Happenings and Ramblings

Apologies and Chocolate Cake

2010-05-14T15:42:00.004+09:00

Yes, I'm fully aware that I haven't written in a long time! Things have been so busy and my computer has been broken. Things are still busy... and the computer is still broken but that's okay because I bought a new computer and she's (yes, she's) amazing! (I'll try to update with pictures soon!) I'll also try to make more time for writing.

After a long winter the weather is finally beautiful in Korea! Spring time is picnic season for students... usually the whole school will go on the same day and each grade will go to separate locations. Today is our picnic day but because the first grade will go on a trip soon they stayed behind while the 2nd and 3rd grade (with their teachers) went on picnics. I taught my first class business as usual. Then I had 2 periods of break during which the science teacher suggested we pit our teams against each other in a game of dodge ball rather than teach. I had such a good time just hanging out with the students and playing dodge ball with them. My team lost the first game, then for the 2nd game they played King Dodge Ball... which meant you select one person on your team to be the King. The object of the game is to hit the other team's King. The first team to do so wins. (You can also hit other people to knock them out.) Of course I was selected to be the King of my class. It was hilarious listening to the students! "HEY!!!! THIS IS PROJECT PROTECT LISA!" and "TEACHER DOWN! DOWN!!!!!!!" My team ended up winning that round! woot!

At lunch today one of the teacher's told me and Jin Young (English Department Head) that she bought us some chocolate cake to congratulate us for doing a successful open class. After classes were finished Jin Young grabbed the cake out of the refrigerator and gathered some other teachers around to eat it (with chopsticks of course). We cut the cake up then the person who bought it walked in. We all started eating and here's how the conversation went:

Cake buyer: Help yourselves! (Koreans say this a lot before you start eating... even when it's not really appropriate in English)

Everyone: Wow! This is really good cake.

Cake buyer: Yeah! it is! Who got this cake.

Jin Young: Uhh... isn't this your cake?

Cake buyer: No!!! This is the wrong cake!!! (Pulls her cake out of the Freezer) This is the cake!

Everyone: (looks down at 1/2 eaten cake)Oh no!!!!!!

Jin Young: Eh, let's just eat it.

Everyone: Okay (cake is finished)

Hahahaha!!! I love my school!

Computer Woes and Happier things...

2010-03-24T14:55:00.008+09:00

<<< I think my computer has a virus :( It was working fine, then I turned it on and this is what I saw. Now it doesn't even do this well! That blue "Fatal Error" screen comes up and then it restarts! Sigh... good thing I have friends who are pretty good at comuters so they can help me out!

For now... I don't have internet at home. Unless I can figure out the code to access my ethernet... then I can use my school computer.

Keep your fingers crossed that I haven't lost all my documents!!!

Other than that... things have been really good! I have met a lot of new people in Bucheon! Here is me and Moya.

Here is me and Frodo... appropriately named because he is very short :) He is helping me with Korean which I really appreciate!

Here are Thildi and Matt. Matt is making that face on purpose, so I think it's okay to put up! haha! Both are very cool people.

It snowed again! Here is me after school with my coteacher and other teachers!

And the Bo int he snow!

It's Yellow dust season... here is the sky at a time of the day when it should be blue. I took this picture last weekend. Gross....

Also... formatting this is really really frustrating! So I gave up 1/2 way though!

Doot Doot

2010-03-18T15:43:00.002+09:00

School has been good this week. I'm grateful to be just about finished with my intro lesson. Doing the same lesson 23 times gets pretty boring quick! Though... towards the end the lesson is so perfect and runs so smoothly it's almost worth it to do that much! I just feel bad for the poor kids who have to go through it the first couple times!

Things of note:

I was called Jessica by some elementary school kids in the park. Apparently it's the name of their foreign teacher. Perhaps they think all foreigners are "Jessica"
I celebrated St. Patty's day by going to an all you can eat and drink night at a Mexican Restaurant. Hey! Margaritas are green... so that's festive, right? I thought I had built up my eating stamina all day by eating a smallish lunch and a snack after school... but no! I couldn't actually eat that much and my 2 and a half margaritas paled in comparison to the 6-10 everyone else had! Probably a good thing anyway! I got to meet some new people, which was fun!
Yesterday my coteacher whispered shyly to me "The other teachers and I were talking about naughty words... do you mind if I ask you a question?" I said "Sure..." expecting something really terrible or crude to come out of her mouth but then she said, "What is the stuff in your nose that you blow out." haha!
Today is "Parent's Day" at my school. Which means teachers have to have meetings with parents and they parents are electing their representatives and such. Hurray for me because classes were shortened to 30mins, plus 3 were canceled for testing. When the vice principal introduced all the teachers to the parents... she forgot to introduce me. Ji Young, the hilarious teacher said, "She forgot you, so... I hate her."
Tony and Ste arrive in Korea today! ASSAH!

Weekend Roundup

2010-03-15T13:57:00.003+09:00

Friday:

Work went by really fast. Classes were good!
Washed Bilbo... pretty pointless as his feet were back to being gray from all the smelly dust on the road after our first walk. He is in serious need of a haircut!
Met some new friends for dinner. We had galbi at a pretty nice place with awesome side dishes. When you're in Korea for a while, you really learn to love the side dishes!
Decided to go out to a party at a foreign bar. Didn't plan on staying late because I was visiting my uncles at his home on Saturday.
Uh... the plan didn't work. Was out very late and definitely drank too much. It's hard to turn down free drinks, especially when they're just handed to you.

Saturday:

Managed to wake up on time and get my apartment cleaned up.
On time wasn't enough time because my uncle showed up 40 mins early!
Luckily him and his daughter were happy enough to play with Bilbo while I finished getting ready.
Uncle insisted on buying me something. I insisted that I didn't need anything. So, he bought Bilbo about 50$ worth of dog food and treats. That dog is pretty spoiled...
I started to feel progressively worse and worse as the day went.
Got to my uncle's house. Couldn't eat the curry his wife prepared (probably because she remembered that I really like it!). I felt terrible, but they were understanding.
I won't go into details... but by about 2pm I felt just about 100% fine.
Spent the rest of the afternoon playing with my little cousin Jiwoo... quite possibly the cutest little Korean girl ever! She's going to English Kindergarten right now so her English is great for her age. We played barbies and made things out of clay.
Got back home around 7... watched Precious and Ponyo and went to bed!

Sunday:

Lazy day!
Went to dinner and coffee with Minguk.
When Minguk came over and the Bo got a bit excited and peed on my bed. ::sigh:: Not a ton, just some drops. But I had to wash everything. I don't have any spare bedding at my apartment right now so I ended up with no blankets for the night. I kept waking up because I was too cold so eventually I cranked the heat up and slept on the floor (which is where heat in Korea comes from).

Today is going by so fast. I'm at school now on my free period. I have one class left then just free time until it's time to go home.

Bad Start Doesn't = Bad Finish

2010-03-11T20:20:00.005+09:00

Everything seemed to go wrong this morning. I took Bilbo on his morning walk to the park. While walking around I noticed an exercising ajumma (Korean middle aged women... often on a power trip) giving us the what are you doing eye. By the time B squats to do his business I'm at the other end of the park but that ajumma starts shouting at me. I can't hear a thing because there's a big truck starting up behind me... not that I could understand what she was saying anyway! I pick up B's business, cause I'm responsible like that :) and head back home, passing the ajjuma. She resumes shouting at me to which I reply: "Ajummuni! Waygookin imnida! (I'm a foreigner). Hangukmal jiiiiincha mulaioh! (I reeeeeeaaaally don't understand Korean)" To which she shut up and resumed her workout. Score one point for the foreigner!

After I rushed to get ready but was just running really slow this morning. You would think choosing something to wear wouldn't be a problem as I don't have a lot of options at the moment... you would be wrong. It was my first day of teaching and my first teachers after school dinner at this school... I wanted to make a good impression. So, of course, I ended up in a super casual long sleeved shirt with a hood. And because it took me so long to choose what to wear makeup didn't happen and my hair was a mess.

As I was running up to school there was a fish head on the staircase. You read that right... a fish head! Things were not looking good.

I wasn't surprised when my first class didn't show up because their teacher forgot to inform them that they would have class with me.

Then things started to get better. I actually taught which was good. Buying the students love with candy never hurts, right? I had a great lunch with my coworkers. Some of them are starting to get more comfortable talking to me. Apparently one of them wants to go out in Hongdae (the dance area) with me!

After school we headed out for the teachers dinner. This was my first sam gyup sal and galbi dinner since I've been back in Korea! My coteacher, Na Young worked extra hard to make sure we were not sitting next to the principal because doing so would have guaranteed a hangover tomorrow.

