ho ho ho!

Merry Christmas!

I can't believe I am actually finding time to write this! It's 2:30a.m. and at 4:15 I will be getting up-assuming I get some sleep- to fly to Boracay, Philippines for Christmas! This week has been extremely busy, so busy that I haven't even had time to be excited for my trip. Finalizing travel plans, Christmas parties and concerts with my kids, shopping, and packing have taken up all my time this week! I'm happy to say that my kids did a great job with their performance and were super cute singing Feliz Navidad!

Now that's all over, I'm packed and ready for the beach! I know I will miss being home for the holidays, but I'm excited for the experiences I will gain traveling. I just wanted to write a quick blog wishing everyone happy holidays! I'm thankful for all my friends and family who have been so supportive to me, it is definitely appreciated. I love you all! I will post pictures and stories from my trip as soon as I can. Take care!

Be merry!

the grinch really did steal christmas!

It's snowing as I write this! When it snows, I like to say we have acid snowflakes because of how bad the air is here! We have had a few snowfalls, but it never sticks. This past month has kept me extremely busy! There are so many things to do around the holidays! I've been busy getting my kids psyched up for Christmas, which has been great because I can be as cheesy as I want to and they love it! We have been busy preparing our Christmas concert for the parents. The music teacher is doing a few songs with the kids and then I am preparing a poem the kids will recite and we will also be singing Feliz Navidad- a great choice for working at an English school, right? I just happened to be singing it one day and the kids loved it, so I decided to put it into the show! Today at rally (our weekly school assembly) I was the MC and I went as my alter-ego "Ms. Christmas." I thoroughly enjoyed telling cheesy Christmas jokes (what do elves learn in school? the ELFabet!) and singing with the kids. Christine dressed as Rudolph and I had Morgan dress up like the Grinch and he literally "stole" Ms. Christmas. I escaped and tied the Grinch up in tinsel and Ms. Christine and I converted the Grinch into loving Christmas.It was really entertaining and the kids had a great time!

Besides school, I've been to the doctor a few times. I just got an MRI for my back a few days ago and I am waiting to have a spinal specialist go over the results. I have been very lucky to have some really caring parents in my classroom. One of the moms has done so much for me! She books me my appointments, drives me, translates, and then takes me out to eat! I am so thankful for her and all the care she has shown. She has even had the moms pitch in and they are paying for my MRI (or part of it, at least) as my Christmas gift!

I'm heading to Boracay, Philippines next Saturday for ten days of relaxation on the beach! It will be sad to be away from my family for the first time ever on Christmas, but I think the beautiful blue-green waters and white sand beaches will help console me!

Here are a few pictures of random things in the last month or so. I'm also gonna include some videos because my kids are just so dang cute! Some of the kids are really into it and some are off in space, which is pretty funny! Pay no attention to the horrible singing or guitar playing in the background! haha.

Sorry, it was so gross I just had to post it! I can't believe how many times I see people like this on the street! Side note-it was also extremely cold that night!!Merry Christmas! Miss Christmas, Mr. Grinch and Ms. Rudolph after Rally. See my gumdrop wall in the background? =o)So cute!Morgan, Adam and I have discovered a great new indoors pastime- badminton in the kitchen! We are still working out the quirks, i.e. volleying the shuttlecock more than one time , but we'll get there. I couldn't find any pictures of me actually hitting the shuttlecock, but I was close every time, really!

I hope everyone has a great holiday season! Don't freak out in the long lines of last minute shopping, take some time to relax and actually enjoy yourself, and appreciate the time you get to spend with your loved ones. I miss you all! I'm going to end with this...

Merry Christmas everyone! from the bottom of my heart!

randomness...

Sorry for the lack of blogs lately! The past month has gone by too quickly, leaving me little time to do much blogging. Anyway, here is my feeble attempt to catch people up on life through pictures. I know they are all completely random, but then again, I am known for being a random girl. =o) Enjoy!
The weather here has been beautiful! It just started getting cold this week, I might actually have to break out my winter coat soon! I have been taking my kids outside as much as possible to enjoy the nice weather. We went to a park to collect leaves, it was a beautiful day!

