I am writing this listening to the Nutcracker and hearing one of my neighbors continually break something that must resemble glass because I can hear it shatter! Couple of updates on me, a group of us went out for raw fish (I must digress here and talk about the ‘sushi’ here. All of the sushi places have large tanks in front of them filled with live fish, shrimp, octopus, crabs, and assorted shellfish. All of the fish is killed right then and there, so super fresh, and yummy! When they serve the raw fish, they serve it by itself, but you are also served many side dishes…Korean meals are known for their many side dishes, such as kimchi!, onion salad, seaweed soup, lettuce, peppers, soups, ect). Well, one of the side dishes they served was oysters, and three out of seven of us dove in and enjoyed us some free oysters. Needless to say, all three of us called into work on Friday because of food poisoning. I have never had food poisoning before, but man, this lasted for about 36 hours and was awful! In complete better health now though and know, oysters…maybe not again….in Ilsan that is!
On Saturday I withstood my sickness because I was committed to go to the DMZ (De-militarized Zone). The DMZ is literally the line that separates North Korea and South Korea and is the most heavily militarized border in the world. We made three different stops along the DMZ. The first stop we made was on a military base. A US solider took us around the camp. We stopped at the Freedom Building, where if a North Korean native lived in South Korea and wanted to return to North Korea they would meet in this building. On the other side of the DMZ North Korea has their equilivant to the freedom building, which they had to add onto in size after South Korea built theirs so that North Korea’s is larger in size. A similar act was done with a flag pole, which true to North Korean’s personality; they now have the largest flag pole at the DMZ. We had to act accordingly at the camp, which included walking in lines and making no hand movements since North Korea was watching us through video cameras. We saw North Korean soldiers on the other side of the DMZ, which is what the picture is of at the beginning of this blog. On the DMZ there was a few trailers, the blue ones where South Korea’s and the white ones where North Korea’s. One of the white ones was referred to as the “monkey house” because North Korea soldiers make death gestures to the South Korean and American soldiers.
North Korea tries to make their side of the border look very tempting, for example they have a propaganda village. They use to have large signs and speakers calling out to the rest of the world things like ‘the paradise of no tax’. Not too long ago, they agreed to turn the speakers off and take down the signs.
There is a large area of land called Peace Village where a group of people live that have been there for generations and endured the Korean War. They are classed as South Korean citizens, however are exempt from paying tax and military service, have a comfortable life with lots of land a large income (80,000 US dollars a year) however lead a strict life with curfews and other requirements.
One of the stops included walking through an underground tunnel. North Korea has made four tunnels that lead from North Korea and end in Seoul. They assume that there at least ten tunnels total that exist, but only four have been found. Inside the tunnels they wrote ‘coal mine’. North Korea has blamed South Korea for the tunnels and has claimed that they are coal mines, though the earth’s ground in that area is made of granite and all the dynamite has been made in the direction to Seoul. We were able to go through the third tunnel, which is surprisingly large, and can have 30,000 soldiers in Seoul within an hour.
The last stop we made was an area where you could look at North Korea through binoculars. Here we could see a cut down wire tower that use to give North Korea signals from South Korea, now North Korea has no access to the outside world. Can you imagine not knowing anything about what is going on in the world and relying on the information from your crazy communist leader? You were also able to see factories that belong to South Korea, but are in North Korea. The employees are North Koreans and make $5/hour, which is twice the amount earned by others in North Korea.
Since the DMZ has not been touched in years, a lot of wildlife has grown and it now is home to many endangered animals and plants. I was surprised to hear that leopards, tigers, and bears lived in the area.
The DMZ proved to be an interesting and intriguing place. I am now even more curious to go to North Korea, though it’s nearly impossible to get over there. It saddens me to think of all the people living in this repressed country and nobody is doing anything about it! My fifth graders were required to write a persuasive paper on anything they wanted and two of them choose to write about how they think we should invade and unite North Korea, a common mindset here. It is typical to see North Korean protests in Seoul as well, a common one is of a man in a uniform and a girl with a pillowcase over her head and hands tied behind her back. It is a demonstration to make people aware of the limited human rights in North Korea. Hopefully someday, North Korea can be freed.