Galbi = delicious marinated pork! You eat it with lots of veggies and various other sides!

Here is me and Ji Young, a Korean teacher and one of the most hilarious people I have ever met. Because of Ji Young we spent the entire dinner laughing like crazy! The man behind her to the left is another English teacher... the man behind me is a music teacher, but also the head teacher. The woman taking a drink back there is the vice principal.
My coteacher, Na Young is on the left and an Ethics teacher, Yoon Jung is next to her. They and Ji Young are close friends. I have found that no one at the school seems to like any of the higher ups. It was funny to hear these ladies talk about certain people...

The school also pays for this dinner so a plot was devised to secretly order the most expensive thing on the menu, which is beef rather than pork. Ji Young asked the servers to bring it to us discreetly... which they actually did but it might have been out of guilt for dropping a hot coal on Ji Young's neck earlier!
Here is Ji Young trying to hide the beef on our cook top! It was decided that it's my birthday tomorrow... so if anyone asks, we're celebrating. We weren't exactly subtle....
At one point the vice principal walked by so the 1/2 cooked meat was thrown back on the plate and hidden under the table. Here it is under the table!

We actually managed to pull the whole thing off! After the meat was cooked we cut it all up and shared with all the tables around us.

I came home to no accidents from Bilbo after being gone almost 12 hours... life is good.

March?

2010-03-10T22:06:00.003+09:00

As I was finishing my last entry, my good buddy/sister's boyfriend met me for dinner. We decided on sushi! yay! Funnily enough we ordered the "couple plate" which came with a dragon roll, California Roll and more! For some reason sushi in Asia seems better.

The weekend ended too quickly. Monday came and went with time well spent watching the Oscars streamed live whilst at work. Tuesday came, and with it the freezing temperature! All day I was trying to keep warm by drinking hot water and wearing my huge coat. While leaving school the rain started. As I was walking Bilbo after school it started to slushy rain a bit. I went back inside and watched a bit of Jurassic Park II on t.v. until I couldn't stand it any longer. Opted to work on a puzzle I recently purchased instead. Took Bilbo out for his evening stroll and BAM!

It was really coming down!

I don't believe Bilbo had ever seen it before!

Here he is covered in snow after our return.

The next morning there was a good 2ish inches. I took these on my way to school.

This is a mural for my school. Korea has a lot of murals and not a lot of graffiti, which I like!

School yard

School's back garden.

Call me a kid, but I really like the snow. Everything looks so beautiful and fresh. Even the air feels cleaner when there's snow on the ground.

After sitting at school for a couple hours I headed to a new teachers workshop in Suwon (about an hour by subway from me). The lectures weren't as bad as I was anticipating. The organizers worked hard to make them entertaining. Much to my pleasure, I also met some other newbies from Bucheon. After the workshop we had dinner, coffee, and a lot of conversation.

Tomorrow is my first day of teaching... I'm not too worried, but wish me luck!

The Weekend

2010-03-07T18:15:00.004+09:00

I had a great foreign food filled weekend with 2 of my Yeosu ladies (Julie and Krista).

Friday was Krista's birthday. We went out in Hongdae, a university party area, for Nepalese food and dancing. Before we went dancing we went to this cool tiny bar that serves drinks in plastic capri sun like bags. It really reminded me of the kind of place you would find in Bellingham. It was super quirky with tiny little chairs and tables. There were also posters all over the walls advertising bands and such. The drinks were also cheap and delicious! a Definite plus!It took a while to get this picture perfection! (Well... except one of my eyes appears much bigger than the other.

Delicious Texas Tea!

We ended up choosing a dance club because of the cheap cover charge (advertised as 10, ended up being free). The place was called S Club. Not sure if I liked it much. I have been to some awesome Korean dance clubs and this one felt more like a bar with dancing... Well, I guess it was definitely a club, but was just a bit small... and also a little sketchy. I'm not a fan of lurking older men who try to dance with you when you're clearly sending "stay away from us" signals. I also do not enjoy stepping on cigarette butts that get stuck to the bottom of my shoe whilst dancing! It was fun to dance though! I look forward to more nights in Hongdae in the future. It turns out that Hongdae is actually pretty close to my apartment. I was a 15,000won taxi ride... split 3 ways, not a problem! I also found out from the taxi ride that I literally live right outside of Seoul... basically on the line between Seoul and Bucheon!

The next day we got off to a bit of a slow start. Julie knew a quaint little breakfast place with a cool atmosphere and delicious food called FlyPan Blue. I got an Salmon Eggs Benedict, one of my all time favorite breakfast meals!

I'm used to my eggs benedict on an english muffin, but the sour dough bread was pretty awesome.

The rest of the day on Saturday we spent wandering around Itaewon, Myeongdong and Insadong. After dinner we headed back into Bucheon because one of the foreign bars was having a live music singer/songwriter event. Bilbo has been pretty awesome since I've been back in Korea... but unfortunately puked all over my bed while we were in Seoul. It wouldn't have been as big of a deal, but I only have one set of sheets and blankets! He managed to get puke on everything. After cleaning up after him, we headed out to the foreign bar. The music was really nice but we wanted to check out the other bar as well, so we didn't stay the whole time. At the other bar we talked and played some darts.

Today we really got off to a slow start. We went to Hongdae in search of more foreign food and found a little mexican cafe. It was not fantastic, but not bad. Afterwards we went to a little cupcake cafe that Julie knew about (she knows all sorts of cool places in Seoul!). So cute!

Because my school is awesome they asked me if I would prefer to start teaching on Monday or Tuesday. Even though it's a bit boring being at school but not teaching, I opted to start on Tuesday so I could work on some lesson plans and posters and such on Monday. I also got a call from some coordinator of GEPIC teachers in Bucheon and Gimpo saying that there will be some sort of orientation on Wednesday that I'm required to go to. Hopefully it will be a good opportunity to meet people in the area.McDonalds delivers. It is a 2 min walk away, but this scooter is often parked outside of my apartment building. It's called McDelivery... Which is just about the most awkward thing to say!

Not Working

2010-03-04T13:37:00.004+09:00

I'm currently sitting at school. I still officially start teaching on Monday. I thought I would get a lot of planning done but it's surprisingly exhausting sitting in front of a computer all day searching for and typing up lesson plans. The result is... I haven't been as productive as I wanted to be this week! On top of that, I'm ducking out a bit early today to do some much needed banking. That's okay! I've still gotten a reasonable amount done including planning 3weeks worth of lessons, filling out paper work and thinking a lot about what to do with my classes! I also still have all day tomorrow.

Some things I wanted to tell you about:

I have realized that the head of the English Department really is an awesome person. I don't think I've ever met a Korean like her. She doesn't wear makeup, she washes her hands before she eats meals and she drinks free trade coffee! Awesome!
People always say that the Korean food in Jeollanamdo is the best. I was a little concerned before coming her that the food was just not going to cut it, but I haven't found that to be the case at all! The food (including my school lunches) has been awesome! Case in point... this Jajjangbap!

The rice is covered in egg... nomnomnom!

A lot of my students aren't wearing uniforms yet because apparently the school is buying a lot of their uniforms for them! Pretty cool!
My classroom is AWESOME!

The hallway looks like a normal school hallway until you get to my area...

BAM! English Zone! "Not first, but best" ?

The door.

A map and clocks showing the time around the world.

English books and magazines!

View from my desk. I have a second computer up here.

Desk. I still gotta work out all the gadgets.

T.V. for students who sit facing the back... so they don't have to turn to see the board. And AIRCON! YES! A classroom with aircon!

Computers for student use.

Looking from the door in. The window shades are pretty cool. They show a bunch of pictures from English speaking countries. My board is a white board and a smart board! yay! No more chalk boards for me!

Today will be kinda busy... will hopefully work out my luke-warm shower situation. There is also a sort of party/meet-up for the Bucheon foreigners to welcome new teachers. I'm excited to meet new people... but wish it wasn't on a Thursday.

First Day of School

2010-03-02T18:05:00.002+09:00

Mostly the day was uneventful... but I knew it would be going in. I arrived a bit sweaty from the walk up hill (why are my schools always on hills!) The teachers were all really nice an impressed by my minimal and grammatically incorrect Korean. I met my new coteacher who is pretty young... only 29 Korean age. Then I introduced myself in front of all the students. Afterwards we went to a welcoming assembly for the new first years. The first years are so cute! All the teachers were also introduced at the assembly. Following the assembly I had the rest of the day to basically do as I pleased. I ended up working on week 1's lesson plan all day and haven't even finished! Power point presentations take me such a long time!

