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