Hello friends and family. Apologies, as it seems that it has been some time since I last updated my blog. Know that things are well and that I am moving right along. J It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas over here in Korea. Starbucks has there seasonal latte’s advertised and places have their Christmas lights up. Being a strong believer in not listening to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, the best Christmas album ever, Charlie Brown Christmas is now on repeat…until I download the Nutcracker. Let me backtrack a little though and give Thanksgiving all of the credit it deserves.
Thanksgiving at school was a very different experience from the states because well first of all I didn’t get any time off like some people I know ;). Every month we have the kids write a speech, memorize it, and compete level by level (this is very typical Korean thing to do btw). Well this month’s topic was Thanksgiving! I heard plenty of speeches about the fourth Thursday and how it came to be the fourth Thursday, the year 1691, Lincoln, Indians, and Turkey (I swear the kids here know more about thanksgiving then the kids back at home)! When the fourth Thursday of November approached however, all my kids forget it was Thanksgiving – geesh, can’t teach them everything! Thanksgiving wasn’t officially celebrated until the Saturday after, where my friends and I enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner prepared by some Austrians in a neighborhood called Iteawon, which is known for its Army base and foreigner population. The neighborhood reminded me very much of the states, and even some of the bars we went to seemed somewhat American. Of course we were celebrating Christina and Nate’s birthday, and dressed accordingly to the proposed Hoe Down theme. Needless to say, I am thankful that this next weekend we will not be going out and are going to the DMZ, which is the closest you can get to North Korea while being in South Korea.
Little bit of backtracking, the weekend before the last I spent Saturday in a new neighborhood in Seoul (if you cannot tell already, I am simply in love with this city and my only regret in coming here was that I wasn’t placed right smack in the middle of the city!) called Insadong. I have pictures up on facebook but it’s this super cute artsy neighborhood where you can get authentic Korean souvenirs, hang out in art galleries, and drink at traditional Korean tea houses. The feel of Insadong is a lot more quaint and traditional the rest of Seoul. Travel books suggest that this neighborhood is one the last areas that has a traditional Korean feel, though I cannot speak to that because Seoul is freakin huge and I still have so much to see!
So I will leave you with this one little note: At school we have an online homework program where they have their vocabulary listed out with pictures and most of the pictures are of white people. Well whenever the kids see a white girl or woman, they laugh and say ohhh teacha that looks just like you! Let me tell you the variety of white people I look like, because it does not matter how old or what color their hair is. Sometimes I am flattered when the person is actually cute, but today there was this awful looking woman picture that was helping define the word ‘despair’.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Best holiday wishes!

Happy Sunday all! Nothing too significant has happened in my life so this blog will be brief and random (apologies as I know you all expect my life to be interesting, but nowadays, its just starting to feel like home). Wednesday was Peppero Day! Pepperos are a Korean treat that is mocked off an even more delicious Japanese treat. Pepperos are made by Lotte (a HUGE brand out here, they have a lotte mart, think wal-mart, lotte department store, think Nordstrom. On top of that there is Lotte World, an amusement park, and they own all this other stuff!). SO, Peppero day is similar to Valentines Day back in the states. I received many a Peppero from my students, one with a note, 'I love Anna2 teacher, love Joanna' - hehe. By the way, my name here is Anna2 because there is already an Anna, who is now called Anna1 at my school. Like she said last night, thank goodness it’s just the two of us, because one more Anna and it would just be intrusive. Cafes are a big thing out here. They have all sorts of cafes, one of which you go and play board games. Nate, Taylor, and I went to a board cafe last night and played Monopoly, the Korean version. We matched up the letters and made up the outcomes of 'community chest' and 'chance' in favor enough to give me the win - hooray! Today I am going to go on a bike ride with Nate. Koreans love outdoor activities, so here are lots of places to rent bikes! For example, when asking Shim, my yoga instructor, what he was doing this weekend, his response was 'climbing a mountain', haha, this is a very typical Korean response, and well drinking. Shim then expressed the importance of going outside during the weekend ;) Speaking of yoga, I am in complete love with it! Shim said that my focus and postures have improved and I have started to do a little bit by myself on the days I don't have class. Just for fun, I attached a picture of one of the main palaces in Korea. I went sightseeing in Seoul a few weeks ago, so thought I would share. Most of the historical sites have been demolished by Japan, so even though something is 'old', it never looks that way. Side note, my students do not like Japan. Like one of my first graders said during class 'Teachaaa, Japan is a very bad country'. Japan has invaded Korea a couple times so though Koreans are never pleased with Japan, they all seem to visit there. Well the next two weekends are filled with birthdays, Christina's is next weekend and the weekend after that is Nate's. People have assigned me to the 'party planner role'...imagine that...so I have decided to theme both of their birthdays. Christina's will probably be golf pro and hoe theme and Nate's is a country western. On Nate's birthday we found a place to have Thanksgiving dinner beforehand, so an overall American theme will be present for the evening. Love you all - keep healthy and well:)