There are some definite differences at the school from my last... there is no school cafeteria. All the students eat in their home room with their home room teachers and there is a separate room for the rest of the teachers to eat in. Also... most of the teachers (including me) have laptops that they use for their office computers.

I haven't checked out my classroom... will make it a point to do that tomorrow.

Here are some pics of my apartment building's roof:

This could actually come in useful... but it's too cold right now!

More equipment

Spinny things and plants. (very technical, I know)

There are lots of benches to sit on.

Here's a cool rock trail. Yup yup!

Long time no see!

2010-03-01T20:59:00.004+09:00

Inspired by my new and passionate blogging friend Raquel, I have decided to start blogging more again.

I have started year 3 (omg) in Korea! After having spent the last 2 years in Yeosu, the roomies and I decided to try Korean life in the big city. We were hoping to all be near each other in a city around Seoul (but not in Seoul) teaching in public schools. We had also hoped to continue living together if possible. I figured things would be easy with all of us having 2 years of experiences and me with an English degree and them with TEFL qualifications... boy was I wrong! 4 months and a forgotten amount of recruiters later we finally all had jobs... but not close to each other. I am now in Bucheon, a city between Seoul and Incheon and they're in Gyeonggi do province Gwangju (I didn't even know there was a 2nd!). I'm in Korea now... they arrive hopefully this coming weekend! I hope that things work out for all of us and that we can still manage to see each other often!

First impressions of Bucheon are good! The city is a manageable size but has a big city feel. There are a lot of cool neighborhoods I'm excited to explore. Though, I really must figure out the bus system as the subway doesn't connect to a lot of them!

Quick Day breakdown?

Friday:

Arrived very tired. Realized I was definitely in Korea when the taxi van didn't have a seat belt option.
Met the head of the English department. At first she seemed really shy but opened up a bit.
Was disappointed in the size of my apartment after getting my hopes up watching youtube Bucheon apartment tours.
Walked to my school. (about 10 mins away)
Went to Home Plus (tesco) to get some necessities

Saturday:

Bilbo had major jet lag issues and woke up ever hour, thus waking me up. I finally give in and get up at 7:30.
Explore a bit around my neighborhood in the early morning hours with the dog.
Discover a good little park to take Bilbo to
Met Minguk in Seoul for lunch at a great raw tuna place! yum!
Returned to Bucheon and succumbed to a smoky PC Bang for my internet fix.
Was excited to see that new Bucheonite and facebook friend, Raquel, had sent me her phone number. Called and made a dinner/bar exploring date.
Had fried chicken then found the foreign bar.
Met a lot of nice/drunk people
Arrived back at my apartment to find out that they lock the outside door between 1am-5am and they didn't give me a key. Called/texted the head of the English department a bit panicked. No answer. Eventually someone walked out and I hurried in.

Sunday:

Woke to a call from H.O.E.D. making sure I was alive.
H.O.E.D. came to figure out what the deal is with locked doors.
I asked if it was possible for me to move apartments... she said not really.
She took me out to McDonalds for breakfast. We talked for 3 hours and both realize that we have a lot in common.
She said she wants to be friends with me, but doesn't want me to feel obligated because of her superior position... I assure her that I enjoy spending time with her and would love to be friends. We decide to have Nepalis food sometime this week.
Met Raquel for shopping, walking, lunch, dinner, PC Bang and The Lovely Bones (Holy moly talk about intense!)

Monday:

Minguk came to Bucheon!
Discovered rooftop exercise area and garden
Met Raquel for a late lunch with Minguk at TGI Fridays. Discovered that as of today they have discontinued all of my favorite menu items.
Walked to my school again to make sure that I remember how to get there
Realized that I live in a pretty sweet area of town and the size of my apartment isn't worth moving.

Now I have to prepare some gifts for my principal and vice principal that I brought from America (purchased at the airport, yes!).

I'll leave you with some pictures of my apartment:View from my window.

Bilbo with his new poo shaped toy!

Bed and t.v. This year I also have a porch thing and my own washing machine.

Bathroom... it's actually not bad... pretty clean and a decent size. If only I could get the hot water working correctly.

View from the entry.

That's all folks! Until next time!

Apologies

2009-07-01T19:13:00.003+09:00

I've really been so shit at updating lately. Whenever life gets especially busy and I have a lot of things to write about, I never seem to have the time (or energy) to write!

Nastasya is back in Korea (hurrah!) It actually seems like she never left! This time she has her own room and a job to last her the whole summer. Exciting stuff! It's great having family around.

Lately everyone has been talking about their travel plans. The public schools have a big vacation coming up and a lot of hagwons are having small vacations so my friends are all going on trips... and I'm not :( Hearing all the talk of it is making me really jealous! The majority of my good friends are off to Thailand for 3 weeks. There are a lot of reasons I'm not going, and they're good reasons. The main ones being: Nastasya is here and leaving her for 3 weeks would be pretty terrible of me and I don't have paid vacation, so not only would I spend a lot of money on the trip, I would lose out on 3 weeks of pay. ::sigh:: A part of me feels like I haven't been taking advantage of travel opportunities since I have been here. On the other hand, there are a lot of things I want to save for. Perhaps I will take small trips around Korea with Nastasya! That could be fun!

-L

Life Lately

2009-04-27T19:02:00.002+09:00

Busy with work as usual. Makes time fly, that's for sure.

Socially things have been good. We had our first Yeosu Book Club Meeting last night and it was really good! It was nice to use my brain a bit... and talk about literature. I spent 4 years doing it and I miss it now! The first book was my choice (House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer) and everyone enjoyed it, which was exciting. I'm looking forward to reading other peoples' picks! Grace is up next! Whoo!

I've made some new Korean guy friends... my students, Bad Boy and William. It's nice to have guy friends to hang out with... and for some reason I find it easier to be around Korean guys than Western guys... they're easier to talk to even with the language barrier! hahaha!

This weekend is the long May weekend... days off for Buddah's Birthday and Children's Day! yay! I'm going to a city on the northeast coast. I think it's called Samcheok. There are caves!

More updates when I can... perhaps some pictures next time!

Last Weekend

2009-04-07T00:07:00.002+09:00

On Friday:

I got hit by a car. Well, more like bumped by a car... but the bastard didn't even stop to see if I was okay!
I was woken up (along with Ste and Tony) when our upstairs neighbor decided to start stomping on the floor and shouting things out of the window like "FUCK OFF! (in Korean)" and "Be Quiet!" It was one in the morning. Tony and Ste had already been sleeping for an hour and I had been sleeping for 20ish minutes (along with Bilbo). We have been having issues with this neighbor complaining about us making excessive noise. Like Ste playing guitar (even though he doesn't even have his guitar in our apartment) and Bilbo barking all day (even though I'm home with him in the day and he's one of the quietest dogs I've ever seen). So, anyway... the noise didn't stop so eventually Ste went up and knocked on their door. The neighbor answered the door... COMPLETELY NAKED! Then he started shouting things at Ste like "Korea, leave! Korea, leave!" Then he tried to swing at Ste. He held the man back (didn't hit him or anything). Eventually the man's wife put him in a headlock and dragged him back into the apartment. The stomping and shouting continued for another 20mins or so, then it was quiet again. Strangee!

Saturday:

Woke up early. Went to an azalea festival in Yeosu. It was supposed to be an easy hike up a local mountain... more like hiking up a hill. Well, it wasn't. It was probably the steepest hike I have every been on. Koreans don't really believe in switch backs... it's all about hauling ass up the mountains. The hike was well worth it though. The flowers were stunning!

Tess and Grace had to leave after the azalea festival, but Tony joined us to head to Gurye for a Cherry Blossom festival. The town was really cool! It was so small, quaint and clean. Very much a country town. At first we were unsure of whether it was worth going out there, but eventually we found some really beautiful trees!

Sunday was a pretty lazy day. Just sat around and watched Coffee Prince with Tony, Julie and Robyn. Yay!

-L.

Where to begin...

2009-03-20T18:55:00.002+09:00

So much has been happening lately, I don't really know where to start.

Life is busy, as usual. So busy that the weeks have been flying by! I'm now working 4 jobs... which amounts to about 35 hours of teaching per week. It doesn't include break times, time spent planning lessons and time spent walking from place to place. It's a lot of work, but I'm enjoying it so far. I started teaching kindergarten this week. Minus the random spurts of crying that I have no control over, I like it!