Our school also got the privilege to go see the "elephant show" at a park. I can't say I am the biggest fan of seeing elephants unchained for an hour or 2 each day so they can perform a "show" for people, but nonetheless, my kids loved it! From the picture, I am sure you can tell how entertaining it truly was.
In my eight months of being in Korea, I haven't had any run-ins with huge spiders, until recently. It is hard to tell from the picture because there is nothing to compare it to, but this spider was a little smaller than my hand! Yuck!!!
We got to ride the elephants after the show!
I have discovered a new level of shopping! Namdaemun Market is a huge outdoor and indoor market with thousands of vendors selling everything imaginable! Each stall is small and cramped and filled with people. I can only handle being in the market for so long before I freak out because of all the people. You take two steps without being pushed over by an "ajuma" (old korean woman) who is trying to get her shopping done. If you can handle the crowds, you can find some good deals on almost anything.
This is a paper vendor at the market. The "stall" was just a little hallway filled wall to wall with paper.
On to Halloween... Good times were had by all. My original costume idea of being half of a ying-yang, with Christine being the other half, didn't work out. We settled on "good and evil." Obviously, I was the good one! =o) I danced the night away and got home at 7am! Most Koreans do not celebrate Halloween, so after we left the bars for "foreigners" we got some pretty funny looks! You can imagine an angel and a can of pop saying hi to you at 7am would be rather amusing for an old Korean person! I think Morgan and I made the morning of many people!Here we have Joe, aka "God's gift to women" and Morgan, aka "Milkis," a popular Korean drink here made of carbonated milk. It sounds disgusting but it is quite good. Evil Christine and Adam, aka "Borat" are in the background.
Have you ever walked down the street at 3 in the morning and gotten a craving for oysters? Yeah, me neither! I just happened to find an oyster truck parked on the street a few weeks ago. There are a lot of food trucks out on the street that sell food, but this is one of the first times I have seen a seafood truck. People stand outside the truck and eat the oysters. I'm not sure they are cooked either. I have also seen a crab truck selling crabs, but didn't get a chance to snap a picture.

Soap on a stick! If you read one of my earlier blogs about bathroom behavior, then I hope you will appreciate this picture. This is a picture of the soap that is in some bathrooms here. It always seems so unusual to me to wash my hands on a stick of soap!
I went hiking, with a few thousand people, a few weeks ago at Bukhansan, a mountain in Seoul. Hiking is a major hobby for a lot of people here. Since South Korea is 70% mountainous there are a lot of opportunities to hike. Every day, especially on the weekends, thousands of people escape to "nature" and do some hiking. It is a nice break to be "above" the city, because we are technically still in it. Here is just a small portion of Seoul that you could see.

We made it to the top of a peak! It was windy and cold (note the absence of guardrails anywhere!) Also take note of the hardcore "hikers" in the background!
I thought this was hilarious! The security camera at the top of the peak was made to look like a tree. The branches sticking out are fake! I definitely appreciate the efforts made to make everything blend in to look natural!

Ok, I guess that is a quick update! Sorry for the lack of quality or details, I just wanted to get a blog out there. Also, in the three days it took me to write this, we got our first snow! For about 2 hours we got huge, fluffy flakes and it was beautiful! Of course, nothing sticks, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

I'd also like to say that I've been reading some amazing books! I just got done reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini, the author of The Kite Runner. Both books were amazing and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a good read! I will leave you with a quote from the book:
"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the
thousand splendid suns that hide beneath her walls."

go ahead and make yourself...

I saw this hanging from a store in Itaewon and I was shocked! I couldn't not help but laughing really hard when I saw this. A lot of the signs here are pretty funny because the meaning tends to get lost in translation or there is no meaning at all. I have seen countless numbers of shirts or other items with the most random English words written on them. I'm going to try and take pictures and post the funny stuff I see. Here is another one...
Remember, "cigalettes" can kill! =o)

bob barker would be very pleased...

to find out that Seoul is going to undergo a project next year that will try and neuter as many stray cats as possible. The neutering will quiet down the cats during mating season (they can be extremely loud, trust me!) and will also attempt to serve as population control. According to the Korean Herald, Seoul has about 30,000 stray cats!

I read that today in the waiting room of the doctor's office. I found it quite amusing. I'm starting preparations for my big trip after my contract. Some friends and I are planning on visiting quite a few countries as cheaply as possible. Today I got my Hepatitis A and B booster and also my Japanese Encephalitis vaccine. The doc also said I should think about getting my rabies vaccine due to the nature of the traveling we plan on doing. We'll see...

pee pressure

I would like to take a moment to discuss bathroom situations in Korea! One might think that a blog dedicated to something so personal as bathroom habits might be a little crass. However, I think the title of the popular children's book, "Everyone Poops" (and pees, for that matter) puts things into perspective! The picture below is a typical toilet in Korea, aka: the squatter. Please note that this picture is an abnormally clean squatter stall. I have seen much worse! Since being here in Korea, I have become quite good at squatting. I know that I should pull up my pants legs while pulling my pants down in order not to get the bottoms dirty (you never can be too sure of the aim of the person before you). I also know that you should face the doorway when you squat. Toilet paper, if there is any provided for you, goes in the bucket or trash an next to you. I have learned my lesson and now always carry tissue with me! Usually you step on some sort of button or lever to flush. Also, please note that there are many Western style toilets as well.