Updates :)

Hello family and friends! How are you all? Couple of quick updates for all of you back in the states. Last Thursday I tried LIVE octopus. Yep that's right, live, hehe. You order it at one of the many fish places, they grab one out of the tank, cut it up, and then serve it. It is still moving when it is on your plate and it it war to get it into your mouth since it tries to suction itself to the plate, your chopstick, and the other tentacles. It wasn't that bad, however, it does still move in your mouth and attach itself to your teeth and such. One piece I ate had very large suctions, so large that it successfully attached itself to the side of my check....it was a struggle to get that thing to calm down! Speaking of eating, I am now officilly eating with chopsticks more then a fork and spoon, even in my own home! They use metal chopsticks, which are the hardest to use, but man are these things usefu, you can pick up anything! Sidenote: Koreans never eat with their fingers, always chopsticks and sometimes a large spoon...I am told watching them eating hamburgers is an interesting site.
I started to take Korean lessons - yeah go me! There is a professor who gives them for free so that he can pick up more English. He wrote a textbook and I am in the process of memorizing the alphabet, which has 24 characters and ten vowels.
I do have some sad news, one of my students who goes to my school passed away this weekend. I do not teach this student, but he was only in kindergarden. Many of the children at my school have or have gotten the swineflu, I am not sure but am assuming that this was the cause of death. Please send good thoughts and prayers to this family, as I cannot imagine losing a child that young.
On a positive note, I booked a trip to go to the DMZ! The DMZ is the closest that you can safely be to North Korea. There is a dresscode and it is very strict. I go Dec. 5th and am super excited!
Love and miss you all!

Okay I don't think that link was posted so here it is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjBfy_HVoSM

Happy Halloween!

Ahnyosayeo! As you all know, this past weekend was Halloween weekend!
Though Korea does not celebrate Halloween, my school and friends sure
do! We had a Halloween party for the kids which included a haunted
house, candy, scary movie, and face painting! All of the kids dressed
up and looked adorable! I worked in the haunted house and it was so
much fun! I wore my pig costume, had my face covered by a mask, and
crawled around grapping the kids legs! They were pretty freaked out
and some even cried! Koreans think that scary is fun, so they really
forced the kids to go into the haunted house and laughed through the
whole process - quite entertaining ;) It was so much fun playing with
the kids all day, I really didn't want to go back to teaching, but
such is life. The rest of my weekend was spent partying in costumes
in Ilsan and in Seoul, where a lot of other people dressed up too.
Sunday night Taylor, Nate, Christina, and I dressed up fancy, went out
to dinner, and saw Jerkly and Hyde the musical. We have a great center
here in Ilsan, there are pics included of it on facebook. The show
was in English and the singers were fantastic - a lot of fun.
Swine flu is becoming more serious in Korea these days and the campus
that Taylor, Nate, and Christina work at was closed last Thursday and

Friday. My first grade class only had a third of the students present
today, some of the having swine flu and others scared they will get

it. There is a possibility that my campus will close for a week, in
which case I will have to make up the days during a weekend, so it
would be three weeks of working straight through....not fun! Some of
my co-workers are feeling ill as well. Today in the office we were

discussing how its strange that some of us don't have swine flu......yet....