I've also got a lot more going on in my non-work time. Started working out this week (I'm crazy sore... but I sorta like being sore)... I've also been participating in a weekly writing group and a weekly coffee meeting (it's a Spanish lesson really, but I'm not interested in learning Spanish).

The weather has been crazy lately. Yesterday it was so warm and humid. Today has been really plesent. Spring is really here!

Sorry for the boring update... I'll try to make things more interesting next time! (and I'll try to write more often.)

Gwangju and other things.

2009-02-26T01:48:00.003+09:00

Last weekend we had a girls night in Gwangju. We hit the usual hot spots...

We started the night off right at Speakeasy... and certainly caused a commotion when we arrived. Apprently speakeasy wasn't used to so many ladies walking into the bar at one time, especially the hot Yeosu variety. Needless to say we were approached by many a drunken man looking to chat us up. Above are Lizzie, Grace and Tess... (it's sort of an unfortunate pic of Tess)

(Kerrie, Hazel and Rose)
(Tess, Hazel, Rose and Maedel)
"You're Ginny and you're Cho... and you're fighting over Harry whilst falling into a bottomless pit!"
Here starts the progression of drunkenness... I don't know what's going on here!
Dance party in the street! The music was so loud Julie and I started breaking it down outside!

Hmm... I'm not exactly dancing... but it looks like fun...
Oh drunk. Yes.

I had a lovely time with the ladies... drank enough powerade and took enough advil the next day to keep me feeling peachy.

In other far more serious news...

I found out that an old high school friend killed himself. Hearing that, and going back and reading his blog has really had me thinking a lot about life lately. In his blog he writes about what makes life worth living. In the end, he comes to the conclusion that love is what makes life worth living. Apparently and unfortunately love wasn't enough. Life is about learning and trying to better yourself as well as the lives of those around you. Life is about laughing and experiencing new places, people and adventures. Life is about appreciating the small things. And of course life is also about love. But what makes life worth living is different for everyone. Is killing yourself worth the pain you leave behind? Life is rarely bad enough to condone death.

Thank you for sharing so many laughs in German class... thank you for loaning me all your Calvin and Hobbs books, thank you for prank calling my 8th grade home room teacher, when you didn't even know him. Thanks for sharing a bit about your life on the bus that day. Dane I hope you're at peace, but I'll certainly miss you and all the potential I believe your life could have had.

-Lisa

A Bad Boy update

2009-02-19T21:24:00.002+09:00

So... remember when I talked about the student (his English nickname is "Bad Boy"... for good reason) who was going fishing for Valentines day? Here is a conversation we had today:

Me: How was fishing?
Bad Boy: I didn't go.
Me: Why?
Bad Boy: My girlfriend wouldn't let me.
Me: You said you were single!?!?
Bad Boy: Just girlfriend.

hahahahahahahahahahaha! This guy cracks me up!

Blast from the past!

2009-02-17T16:51:00.002+09:00

I'm rereading some old journal entries, and thought I would share some bits:

Aug. 23, 2003
How can one day be so interesting and so boreing at the same time?

I had to go to my halmony's boyfriend's house for lunch/dinner because the church people were comming to bless the house and well, cause it was his birthday. So basically my dad, sister and me sat around and played hangman and then when the church peolple got there my sister and I retreated to the t.v. room where we tried to make sense of Korean television(those are the only channels he gets) and tried to learn how to juggle with random tennis balls we found. Then we ate in a separate room from the adults, which was fine by me... yummy ribs... oh, man... havn't had super good Korean food in such a long time. After we ate... dum, dum, de, dum... My Halmony and Hatabogie all of a sudden decided they were gonna get married... cause well, they really like each other and all the church people think they are a perfect match, plus the pastor was there... so right there in the dining room they got married with random camera's going off... cause people happened to have them.

It was very... odd... but also very cute. Lol... cute old people getting married. Plus my Halmony seems to really like him... and she seemed soooo giddy. It was cute... okay... done with the cute stuff.

I get to go dorm shopping tomorrow!!! YAY!!!

Sept. 10, 2003
Even I thought the little bleach things you attatch to the toilet bowl to keep it cleaner was a good idea... at first. WHAT WAS I THINKING! I can't even stand the tiniest scent of bleach... when I walk into my bathroom after the door has been shut its like a full on bleach attack! It's so nausiating! I HATE IT!

Watching "The Ice Storm" right now, it has a lot of random people in it, people that I quite enjoy, so that's a good thing.

My mom is letting me go to Pullman with Shaylee and Chris to see Liz! YIPPEE! I mean... I don't understand why it was really a problem in the first place... I am a friggin adult for crying out loud! It's so weird... you think being an adult will change things... well, not in my family... I am still under the same rules and everything... the only thing that has really changed a little is my curfue(sp?) is maybe slightly later. GAH! Sometimes it stinks have over-protective parents.

My toe is in throbbing pain right now. Sucks, let me tell you.

Nov. 18, 2003
You know how people are scared of weird things like they can't look at wrapping paper and what not... or they can't touch rabbits... yeah... I have this strange fear of chalkboards!!! Arg! I think it comes from scratching one when I was younger and just remebering it being one of the worst feelings I've ever had in my life... so yeah...
I'm afraid of touching a chalkboard and I wanna be a teacher... good combo, ay? lol.
On another note... I got an english test back today and I got an A... I was pretty pleased with that especially since I did basically no preparing for it. I helped Kevin yesterday with how to go about writing it cause he has to do the same thing... I hope I helped him anyway. Well... I gots to get to running some errands and finishing some homework...
ta-ta!
so... tired... 4 hours of sleep is not good!

Haha... it's so funny going back and reading things I wrote in the past!

Valentines Day Weekend

2009-02-16T22:19:00.007+09:00

I had a really great Valentines Day weekend! Perhaps the best Valentines I've ever had!

Friday the 13th (muwahhahahahahahaha) I went over to Azeems place with Tony, Lauren and Jinn. I ate delicious Azeem home made left overs, and caught up a bit about their trip to Japan. Yeosu feels right with them here, though, they're not going to be here much longer!!!
We (minus Jinn) decided to head over to Elle Lui (not the biggest surprise as we usually spend one night of every weekend there).
Here's Azeem, one of very few people who looks sexy when they smoke. (though, I don't condone smoking!)
We met Ollie and Ste at the bar. Here's Ollie telling us not to take a picture of him... heh heh!
One of Tony and I's "myspace" pictures. Tony looks more serene and thoughtful than myspace like though!

Tony and I left Elle Lui at about 3:30am and walked home. We had some good conversation on the way. We continued the conversation when we got home, then got distracted by some CRAZY American Pie type Korean movie! The English title is "Sex is Zero" I'm sure you can imagine the craziness! Around 5:30 we finally decided to go to bed, knowing people were going to start showing up at our place round noon the next day. Got up a bit late and as a result was still doing dishes when people showed up!

Grace put together a "Secret Lovers Gift Exchange." We decided to have the even at our apartment because I think we have the biggest place. The event was a huge success!
Here's everyone from left - right (minus Julie who took the pic): Carrie, Lizzie, Tess, Rose, HyeJin, Robyn, YoungMin, Jen, Megan, Tony, Grace, Me and Ashanty. There were some really great gifts! But I definitely had the best lover of all... TESS! Tess got me some bath items and chocolate as well, but she also wrote me a 19 page love story of fantasticness! It's amazing, but I think more special to me than it could be to anyone else as it's chalk full of random Y.A. characters and inside jokes :) I love it!

Later in the evening Tony, Tess, Julie, Lauren and I went to see Benjamin Button, which was an absolutely amazing film! See it if you haven't! Then we went for a duck dinner!
Here's steam rising off the meat. Until I came to Korea I never liked duck, but it's so good here!

Julie and Lauren making Duck faces.
Tony and Tess...
Me... apparently I'm the slightly crazy duck.

On Sunday Minguk, Tony, Lauren and I went on a mudflat finding mission in the Yeosu country. It consisted of repeatedly calling Minguk's mom with her calling Minguk's dad to try to get directions as well as stopping to ask a student, a taxi driver, a woman on a stroll and perhaps I farmer?
You may think that these pictures shows mudflats and we were therefore successful in our search, and you would be 1/2 right... these are mudflats, but apparently not the ones we were looking for. We stopped for some picture opportunities anyway.We thought we were on the right track when we saw a sign for a village that we knew we had to pass through. However it took us to the wrong village. We turned around and took a different road which led us here:
What do you think that is that Minguk is running/crawling up? As we approached I was like "Wow, those are HUGE gravel mounds!" Upon closer inspection we discovered that they're actually shells! CRAZY! There were a lot of these huge mounds and they were all pretty tall.
We're standing on what appears to be a heavy machinery path... so we're already standing on a lot of shells with more mounds behind us (and lots more in front of us). It was also FREEZING here!