Also, a few other bathroom oddities I've noticed here in Korea. If you don't want anyone to hear you using the restroom, many stalls have a "courtesy button" you can press while you go. When you press the button you will hear the sound of running water or a flushing noise instead of whatever noises one usually makes as they go. I think it's funny because if you press the button everyone obviously knows what you are doing anyway!
There are also many unisex bathrooms here in Korea. I've been so surprised to walk into a restroom and find a stall for a man and a stall for a woman both in the same bathroom. Sometimes there is just a stall and a urinal against the wall. The other day my friend Morgan and I both had to use the restroom and we ended up in a unisex bathroom together. I definitely experienced some "pee pressure" knowing I was using the restroom with a guy in the next stall, especially a friend of mine. I would have to say the experience was more humorous than anything.

This weekend I also went to a DVD bong. I can't write it using Korean figures on this computer, but the Korean word for "room" is pronounced "bong" in English. There are many types of "bongs" in Korea. The most popular would have to be "norebongs," which are karaoke rooms where you sing karaoke with all your friends, "PC bongs," which are rooms filled with computers, music, snacks, and tons of people usually playing video games and I use them when I want to get work done and can't focus at home on my own computer. There are also "board game bongs" where people play board games, and then the "DVD bong." I think the reason that all these different rooms are so popular is because they are all used for social purposes. Most apartments here are small studios that aren't necessarily good for entertainment. Also, most Koreans live with their parents until they get married, so it is a good way to get out of the house.
When you walk into the DVD bong it looks like you are walking into a small video store. You pick out your dvd and pay for the rental. The attendant takes you to your room and you are all set up. There are cheap rooms, small rooms, big rooms, and really nice rooms, depending on the group size or how "romantic" you want your movie experience to be. Morgan and I opted for the cheapest room. It had a little reclining couch big enough for two, nice sound system, and a screen that took up the whole wall. It was like our own personal theater!
At school we just had our pajama party! The kids all came to school at night in their pajamas. Their mothers brought dinner for everyone and the fathers came into the classes with the kids for crafts, games, etc. My kids all went a little crazy because of all the commotion and the excitement of spending time with their fathers.

This weekend I also got the opportunity to go to a fireworks competitions. I had no idea that there were fireworks competitions, but apparently there was a competition in Seoul. Japan, USA, China, and Korea all had a 10 minute display of fireworks. I have never seen so many people turn out for a fireworks show before. They were all lined up along the river. We took a cab and ended up getting out on the bridge because the traffic was so bad and so many people were standing on the bridges anyway. That is where we watched the show. I have no idea how judging works or who won, but below is a video of one of the teams grand finale. I think it was the USA team, but I can't be sure. I didn't get China's show on tape, but I liked it the best. It was very unique, using color coordination and movements to create their show.


Ok, hope everyone is doing well. I hope you have a day that makes you go, "Oooh and aaah!"

mosquitos

Hi everyone! Not too much going on lately, I've just been extremely busy with school! Over the past weekend the rooms in the older part of our school, mine included, got new wallpaper. The room looks great, but now I've been busy all week rearranging the room and redecorating as well. We have a big event coming up at school, the Pajama Party, which also is requiring a lot of preparation. My boss is really stressed about it and wants everything to be perfect. I'm sure it will go well. At least her worries have given me good motivation to rearrange, organize, and clean my room, which is always on my list of things to do, but somehow never gets done. I have found that I'm an extremely messy teacher! My desk is always full of anything you could possibly imagine! To me it is organized chaos, to my Korean co-teacher, however, it is just a headache!

Other than school, my back is doing well so far. I went and got acupuncture in my back last weekend. It is an ancient Chinese medicine that is supposedly good for everything. I got 13 needles in my back and a couple going down my leg. I'm not exactly sure what I was supposed to feel from it or how it is supposed to effect my body, I suppose I need to do some research on that. I would have asked the doctor, but she didn't know too much English and didn't really give me too much information. At least I feel good, and I guess that is the important thing.

I took my kids to the park today because it was such a beautiful fall day! They are just so dang cute that I had to include some pictures of them!


I'm going to end on a completely different note. Some of you might know that I really dig spoken word poetry. I've recently come across a poet that I really enjoy both listening to and reading. His name is Tshaka, you can check him out at www.naturalkink.com
This is just a few lines from one of his poems, "Mosquitoes" that really made me think. Go ahead and chew on it for a while...

Cuz nothing matter anymore

Unless it affect us at the core

We forget what we just saw

adore making love to life In Nano seconds

ignore our responsibility to remember life

lessons get lost from the truth no less than 2 seconds after we've held its hand and claimed it as our own.

Don't ignore it