On a related note, Koreans take health here very seriously! They
believe that kimchi (a notorious side dish which consists of red
pepper paste and cabbage) can prevent anything except fandeath (did
you know that you will die if you sleep with teh fan on!). If you get
sick in Korea, you go to the hospital and will be treated with a
variety of pills, they are not scared of the effects of medication

here. My students write journals, and in many of the journals they
write about how they have to stay healthy by keeping up with physcial
activity (jumping rope, tai kwan do, hiking ect) and not overeating.
One common thing that Koreans and other Asian countries believe is
that your bloodtype defines your personality. Students have asked me
what bloodtype I am (type B is considered the worst) because similiar
to astrology, a person can tell a lot about someone from their
bloodtype. There have been many books writeen about the subject and
even movies! Despite the health craze out here, alcohol is still
prelevant. Korea is ranked 4th in the world for drinking and it is
considered a staple of maniless (the more you drink, the more manly
you are!). Though Koreans acknowledge that alcohol is dangerous to
your health, the culutural relevance outweights the health treats. It
is common to find people passed out in bars, street benches, and even
on the street (not sure what they are going to do now with the cold
weather).

To end today I posted a link to a youtube that was made by some
forgeiners who live farther North then me which my friends and I have
found to be very entertaning, might give you a glance at suburban life
here in Korea. That's it for now, but will update later on. Hope you
are all staying warm

Mountains!

Hello lovelies! How are all of you? I had a truly wonderful weekend. Friday night went out to dinner and bars with friends. I love love love that my new friends enjoy dancing as much as I do! We all stand in a silly little group and shake our asses until sunrise, pure fun!

Saturday morning was a little bit rough, after coming home at 5 am, I woke up at 10 am to go mountain hiking. Nate was the only other one who shared a similar story, while Taylor and Stephanie felt rested. We took the subway to Bukhansan National Park where we hiked up a mountain that was about 800 meters high and about a 4k each way. The fall colors were amazing! It was so nice to get outdoors and to physically challenge myself; hey I am from the Midwest, aka flatland! The hike was a breeze for Nate (who has attempted to hike the Pacific Trail for goodness sakes!) and Taylor, who not only looks like a mountain man, is one. Koreans are serious hikers! They all wore professional gear head to toe and came supplied with fruit and other various food. The best part about mountain hiking in Korea is that Koreans are so nice to you! We received many smiles, words of advice “watch out its slippery!”, and fruit from many fellow hikers. Taylor wore his flip-flops, weirdo I know, and all of the Koreans who we met got a good laugh out of it, quite a contrast to their attire. The video posted is at the top of the mountain, you can see Seoul, other mountain tops, and the Yellow Sea. My fellow hikers were not aware that I was taking a video at first so their reactions are a little dull. But Nate does a ‘big bird’ impression (That really ugly thing he has on is Taylor’s, who he stole from his college roommate, who got it from an outdoor shop where he use to work for free because they couldn’t sell them…the ‘fleece’s’ name is also ‘big bird’). I was amazed that on top I didn’t feel any fear of heights, something I thought for sure I would. Instead we all stood in complete aww as we looked around at what surrounded us. After awhile, we bid our goodbyes to the spectacular view and made our way back down the mountain, ending our hike just as the sun set.

Sunday we gathered enough foreigners to play kickball in Lake Park. We had so much fun kicking the ball around, but did have to yell ‘game off’ and ‘game on’ as Koreans walked through our field, oblivious that they were walking in the middle of a game. We gathered quite a crowd of fans to watch at first, probably wondering what they heck we were doing! I made a couple of spectacular plays but jammed my finger – ouch still hurts! Love you and miss you all! I have been brainstorming about a few blogs just about cultural differences that I hope to get to this week. Night!