After never finding our mudflats we headed back into town and went for the vegetarian buffet for dinner. It was just as delicious as I remember! We then met Katie at the theater to see "He's Just Not That Into You," but we had the wrong time for the movie, so we had already missed a lot of it. Instead we saw Valkyrie... which was pretty good, but not the best Tom Cruise movie ever.

-L.

Where's my Hogwarts letter?

2009-02-13T16:49:00.004+09:00

I wasn't aware until very recently that I was a wizard. I had my hopeful suspicions when I was young but with time the hope waned.

One might say that the crazy light emanating from my finger is just a reaction of the Christmas lights to the camera flash... but if that's the case why am I holding just one finger up? Is it just a half-assed attempt at the peace sign? I don't think so! I'm definitely channeling some sort of supernatural energy! Despite the clear evidence... I was still skeptical.

And then there was this picture! Seems there was need for more energy at this moment! A bit dragon ball Z-esque I might add! Strange... Julie seems to bring these magical powers out of me!

I s'pose I'm a bit old for Hogwarts... perhaps they'd take me anyway?

-L.

Since my update on Tuesday...

2009-02-13T02:27:00.004+09:00

life has been pretty good. Busy, just the way I like it!

My blog has a new look, watchoo think?

The other day the northerners and I went for a meal with Katie, a person I rarely see, but love spending time with! Do you know people like that? You think they're great and you're always wishing you spent more time with them, but for some reason, you don't! Anyways we swapped a bunch of (horror) stories about our recent lives over a pork dinner (no, I haven't started calling it tea yet) and tiamo (great coffee shop).

After dinner Tony got hit by a car and I was lucky enough to catch the action on my camera!

Actually... we came across this bike which had clearly been knocked over by this car... whose owner (for some reason) decided not to pull forward and pick the bike back up. Couldn't pass up the picture op!

Here's Bilbo trying to get his share of Apple Crumble. His jumping is far more impressive than this picture shows... he was getting tired by the time I had my camera out.

Some funny events from the past couple days:

A lady, who must have thought I was Korean, stopped and asked for directions to building 106. I simply pointed behind her as she was standing right in front of those exact numbers painted onto the side of a building. Needless to say she was a bit embarrassed... but I have those moments all the time so I can sympathize.
I asked a student what he was doing this weekend. His response: "As you know, Saturday is Valentines Day. This is a special day. I don't have girlfriend so I will go fishing by myself. That is what I do on special days. Sometimes with friends, but on special days, by myself."
A student who used to be terrible is suddenly turning into a good student... it's amazing when that happens! The other day he told me very earnestly that I was a good teacher, which made me happy :)

Tomorrow I am hoping to be very productive! Laundry, cleaning the apartment, meeting with friends and working!

Saturday is Valentines day. I'm doing a secret lovers gift exchange with some of the Yeosu girls, then who knows what. It's not something I dread this year though.

If you haven't yet... please check out my konglish blog!!!

-L.

Poo Cleanup Continues...

2009-02-10T16:34:00.004+09:00

Bilbo is still very much not potty trained. We've tried everything short of rubbing his nose in it and beating him up! I don't want to do it, but have considered it. I remember it working with my dogs in the past. We'll see. Hopefully it's something that he grows out of.

This, my friends, is the reason why I'm going to gain 30lbs this year. My roommate, Ste, is an awesome cook. He loves to make all manner of delicious foods and bake all sorts of fantastic desserts... Last night we had both apple crumble and a strawberry custard pie!

On Sunday we had a few people round for a game of Quelf! I LOVE QUELF!

Here's Tess wrapped in toilet paper gift wrap whilst wearing a hand towel bib.

Here's Tony doing some sort of silly dance.

Here's Grace (successfully) standing up and sitting down 5 times with a shoe on her head.

Here is a particularly glorious "Korean squat" Notice that the feet are completely flat and he's very crouched into the squat. Can you do a Korean squat?

Yum! Can More is a great little Fruit Cafe. Unfortunately the only one in Yeosu is in the downtown area which is quite far from me... but they have really great fruit type items. Like the yogurt and fruit salad!

Ollie most likely saying "What a shame!" to Bilbo.

Bilbo wearing his new shirt. Now, not only am I the kind of person who puts clothes on their dog... I'm the kind of person who buys multiple outfits for their dog! Oh the shame!!!

Looks like my part time job is turning full (ish) time soon. Which is good! Will try to update more often!

-L.

P.S. Soooo much editing... I don't know if I like blogspot...

Relating to "Into the Wild"

2009-01-27T00:11:00.003+09:00

In all honesty... I've been a bit lonely lately. With Tony, Ste, Lauren, Azeem, Minguk and Grace gone (at the moment) I feel like the only person I can call is Tess. And while her mother is in town (especially) I feel strange, annoying and needy calling all the time to do something. I could call Jongsung as well, but even that feels a bit strange and he's been busy lately. sigh... I guess the benefit of having less of a social life lately has meant spending less money, and that's good!

Tonight I made an awesome thrown together dinner... fettuccini topped with 2 kinds of sausage, yellow bell pepper, tomatoes, olive oil and lots of spices! It was super fast as well! yay!

Bilbo did good today after 2 previous days of... well, not so good. Here's hoping for a good rest of the week!

One week down...

2009-01-22T20:59:00.003+09:00

and then some.

Hey! I'm a year older! Despite trying to dress the part, it didn't really feel like I had a birthday this year. In the week leading up to it, I kept forgetting it was coming. The actual day was nice. I had fun at Tom n Toms and was very grateful of friends who came over and cooked for me :) It's probably my own fault... not wanting to make it a big deal and do something more... exuberant?

My first week back has been good though! It's been both relaxing and busy! I started work on Monday... a bit stressful at first as I was told the wrong start time so was 20mins late to my first lesson, which is absolutely going to be the more difficult of the 2 classes. The first class is full of rowdy 6th grade boys (and a few girls). The 2nd class is awesome! They're middle school students... mostly girls and their (I first wrote "they're," ironic, no?) English is AWESOME. They are also really courteous and try hard in class! I can tell that I'm going to love teaching this class!

How about some points of interest from the last week in bulleted form:

All of my students have English nicknames. In each of my classes there is a Lisa
In my first class I have students with names such as: Mad Cow Disease, Melamine and Obama
I had creepy taxi driver #1 of year 2 in Korea... I sat in the front seat because there was already someone sitting in the back (taxis will sometimes double up passengers if their stops work together). First the taxi driver asked me if I was Russian (this basically translates to prostitute for Korea men) then he grabbed/rubbed my arm multiple times while telling me I had a beautiful face, then he unbuckled my seatbelt for me a couple blocks away from my destination. Yes... creepy.
Working on potty training Bilbo... so far it's going mostly pretty good. He had about an accident a day the first couple days... but yesterday there wasn't an accident and today (so far) it's been fine!
Speaking of Bilbo... I had most of his hair chopped off last weekend. The result was me turning into a person I never thought I would become... the kind of person who puts clothes on their dog! Ack! I couldn't help it though! He was waking up every morning shivering!
I finished reading 'The Host' I actually really enjoyed it!!! Especially towards the end it becomes an extremely fast read! I'm hoping to read more this year in Korea, and am excited to begin the next book!

Waiting to hear back from a couple other part time job opportunities! Hopefully it works out!

-L

Korea, take 2

2009-01-15T09:48:00.003+09:00

It's already been a bit of an adventure.

My dad took me to the airport. We were right on time... 2 hours before my flight was to leave... which apparently made us late as everyone showed up 2 1/2 hours early. The check in line is where odd and coincidental meeting number 1 took place. We looked up to see my mom's friends Sung and Chol and their son, Sam. Sam was on the same flight as me; on his way to see his Grandfather. We did a quick number exchange and I politely invited him to visit me in Yeosu if he wanted. (Don't think it'll happen).

When I finally made it up to the front of the line I was informed that I was on standby... don't know why exactly, but in the end I was assigned a seat and given my ticket, which was peachy keen... until I got on the plane and there was someone in my seat. He was lucky enough to get moved up to business class, I was lucky enough to sit next a very kind and laughter providing Philipino couple. We ended up sitting on the plane on the runway for a good... hour and a half. The airline apologized profusely for the delay citing people who brought too much carry on luggage and Seatac airport as the ones at fault. The result was, we were an hour late landing at Incheon... which resulted in me missing the flight I wanted to grab from Seoul to Yeosu (the last one of the evening). I took a bus to Gangnam, Seoul.

