leaving for Seoul, South Korea.  We fly out of Memphis, Tennessee, at 6:00am to Chicago O'Hare.  Our flight out of Chicago leaves at 12:00pm and flies straight to Incheon Airport in Seoul.  It's a 14 hour flight (ick!), and we'll be in Seoul the following day around 4:00pm KST (2:00am CST on Jan. 24th).

This was a last minute development, which I am discovering is normal for ESL teachers in Korea.  We found out last Monday night that we were going to be leaving in a week.  Hasn't anyone ever heard of booking flights in advance?  Sheesh.

Ben and I are very excited about the journey, however.  I miss traveling, and I'm ready to get there and get acclimated.  We're nervous about teaching-- who wouldn't be?  Nevertheless, we are anxious to get started.

We'll miss all of you in the States!  Hopefully we will have our internet up and running soon after we arrive so we can post a status update.

Please feel free to add us to Skype!
Me:  makeupbybeks
Us:  beksandben

Cheers!  Next time we post, we'll be in Korea!!

Unforeseen delays.

A lot has happened over the past week.
I quit my job at the spa.
We broke our lease and moved out of our apartment in Conway to relocate to Jonesboro while we waited for our flight.
We got a flight booked for last Saturday and didn't show because we didn't get our visas in.

Oh, and the school postponed our arrival date until February 20th.

Needless to say, this is very frustrating.  We've been busting all week and weekend to get things done, we've spent a lot of money to expedite the process so we could leave quickly... and the school tells us they want to push back our date of arrival.

So we get to wait unemployed for two months.  Who knew you'd have us for so long, America?