Busan!

Last weekend I adventured to Busan, the most Southern city of South Korea. Christina and I had decided to visit Busan a couple weekends back when we had heard of the Pusan Film Festival, which is one of the largest, if not the largest film festival in Asia. The Pusan Film Festival seemed just as good as an excuse as any to visit another city in Korea. After asking around, we accumulated four others, Nate (originally from Oregon, had lots of discussions on his 7 week cross country trip which consisted of visiting mostly national parks around the country – complete amazing madness!), Tailor (from Minnesota whom I am going to climb a mountain with next weekend with - hehe), Greg and Danielle (couple who is also from Minnesota who are complete fun to hang out with, Danielle and I do yoga together). Danielle, Greg, and I all work at the same campus and work around 1-8 pm while Nate, Tailor, and Christina all work at the other Poly campus and work 9-6.

After work on Friday, Greg, Danielle, and I caught a bus to meet the others at Seoul Station, where journeyed in a fast pace train (went up to 304 km/hour) to Busan. Koreans take their train rides very seriously, they act reserved and are stocked with electronic gadgets. On the contrary, we were especially giddy holding cans of Hite.. A senior Korean man hit the back of my chair and yelled “quiet!” Christina’s reaction, who considers herself to be a ‘hothead’, contrasted the rest of our silence and said ‘don’t let him bully you!” Let me remind you that Korea is a patriarchal country that believes strongly in ‘respecting your elders’. Typically, because we are all ‘white’ we are excused from customs, this older gentleman did not believe this to be a situation where we were exempted. Quiet we weren’t for the rest of the ride, and arrived a little after one am.

After settling in to our hostel, Nate, Christina, Taylor and I headed out to explore central Busan’s nightlife. After walking around we decided to make ourselves comfortable at ‘Fuzzy Navel’, an establishment both Frommers and Lonely Planet recommended. After the bar I am sorry to say that I fought the law and the law won. Before I explain, let me provide background information. Chicago, as you all know is known for jaywalking, however in Korea it is illegal. However, law here is more of a suggestion then an absolute, so when breaking a law, you can easily negotiate if you have a few thousand won available. So, we entered a busy intersection and I being use to jaywalking (need to get myself out of this habit) walked across the street and stood in the middle until I could make the rest of the way through. Nate, being a good friend, followed me halfway, while the others stayed behind. All of a sudden I saw a policeman running towards me from the other side of the street! He stopped traffic and then instead of helping us cross the other half of the street, escorted us back to where we started. I simply played dumb and told him that I do not understand where to cross the street?! He then showed me the tunnel you take to cross over and I smiled, said “kamsamnida” and quickly went on my way, no wons needed!

The next day we traveled to Busan’s most famous beach, Haengdae, which really is a great beach. During the summer months, this beach is so packed that you cannot even get in the water! Luckily the cold weather pushes beach bums away and we were free to run. We spent Saturday going through the beach area, saw two movies (go see 5 five minutes in heaven) and then met up with the rest of the crowd to eat at the fish market. Since it was nighttime, the fish market was mostly closed with the exception of a few restaurants. After dinner we all found ourselves cozied in a large booth with pitchers. It was a great way to end a fantastic day.

Sunday we saw Abnormal Activity, not sure if it was because we hadn’t slept much all weekend, but I wasn’t in a state of hyperventilation that I am accustomed to while watching scary movies. Koreans in movie theaters is a complete trip! They are very expressive while watching a movie so we constantly heard nervous sounds from the audience. For those of you, who know my dear aunt Joan; imagine a movie theatre full of Joans! We then traveled through the rest the fish market during the day which was a much better experience. I am not sure what it is about fish markets, but they make me so excited! I love that people search out into ocean, catch these live animals and then bring them here for you to not only look at, but to eat! I took plenty of pictures and talked to all of the creatures that were still alive! While saying ‘hello, oh hello’ to one of the craps, the man behind the counter responded, “Hi! How are you?” I jumped, since most Koreans do not speak English to this extent, looked up, smiled and said “umm hi!”