The evening drive was really lovely. From a distance the nighttime darkness manages to mask all the dirty and unflattering aspects of the city. The many bridges that cross the Han river were notably beautiful. I got to Gangnam, just missing the 8:30 bus, so I had to wait around until 10:40. It wasn't so bad... I turned my lap top on and watchd a bit of Into the Wild. This is where odd and coincidental meeting number 2 took place. I was pretty into my movie, but at the moment trying to hide the fact that there were boobs on my screen when I heard my name. I looked up to see J.S. ... one of the Hagwon owners in Yeosu. He had been in Seoul for a business trip and was also on his way back to Yeosu. Maybe I was meant to miss my flight all along, because J.S. asked me if I wanted him to contact some people about a job... which would be amazing! He was very kind and helped me with my luggage getting on and off the bus.

I finally got to Yeosu at 3am (it would have been 8pm had I made that flight). I walked into my apartment to find a shocked and and angry dog who didn't know who I was. He realized who I was when I allowed him to smell me. Then he got really excited about me being there, which was a huge relief!

Yesterday I saw some old friends and met some new ones. Tony, Ste and I went out for Sam Gyup Sal at one of our favorite places. I find myself slipping easily back into my Korean life. Tony said it's like I never left.

-L.

snow

2008-12-19T14:23:00.003+09:00

It was peaceful when I walked outside at 2 am. I had never experienced a quieter world until that moment. Impossibly so, the quiet couldn't even be interrupted when like soft thunder the snow crackled under my feet. It's strange to feel warmed by something so cold.

I love snow.

A Week with Grace!

2008-12-14T15:25:00.007+09:00

Grace was with me in the PNW for a coffee filled week. Here's the rundown (with pictures):

Picked Grace up nice and early on Tues, the 2nd.
After a nap we headed out to explore Tacoma a bit and see Twilight. Going to see a movie brought on a huge bought of reverse culture shock when we found ourselves paying $17 dollars for 2 "medium" ENORMOUS! drinks and a GARGANTUAN popcorn.
Eased Grace into America by giving her some kimchi and rice.
Wednesday we headed down to Portland to visit with Grace's friend Steven.

I was reminded of a spy movie set when we toured Steven's work place... he sells electron microscopes... if you need one, the cheapest one can be yours for the low low price of $70,000!
Later in the evening was were lucky enough to see a screening of the movie, "Public Enemy" starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Billy Crudup (among many others!) The movie was great! I definitely recommend you see it in the theaters when it's out in July! I'm pretty interested to see what they change! (especially if they took any of my recommendations! hahahaha!)
Last was a trip to Rimsky's Korsakoffee house! One of my all time favorite places in Portland!
Woke up, went to a cool hidden coffee shop at the coffe factory... don't remember what the brand was!
Multnomah falls was next! I had never been there before, but it was really beautiful! Definitely worth seeing! The scenic drive out there was also lovely.
Met Grace's cousin at Lewis and Clark College (beautiful campus)
Powells City of Books! Best bookstore EVER!
Yum! Greek Food!
Friday started off with a stop off at my dad's work to buy some delicious winter ale
Next was Pike Place Market! Had a great time browsing all sorts of stores
Met Grace's high school friend for drinks at a really great french bar/resturaunt in Pike Place Market called Maximillion... my high school friends also joined.

Hung out at Seattle Center for a bit.
Saturday hung out with Liz most of the day finding the Fremont Troll and checking out the Water front sculpture park in Seattle.
Went to Ballard to meet Grace's distant cousins. Ballard is AWESOME! Like Bellingham, but in Seattle.
Drove up to Bellingham to see Kayla play a show... it was a lot of fun. Steven met us in Ballard and came up with us. Meghan, Kaci and Johnny were also at the show.
Picked up Nastasya and headed over to Kaci's for some beer, Apples to Apples and Rock Band.
Woke up on Sunday early enough to make breakfast at Skylarks.
Walked around Fairhaven.
Went to Abbey Garden Tea for lunch with Meghan.
Creativitea! Yay!
Went up to Western to show Grace around Campus.
Locked my keys in the car for the first time ever... it was quite a spectacal. Because we were on campus the university police came out to help... the brought the tools, I was the one who ended up opening up the car!
Breakfast in the morning at Old Town, then we headed down to the airport for an end to a busy week!

I really did have an amazing time while Grace was here! I'm so happy she decided to take a week out of her precious home time and come see me!

After Grace left, Kayla came down for a couple movie/Korean drama filled days! Hoping to get a Christmas tree tomorrow... we'll see with the snow though! (Yay! snow!)

Decemberists Show and other things.

2008-12-02T04:54:00.004+09:00

I went to see the Decemberists last night with Meghan and Nastasya. Because I'm the crazy person I am, we were first in line, the result being I had the best seats/standing space I've ever had! Pretty much front and center! The show was INCREDIBLE! Definitely one of the best I've ever been to. It was full of awesome audience banter/teasing/lightheartedness. The set list was also AMAZING! (see below, with added details)

shanty for the arethusa
july, july!
the island
here i dreamt i was an architect
valerie plame
oceanside
record year for rainfall
engine driver
on the bus mall (first time I've seen this live and it's one of my favorites... very exciting!)
perfect crime #2 (with awesome audience participation clapping action!)
culling of the fold (and colin's first time calling an unknown person from an iphone)
dracula's daughter (I believe there was a jazz intro here?)
o valencia!
16 military wives (With added Obama excitement and shouts of "Yes we can! Yes we did!")
chimbley sweep (with the Pembroke City intro that I super love... as well as quality Colin and Funk epic guitar solo battle time... tying shoe laces together and all)

encore:
raincoat song (with John filming him and Colin singing as well as the audiences reactions with an audience member's camera... I hope this video shows up on youtube!!!)
crane wife 3
sons & daughters (a bunch of people were invited on stage and got on stage, myself included, to sing the last bit with them and Loch Lomond at the end)

Speaking of which... big round of applause for Loch Lomond. Amazing! I really enjoyed there set!

I didn't take many pictures or videos of the show this time around. I was more focused on enjoying myself! I got 1 video of Loch Lomond and Nastasya got a few of the D's. I'm sure they'll be up on youtube eventually!

In other recent news... Thanksgiving was good but different. There was no Turkey involved, Prime Rib was on the menu! I got to see some kids that I haven' seen in a while, which was very exciting!

Black Friday was originally going to be standing in line at Walmart... but, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I ended up going hiking with Nastasya and her friend Kory. We were originally going to do an easy hike up near Rainier that only has a small elevation gain, we ended up doing a different hike called Granite Mountain that is rated pretty difficult and has quite a large elevation gain. There were definitely beautiful moments, but mostly it was cold, cloudy (so we couldn't see anything), and raining (hailing higher up). I haven't exactly been the most active person lately so the hike was extremely difficult for me. Eventually, with my entire body screaming in pain, we had to turn back. There were moments where I was really pretty miserable and for about two days after I was in quite a lot of pain. Honestly, the whole thing was quite a hit to my ego. You all may not realize it but though I'm a pretty good sport about things, I'm really quite competitive. ::sigh::

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up Grace at the airport! I'll have almost a week to show her the beautiful northwest!!! I'm pretty excited!

I saw Twilight...

2008-11-21T20:10:00.003+09:00

AND I FRIGGIN LOVED IT! The more I think about it, the more I like it! I'm going to keep this pretty unspoiler - ish (IF you have already read the books)... but if you're super particular, please stop reading.

I definitely heard some grumbles coming out of the theater. (Especially from some of the people I was with). As many of you know, I'm pretty open about book to movie translations. As long as the feel of the movie is still there and they get the plot down I'm usually pretty happy. Case in point... the first two Harry Potter movies... very much like the books, pretty okay movies. The 3rd-5th Harry Potter movies retain the feel and plot of the books and leave a lot out but are AMAZING! Sure, they leave some stuff out of Twilight, and add a few extras (which I think were needed for the film version) but they definitely retain the feel of the books and all the important parts are there.

The acting. I heard complaints... I didn't really get it. I thought the actors overall were great!

Kristin Stewart as Bella was amazing! I thought she was so perfectly... laid back? while also being appropriately freaked out at moments... does that make sense? I loved that they didn't make her so beautiful. She looked very much like a normal girl, and that was exactly right.