The way back we were all exhausted but agreed that Busan is a place to revisit. The next time we go will be to go to the aquarium where you can swim in a large fish tank that holds numerous sea life such as fish, turtles, sharks…hehe..CANNOT WAIT! Anyway I hear its good old Columbus Weekend back in the states, so hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well. Love you all, email updates por favor!

My Chuseok Weekend

Chuseok, aka, Korean Thanksgiving, was this past weekend. Most schools have just short of a week off; however, since I work at a private, for-profit school, I was only given Friday off. Hey, a three weekend within the first month I am here, cannot complain!

After work on Thursday, I participated in an average night out in Ilsan, which includes dinner with friends of Korean BBQ, a stop at the Frog and Toad (a bar that attempts at being an Irish Pub, but plays mostly American pop music) for some beer and card games, then heading out to other bars in the area where all are enjoying Korean beer, tequila, soju, and dancing. The night finally concludes itself when we are either danced out or eating dinner number two; you guessed it, Korean BBQ again! For whatever reason, nights here always end the earliest about 5 am….establishments do not close in Korea and time flies!

Saturday I went to an amusement park called Everland, pronounced, Everlanddd, think Great America, a zoo, and Disney Land combined. We started by going on one of the most intense roller coasters I have been on in my life, needless to say I made myself go on it, but was excited when it was over. We spent a large amount of time in the Zootopia area, where I went on a safari ride and saw a liger (they really do exist….and it looks exactly like you think it would, a lion with some half ass stripes), took many of pics at the animal cages, and saw two animal shows, one of which has a monkey riding a pig – hehe. The remaining time was spent in Holland Land – that’s right! Holland land is filled with ‘Dutch’ things to eat and drink, like French fries, roasted chicken, and beer….well at least they have the beer right.

The pic included is of Everlanddd.

Well Saturday night I hurried home to go out with others to Hongdae, which is the main area to go out in Seoul and is surrounded by the three main universities. Hongdae is filled with expats, GIs and Koreans. My first time there we befriended, a Swedish girl that one of my guy friends still mentions from time to time, a Dutch guy, who me and this guy Patrick, a co-worker, got into a debate with about socialism (because clearly, at 3 am with a few drinks, politics seems like the only reasonable thing to discuss…haha), and a Korean who is more then interested in one of my friends. Needless to say, you are bound to meet a diverse crowd and enjoy a late night of dancing, drinking and some good laughs.

Sunday I experienced my first Korean movie theater! About a little more then half of the movies shown here are American, but come out a lot late. Inglorious Bastards has yet to come out and my fellow expats were mighty impressed when I had said that I didn’t just see it, I saw it twice! How is that possible they first exclaimed! Hehe. Most things are less expensive to do in Korea then in the states; movies are the one exception to this rule. It is still about ten dollars for a ticket; however they have assigned seating, turn off all of the lights, and serve ice cream – yippee! And you don’t even notice the Korean subtitles at the bottom!

That’s it for now folks. Next weekend I am heading to Busan, the most Southern city of South Korea, for an internal film festival. Pusan Film Festival is the largest in Asia. I am going with a least of group of six, but two more might join us. Looking forward to the festival and seeing another part of South Korea.

A great start to my first weekend

Here is a great example of how wonderfully strange Korea can be! Thursday night after work I went to a Cat Cafe with some co-workers, yep that's right a cafe with cats. You walk in, take your shoes off, order a drink (no booze, really kids, do you want drunks playing with the cats!) and go play with cats! They had about 15 different cats just running around, mostly kittens and lots of toys to play with them with. Attached is a picture of me at the cat cafe - hehe.

Afterward we went out for a few pitchers of Cass (Korean beer) and some celebration shots with Edward, who also first started and Danielle and Greg (a couple from the Midwest who recently graduated college). Korea After that we had some Korean BBQ with pork and soju. One type of pork they have looks like a super thick piece of bacon, its just not cured. Once the pieces are cooked, they still are half fat and half meat. I tried two pieces (one by itself and one in a leaf) and tore off the huge pieces of fat that overtook the meat, and yep, still don't like pork! While Korean food is great, it does include a lot of meat and I am looking forward to trying more of their veggies dishes. :) The soju taste like watered down vodka, so it is very easy to drink too much. Anyway in true Korean fashion, soon enough it was 2 AM and we made our way home. doesn't have a wide beer selection and of the native beer they have, Cass is one of the most popular and its not great but surely will due for a ice cold brew.

Korea is notorious for drinking, mostly among adult men. It is very common to see puke on the sidewalk and men stumbling around. My fellow teachers were telling me about journals from the kids talking about their dads 'eating soju' and how they wish their dads were home more. I am sure more to come of this later as I get to know my students.

Last night, Friday, we went out for a co-workers birthday after work. His name is John and he is from Shamburg and went to U of I, small world! Dinner was great, I was happy to get a chance to socialize with more co-workers. After dinner we went out to a bar where we met up with the Ilsan campus (same hogwog but different campus) and went out to a bar called Ba Boom. Ba Boom is all for dancing and drinking, they played a mix of American and Korean Pop. I was referred to as white girl, taught two Korean girls the cupid shuffle and they showed me some synchronized dance moves to the Kpop songs. We stayed out until 5:30 am and honestly the bar was still going strong when I left. At Bar Boom I was happy to hang out with Koreans because it is mostly foreigners at my school. Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend! Love ya!

Lake Park and Teaching

Few updates for you all! Yesterday I checked out the notorious lake park, which truly I am happy to be by. Experiencing nature is so calming, its nice to know it is a few blocks away. The entire trip around the lake is about a 5K so I am hoping to catch a job this week. Also, my friend Jill sent through a yoga course she took while she was here, so hopefully I can finally complete my goal of trying out yoga! I attached a pic of Lake Park, though I will post more on facebook when I get a chance.
This morning I had a doctor's appointment, my academic coordinator, Skye picked me up (shes from Dallas but 100% Korean...I mistook her for Korean when I met her haha) and asked if I could teach this afternoon (reminder I was suppose to start teaching next Monday). I of course said yes, mostly because I was excited to meet my co-workers. After the doctor I went to campus and she went over the reading class that is now mine. I teach 5th graders from about 5-9 Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have no more then ten in a classroom and these kids are great! They speak English very well and really just need guides on vocab and tense. I also will be teaching 1st and 2nd graders. My hours will be no more then 8 a day, they were almost kicking me out of the school today to lock it up! Though, I might spend more time preparing the lesson plans, today I just read out of the books and used a ppt that my director set up for me and wished I had more resources during class....how would you describe flannel!
After work I went out with Matt, Danielle, and Greg. Danielle and Greg both just graduated college and are dating. Danielle is a talker but will def be a good buddy for mountain hiking and other weekend adventures :) Matt is my age and is a head teacher, not my head teacher though. They are all very nice and I am excited to meet the rest of them!
One last note, I wanted to let you all know that I feel incredibly safe here and that is also the reality of my neighborhood. I am in good hands here in Ilsan.
Love you all!

Just a short update, after I told Christina about my episode with the strange Korean man, she looked at me and said now I hope you won't take offense to this, but he probably thought you were Russian and therefore a prostitute. Apparently they assume white girls are Russian before American - haha weird! Off to the doctor today!