Robert Pattinson did an excellent job as Edward! Ok... there was awkwardness and it was hard to watch. (Like when you start watching a musical and they start singing the first song... always a bit awkward!) But, then I thought back to the book and realized, yeah, a lot of what happens is really awkward for him so it actually really worked for me. What does... "Oh my god, Bella smells amazing and thus I want to eat her, and appropriately, that freaks me out" look like? Pretty awkward, yes. Sexy, no. (but don't fret, there is plenty of sexy).

Most of the side characters were perfect; though, I'm interested to see how Victoria works out in the next movie. Jasper looks kind of strange for parts of the movie, and great in others. Emmet was genius, Rosalie was amazing as well (though, the actress is still strange as a blonde). I was hesitant about Esme and Carlisle but they were also fantastic. I loved Charlie and Billy. Jacob... hmm... we'll have to see in the next movie. The actor was pretty appropriate for this movie, but I wonder if he can pull off Jacob's intensity in the other books. The random other high schoolers (Jessica, Eric, Mike, etc) were alright. Laurent and James were great. Yes... I think that's about everyone. hahaha.

Some scenes were AMAZING. The whole beginning was fantastic, I loved the baseball scene and I thought the ballet studio scene was really well done.

The music was pretty stellar.

The PNW was wonderfully portrayed. It made me really appreciate living in this beautiful place. Yes, most of it was shot in Oregon... but it still kept the feel of the Olympic Peninsula. (and I think they did some landscape stuff in Washington, yes?)

Alright... I'm running out of positive adjectives to use.

-L.

Don't watch America's Next Top Model with straight men...

2008-11-20T17:12:00.003+09:00

A lesson I should have learned a long time ago! I'm not one to brag about knowing all that much about the world of fashion but having to listen to a straight man's commentary... horrible.

"They gotta have the token gay black man."
"He's a fairy."
"Not the girl with the short hair! My wife cut her hair... I'm still not okay with it."
"How did she make it on this show?"

Bah! I can also not take a guy talking to me while I'm trying to watch T.V. about how you have to talk to people about culture and travel and learn about people so you aren't so naive and then start being homophobic in front of me. Get out of my face with your stinky B.O. and tobacco/alcohol breath, thank you.

Another thing to note... I hate meeting people when they're drunk and I'm completely sober.

On more positive notes... I had a great end to my time in Bellingham. Went out to a lovely dinner with Meghan, Kayla and Heather. Yum! Southern food! I also had a fantastic time staying with Kaci and co. Pictures!

Kaci, Me and Foster

The Bellingham board walk at sunset.

Again.

Kaci, Me, Jeff, Jeff's Brother and Foster

As we were walking back to the car, we turned around and noticed this!

Kaci and I and our dragon puppets of choice.

It's hard to grow up when there are amazing toy stores like this around!

Me and Johnny

Kaci with our drink of the evening!

Recovering the next morning. Foster wasn't happy.

-L.

Doot Doot

2008-11-15T07:22:00.002+09:00

I guess the title kinda expresses my... activities lately. I haven't done much since I've been home. Honestly, it has been a lot of couch potatoing... which isn't exactly my favorite thing to do. I suppose I feel like I should do things with people, but everyone is working or in school. I could go do things on my own, but that seems like a strange thing to do on a vacation I planned with the intention of spending with loved ones. The funny thing is... I knew it was going to be like this before I left. I think when we get more into the holidays I will be more cheery and happy about hanging out and being warm. I just really want to do things and no one has time!!! And, obviously I can't expect everyone to just drop everything for me. Also... I was honestly really excited about eating when I got here! Getting away from kimchi, rice and samgyupsal/galbi sounded great! But, the food isn't as good as I remember! haha. Which, is sorta disappointing. (Though... I've had a few good breakfasts) I guess I feel like I've been eating really heavy things and in combination with sitting on the couch it just = gross.

Anyways, today is Friday so I hope the weekend is good! I'm staying with Kaci and Johnny which should be fun! (Hiking on Sunday, yeah!)

-L.

:(

2008-11-07T17:11:00.002+09:00

Just now I was petting my dogs and I just had this really sad feeling. Like... can they possibly be happy living the life they lead? I really feel like Mocha doesn't have much time left. I hope it isn't true and I know he's not really that old but all his bumps really make me nervous. He definitely needs to go in to see a vet. We've had some of his bumps checked out in the past and she said they're fine, but he keeps getting more. I had a great dinner, but now I'm a little sad and worried. I just wish my mom wasn't so uncomfortable with having the dogs in the house.

Nail biting...

2008-11-05T09:14:00.002+09:00

So, I haven't been so great about updating... You know me... the busier life gets, the more I have to write, but with no time to write it! Then I get all overwhelmed! Lets try a bullet update to just get things out...

Sometimes the Korean system for handling things can be so corrupt. There is so much politics involved in everything. If you think age and position have a lot of clout in America and the Western world in general... you have no idea until you see Korea (and I s'pose a lot of other Asian systems) I saw this when I had to deal with the situation involving my attacker... and even as a victim really have to defend myself and continue defending myself. I saw this again when Ste had to deal with things involving his school.
Related to this... the church system in Korea has gotten RIDICULOUS. I'm sorry. Though I'm not a Christian, I don't have a problem with Christianity or any other religion. I think religion is a really great thing for a lot of people... giving them comfort and perhaps morals, if they need it. However, Christianity in Korea has really hit new levels of the way it affects and influences people. The current president of Korea was basically elected because church pastors urged their congregations to vote for him, even though he is widely known as a criminal! He has since become a horribly unpopular president. Korean churches are places used for networking and business. I actually know people who go to church to build relationships for business and have no other reason. Ste's principal actually threatened him using his powerful church connections. I guess he is an elder in his church and knows people in high positions in the city through that position. I suppose blackmail is ok when you're a church elder... Also... the other day I was walking around my apartment building and there were some ladies walking around talking to people about their church. My apartment complex is a secure complex... you need a key or code to even get in the buildings. The ladies approached me and asked me to give them a code to the building and I told them I didn't have the code (which is true, I use a key) then they asked me to give them my key and I said no. Then I continued walking my dog. As I headed in a lady asked me if she could follow me into the building and I said no. I think our building is locked for a reason. People pay money to live in my apartment complex because of this secure entrance. You aren't supposed to be letting people in who aren't visiting you. So... anyways... I'm heading into my building and what happens... THE LADIES COME RUNNING IN AFTER ME! Crazy!!!
I was so surprised by the conditions in the vet office I took Bilbo to... dirty not sanitary at all... dog pee everywhere... the doctor was like that crazy doctor from the Simsons... baaaaad! I'm definitely changing vets!
I'm in America right now! I haven't really ventured out of my house much... but so far things are really... normal. I feel like it's really easy to just slip back into my normal life here. We'll see when I actually go out and do things... haha
I'm anxiously awaiting the election results... I have high hopes for Obama!

Korea Fun Facts!

2008-10-10T13:18:00.002+09:00

In my stay in South Korea I've learned all sorts of random things about Korean laws and culture... I just wanted to share a few:

In Korea it's illegal to know the sex of your baby before it's born to prevent the abortion of girls... Though, based current Korean culture, I don't think most people would abort a baby because of the sex. Perhaps they would though... abortion doesn't seem to be a huge deal in Korea. It's legal and just seems like something people do. Not many young people have babies in Korea, but it's certainly not because they aren't having sex... everyone just goes out and has abortions.
Speaking of sex... Korea has a CRAZY sex culture. When you first get here it all seems so modest... people live at home till they're married... women aren't really supposed to expose their shoulders, etc. etc... UNTIL you notice all the love motels, prostitutes, prostitute involved noraebangs, mini-skirts, crazy amounts of sex/American porn on Korean television, sexy dance contest (basically a strip show in a dance club), and "good for stamina" signs in restaurants! Yet, when you talk to Korean people (especially the older crowd) they still don't believe these things are happening... they are, believe me!) And MAN! they are starting young! A friend of mine teaches elementary school and 2 of his 6th grade students were caught having sex in the bathroom (i think)! wtf?
Back to prostitutes... in Korea prostitutes, though illegal, are a semi-acceptable fun time activity for men of all ages and relationship statuses! It seems to actually be a male bonding thing... go with your buddies have some drinks with them and some prostitutes, then go off to your own love motels.

Despite all the crazy sex things going on there is basically no sex education... maybe a couple hours in a persons whole life. This is why I've been told AIDS doesn't exist in Korea.
Korean have very little understanding of science and geography:

****FAN DEATH! FAN DEATH! OMG DON'T LEAVE YOUR FAN ON! YOU WILL DIE! A vacuum will be created, it will suck all the oxygen from the air! BEWARE! Yes... many (most?) Korean people still believe this!
**** "Really? A bug is an animal?" - one of my coteachers
**** "When I was young I thought caviar was from whale eggs." -Minguk
**** "Korean and British people's DNA makes them more likely to get Mad Cow Disease -Jong sung
**** "What country do you want to visit?" -Me. Most popular answers: "New York!" "Paris!" "Europe!"

Korean people are very obsessed with some aspects of hygiene while completely ignoring other things. You must shower before bed, you must have your shoes off and wash your feet when in a home, you must brush your teeth after every meal. BUT no one washes their hands when they're finished with the bathroom, people cough and sneeze all over you without covering their mouth, people always go to school when they're deathly ill, food is always shared.
Speaking of sickness... when you get sick it's "Go to the hospital. Get a flu shot." That's right, when you have the flu, they want to inject you with more flu... That why people are always sick here... such week immune systems! To combine sickness and hygiene... Tony was at the gym the other day and saw a woman give another woman a shot of flu vaccine in the butt in the women's locker room. Apparently she was a nurse... but I'm pretty sure in America this would be a huge huge HUGE no no!

Okay... I think that's enough for now!

One week

2008-10-08T13:28:00.002+09:00

to go before my contract is finished! Insane!

I'm happy to report that I've found one part time job for next year... I won't be coming back to Korean unemployed which is a huge relief! The job is teaching kindergarten (eep!) for around 3 hours a day. The person who does it now loves it and it's good money, so what the heck! I'll give it a try!

Now for some bad news... being in Korea and having a steady job and income I haven't really felt the "economic crisis." Last week I was asking friends and family from home if they've noticed any changes... or if the crisis has affected them in any way. They mentioned some small things, but nothing major. In the last couple days the Asian markets have plummeted. Yesterday I had to send money home to help pay for my plane ticket and was horrified when sending $1000 translated to 1,378,060 won! When I first got to Korea it was more like... 1$ = 899won or something, most of the time they've been pretty equal, like... 1$ =1000won. This new rate is just ridiculous! It's a huge issue of concern for me! I really hope the economy picks up. It's not a huge issue when I spend money in Korea... but to send any money home right now is horrible! Hopefully things will change with the new president...

Starting today every class I('ve) see/seen I have/had to say goodbye to. It's been difficult... especially with certain classes that I really love and certain students who have actually been really sad.

Now some pictures from this last weekend:

Edit: My heart just hit the floor. I'm angry and sad and wish the world were a better place. I can't really go into it... but I had to write something.

The beginning of the end...

2008-10-06T15:39:00.002+09:00

Sort of. This is my last full week of teaching and next week will be extremely easy, with 2 of my grades testing. I feel like I should feel more of... something... this week, but I don't. I'm not extremely happy or sad just kinda... am. Though, I do feel a little less motivated to teach amazing lessons... just showing movies today. I guess the students think it's pretty amazing! haha.

This last weekend was great... and inexpensive! Went to Azeem's eid party on Thursday which was a lot of fun! The food was amazing as was the company. I also smoked hookah for the first time, which believe it or not, is something I've always wanted to try. It was fun, but definitely not something I would do a lot.

Friday: A pretty lazy day... battled some zombies, went to coffee, checked some things out at hi-mart (and got strange looks while doing it), and took a walk with Tony that involved walking around our new apartment complex area (scoping out poo spots for Bilbo and all that). I'm so excited to live in the new apartment... I think it's going to be a great place to live!

Saturday: More zombie battles, Chinese food for dinner, finishing with quality norebang time. I sang classics such as "Beauty and the Beast," "Waterfalls," "Men in Black," "Lady Marmalade," and "Gangster's Paradise." I've never rapped so much in my life... and I'm pretty awesome ::cough:: terrible ::cough:: at it!

Sunday: Hiked the Mipyeong mountain... which is one of my most favorites! Hopefully I can get some pictures up soon! Battled more zombies and went to a delicious pork place.

Today: Feeling a bit under the weather all of a sudden... could have something to do with the lack of sleep last night. (I blame Minguk and his grammar questions) I'm supposed to meet Grace for coffee and a chat later... hopefully I'll feel better by then!

A more interesting post soon, I promise!

You've gotta put your behind in your past...

2008-10-02T09:04:00.002+09:00

or your past behind you.

Though I wrote about being attacked briefly yesterday. I felt like it was something I was pretty much over.

Yesterday I got a call from the Suncheon court house (which Minguk took for me). The day I was originally attacked they asked me to forgive the guy... and they were calling yesterday to ask me again to forgive him. "He can give you some money." they said. To be honest... getting some money out of the whole thing is tempting. Especially because his maximum punishment would be just 2 years probation. Also... I know it sounds stupid and I shouldn't feel this way... but he will have a criminal record now that could potentially ruin his life (he won't be able to get a lot of jobs and such) and I do feel a little guilty about that. However, the idea of forgiving him kinda went out the door when they said, "You have to meet him in person to forgive him." Uhhhhhhhhhhhh.... screw that. I actually never, ever want to see him again. Are you surprised? Basically they called me super out of the blue and just sprung it all on me and expected me to just make a decision. It was a little upsetting because I hadn't really thought about it a lot since I got back from Japan.

After the phone call I headed out with Minguk to meet Tony, Ste, Mrs. Jang and Sam to look at a potential apartment for next year. It's pretty much exactly what we were hoping for... even more than we were hoping for! It's brand new, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, beautiful kitchen... like... a real apartment! The only problem will be filling it with furniture! (does anyone know where we can get cheap furniture?)

I also need to find myself a good part-time job...

Today is gonna be awesome... the weather is beautiful, I have the day off, I'm making cookies and going to an eid dinner party!

First Entry

2008-10-01T09:36:00.000+09:00

It's almost time for a new beginning, so why not a new blog? I'm kind of tired of the xanga community (not that I'm all that involved). Plus... on blogger you don't have to be registered to comment!

Things have been pretty hectic lately. Here's a quick run down:

Got attacked by a man with a knife in my apartment... police found him, he wasn't really punished so...

I moved, but...

My new apartment is filled with cockroaches and the toilet doesn't work, and it smells like new paint mixed with old something, the result being...

I've turned into a (noblesse) nomad who spends her time between Tony's empty one room and Minguk's beautiful (but filled with parents who like to parent) house. Although...

People have been so incredibly kind to me these past few months there's really no reason to complain.

I had such an amazing time with Nastasya while she was here. Japan was amazing! Though hectic and crazy and a huge blur! I wish we could have seen more of Korea while she was here, but we did make it around to all the relatives! (ASSAH!) Nastasya also found the other half of her soul (Tess' words, not mine) in one of my best friends, Minguk. Interesting experience having one of your best friends date your sister and really funny seeing them try to hide it... haha!!!

Recently big things are happening... my job is finished 2 weeks from today (INSANE!) and I still don't have a solid plan about what I'm going to do. I'm not too worried. Looks like I will at least have a place to live! (going to look at it today) I'm hoping to pick up a (or a couple) part time jobs. I don't think it will be a problem, but since I can't start until January, they're a bit difficult to find now.

Oh! I got a dog! When I first came to Korea I thought I would get a dog, but then decided if I wanted to travel it would be a bit irresponsible of me. When I heard about this dog, I couldn't help but get him. I'm his fourth owner (and he's about 11 months now) The first had to give him up because his Korean wife wouldn't allow him in the house (he was basically living on a balcony), his second owner went back to America and couldn't take him, his third owner's roommate was allergic and she wasn't in a stable enough situation to keep him. She told me that if no one took him by the end of the week she was going to have him put down... no one did, so now I have a dog. His name was originally Cosmo (a bit cliche for my taste) so I've changed it to Bilbo. Ste has gotten him the "ONE RING" and everything so he's basically set. I'm pretty sure he's the stupidest dog I've ever met (even more than Yuki ::gasp!::)... but he's a real sweetheart.

I has an interesting experience in a taxi yesterday. Got in... the taxi driver was grumbling (in Korean) about how I looked Korean but obviously wasn't (this happens all the time). Then he started trying to talk to me in Korean, but I only understood small amounts of what he was saying. Sooooo.... he basically pulls out his awesome English skills and we have a great conversation about how he learned English by watching Forest Gump (over 100 times) and other English movies. Then he told me about how he used to have a business buying and selling frozen fish but he went bankrupt and the bank repossessed everything he had, so now he has to drive a taxi. I really felt sorry for the guy... he looked so beat down.

3 (possibly 4) day weekend coming up! Definitely looking forward to some rest time!

I'll try to update more from now on! Please check back!