Food Food Food

Last night I tried Korean BBQ :) Most, if not all of you know, I recently changed my diet to limit meat and dairy...I have quickly learned that unless I want to spend mucho on food, I will have to change my eating habits back slightly. First of all, Korean BBQ is delicous! You cook the meat yourselves, dip it in a Korean BBQ sauce (best part!) and then put in a large green leaf (they give you several different types to try, all are very flavor full and foreign to me) with things such as bean sprouts, radish, onion, garlic ect... Another thing about eating out in Korea is they give you MANY sides, most of which are good. Christina told me that if I don't hate the cabbage at this point, its a good sign :) One thing that I surprisingly liked was yellow radishes in vinegar, probably because of the sugar and the salt ;)
Today I went grocery shopping and it was quite an experience! There is not much American food and if there is any, it is very expensive. I spent a large amount of time in the produce section trying to figure out what the greens are, none of which looked familiar. I couldn't find any bread, any sugar-free soymilk, and many other things but they have fresh tofu! I ended up picking up veggies that I am not positive what they are, but know the general family :)
Other notes, mostly Koreans are pretty self-conscious so though most will stare, they are shy. Today walking down the street I had an experience that was an exception to this rule. A middle aged business man came next to me, put his arm around me and started talking Korean. I explained that I did not speak Korean, he tried to talk to me for a few minutes, then looked at me and said 'American?' I answered yes and smiled and went on my way.
I don't start work until next Monday, so will filling up my blog with little not as exciting tid bits this week. Love you all!

First Day in South Korea

I have arrived in South Korea! The last 36 hours have been filled with many different emotions and pure exhaustion. On Friday, the day I left for South Korea, about 4 hours before my departure, homesickness fell on me. I had completely forgotten how it felt to be homesick and how awful it is! Saying goodbye to my parents (and Louie my dear papillion) was rough, but as soon as I entered into O'hare International airport, my homesickness went away. Both of my flights were timely, which was great! For any of you who have flown an Asian airline, you know how silly and fun they are, all of the uniforms are very exaggerated however expect excellent service on your flight :). I enjoyed a traditional Korean dinner on my flight over, but did not have the same courage for a breakfast of green tea porridge...something I need to try. When landing into Seoul, the plane played Canon in D...and so my marriage to South Korea began!

I arrived at my offictel (which basically means studio) at 5 AM on Sunday morning. My officetel is located two blocks from la feista (main shopping, eating, going out area) and two blocks from Lake Park (a large lake), the wikipedia link I provided in my email talks about both. Upon arriving, I talked briefly to John, my academic coordinator, who also went to U of I (GO Illini!). After he left I went up to Christina's room (who is a friend of a friend that happens to live in my building!) and we talked for nearly 2 hours about life and Korea. We spent a large part of the day at the equivalent of Wal-Mart which was quite a trip! First of all, many Korean woman would look inside my cart, Christina told me that because I am white and American, they are very interested in what I am buying. All of the sales associates try to sell you products, though I am not sure why because they do not work for the brands but for the store. Buying shampoo took forever since this sales associate kept on talking to me in Korean and opening bottles of shampoo to smell! Lucky for me, Christina came with me and was able to translate and was so patient as I found my way around the store. The brands here are very different, for example, they have Dove and Pantene Pro V for shampoo and conditioner, but that is it! The rest are Korean brands, one of which I tried. The only western toothpaste they have is Arm & Hammer, which is very expensive, so instead I aimed for one that had a large mint leaf on it, since mint flavor is not as common of a flavor here. Other quick notes are I have learned that the water is non-drinkable, even by Koreans because they have so much bacteria in it, they put it through such a process that it is instead filled with chemicals. I was also told that because I am 'super white' that my employer and the student's parents will like me, who knew my pale skin would come in handy. Christina is officially my angel, she has walked me through so much of Korea already and has explained so much, I cannot imagine doing this without her. Off to check out la fiesta for some grub and for some more purchases!

Shown is a picture of what's outside of my window. Once I get my place up to par I will be posting more. Love you all!

Blog Created!

Herro family and friends,

Many have suggested that I start a blog to document my year in South Korea, and so, this is my attempt to do so. Nothing exciting yet, as I am still in the states packing up! I did however want to say thank you very much to everyone for being so fantastic! I do not think I could venture out if I did not have such loving and supporting family and friends, I love you all. With that, best of luck to you all this next year and we'll keep in touch.