A few weeks ago it was my birthday. I turned 21, totally exciting in the USA but an irrelevant age in Korea. Here D and Amy are helping me celebrate at a local bar. Yes, we brought cake and candles into the bar. The bar actually gave us plates a forks to eat with. Now that is "service" for you. (Whenever you are given some complimentarily Koreans say "Service" it is so cute and you get awesome things!)

Nothing remarkable happened but the sweetness of my students was apparent.

I let this class have a snack party to celebrate my birthday. They brought in snacks and arranged their desks so they could face each other and talk. It was really cute to see them acting like kids and not educational soldiers for once. They also gave me a few gifts. Amy gave me a pen that was in a little box wrapped in metallic paper. Mark gave me a few handmade soaps and earrings. He said his mother makes and sells the same soap and earrings.

Another class sang to me and also gave me a few gifts. Sarah had given me a card that I was reading when Kalf quickly came forward to intercept saying he had "A more expensive gift." He handed me a wrapped box that I opened to find a scarf.

My Students

Recently I have been frustrated with the administration at my school. Monday and Tuesday, I could safely say were two days from Hell. Thankfully Wednesday was a holiday, Children's Day (or Cinco de Mayo) and we had the day off.

To continue celebrating Children's Day we had movies and snacks for the students on Thursday and Friday. Movies and snacks means no teaching for me!

This is an awful photo, but here are some of my students watching Ice Age.

This is Kalf (he made up this name). He is in one of my middle school higher level classes. I really enjoy teaching this class because they are smart, respectful and funny.
This is the whole class, Sarah, Alex and Kalf. The movie was only for elementary students so I let them bring snacks and play games instead of class.

Here we have another class that I enjoy quite a bit. This class is really funny too. One day I wore my hair down and I had my glasses, something I don't usually do. When I walked in they kept saying "Who is this? Not Teacher Rachel? Who? So pretty!"
Here we have (left over) Nancy, Jessica, Cindy, Hannah and Amy. They are so cute!

Ajummas and Ajusshis

I live in Gunpo city, Sanbon neighborhood. I am about 40 minutes by subway outside of downtown Seoul. One of the advantages of living a little outside of Seoul is that I live right next to a Surisan Mountain.

The weather is warming up nicely and Saturday had a promising forecast of sun and 75. I decided to take advantage of this and make my first trek up Suri. Surisan could be compared to Mt. Si in the Seattle area. It is a small mountain with popular trails. I set off Saturday morning around 11 am. I took the subway one stop up and followed the other hikers because I had no idea where the trail head was. The other hikers were mostly Ajummas and Ajusshis.

Ajumma is the Korean word for "married woman". You would NEVER refer to a 30 year old woman who is married as an Ajumma though. This word is reserved for women over 50, or specifically grandmothers. Ajusshis are Korean grandpas. These terms are very versatile. The "security" in my building is a troop old 65 year old men who patrol the garbage area and the front doors. It is appropriate to address them as Ajusshi. People are often referred to by their title in Korea.

Anyways, Ajummas and Ajusshis LOVE hiking! I was one of probably 5 people UNDER 50 years old on the trail. Ajummas and Ajusshis are serious about hiking, too. Every single one of them was decked out in North Face gear head to toe. They all had those obnoxious hiking stick things, too. You get the idea.

It was a nice hike. It was so hilarious to watch all the Ajummas and Ajusshis trek up in these big troops. Once they get to the top they set up an elaborate picnic. They drink soju and eat gimbap (Korean style sushi rolls) and are fabulously funny to watch. I loved it.

I made it to the top in about 45 minutes then I decided to walk along the peak for a while until I found a place to sit and eat my lunch.

Then I see this little troop:

This is an Ajusshi with his grandchildren. They are eating too. The Ajusshi is enjoying the PERFECT post hike snack: a cigarette and some Soju! I laughed out loud when I realized what he was consuming! Cigarettes, alcohol, totally normal on a Korean hiking trail. I had to take a photo!

The children spotted me and next thing I know they were coming my way!

Don't hike over there!
The girls came up to me and said hello. They also asked to take a photo with me. I asked for the same from them. Then they gave me a banana. They were really sweet kids.

Just before I found my way off the mountain I came across this! Lounge chairs in the "forest." I definitely took a little rest on one. Love it!
I found my way to the end of the trail and I realized I was no where near where I started my hike. Luckily I found a map and figured out how to get back to a main city. I had to walk down this road for about 2 miles to reach the city.

As I was walking I started to talk to an Ajusshi who I saw on the trail. He told me what city I was in and once we reached it (Anyang) and he lead me to the bus stop and told me what number to take to get back to Sanbon!

I am glad I got lost because I found a few new trail and this beautiful park!

Then I got home and found a desk in the dumpster! My desk was falling apart so I had been on the prowl for quite sometime. All of my friends were out of the building so one of the Ajusshi security guards helped me take it up to my apartment.

I love Ajummas and Ajusshis! What a wonderful day!

Update!

It has been some time since I last updated my blog!

First, let me give you an update regarding my actual job:

I think teaching really suits me. I NEVER thought I would actually enjoy teaching and hanging out with kids, but I do. It is really rewarding when a class appears to be learning and interested in my lessons. I teach about 12 classes total. Of those classes I despise only 2, throughly enjoy 4 and the rest are decent.

Now, I am not going to lie to you all, I do not love everything about the teaching world. This week has been a bit difficult. On Monday I was told I suck at teaching kindergarden. Personally I don't care if they think I suck at teaching kindy because I don't want to teach it. I give it my best shot, but alas I still fall short. I am hoping that they get the bright idea to move me out of teaching kindy (yea, right). Then on Tuesday I had a little meeting with my boss. He told me I suck at teaching the higher levels. Great, thanks for the information? Seriously.

I like teaching but administration makes it a less than lovely occupation. I think that in Korea employees are only given negative feedback.

After all of that thank God we had Wednesday off of work! It was Children's Day (or Cinco de Mayo in the States). Wanting to take advantage of my extra day off I decided to go to The Korean War Memorial. We then had a huge feast of Mexican food!

Our Cinco de Mayo celebration:

Complete with guacamole, cheese, chips, fajitas, salsa, beans and rice!
Kelly and Sarah working hard to prepare the food!

Korean War Memorial:

The museum is HUGE. There is a huge outdoor area with tanks and aircraft. The actual museum is quite massive inside. It has all kinds of Korean war history and artifacts. There were a lot of people at the museum and hanging out on the grounds outside but I never felt that it was crowded (a rare feeling in Korea).

Some beautiful pond.
There were a lot of planes and tanks on display outside of the museum.
As I walked up to the memorial I heard some music and saw a large crowd of people ahead. I walked up to the crowd and looked over the heads of everyone to see a very impressive performance by the Korean military. Fun fact: Korean males are required to preform 2 years of military service. This service is the bain of every young Korean males existance. They H A T E it.

Very impressive sculpture, Korea.
The front of the Memorial.

Being Children's Day my city, Sanbon, was packed with them. They were all having a good time playing in the fountain and eating ice cream. This guy got a blue balloon! Lucky!

This is Sanbon.

This is Melissa and I on her 20th birthday last year.

Today is her birthday and I am very upset to be missing it!

Happy birthday Candy!

Rain and A New Name

It is a rainy night in Sanbon. I went to work with only a pull over and no umbrella because it was sunny when I left home. Well, as Sarah and I were getting ready to leave we noticed the rain with a bit of disappointment. David, the teenage son of one of the directors at school, heard our cries and quickly brought us each an umbrella to use on the walk home. I could have walked home with no umbrella. I have walked greater distances in much heavier rain but I did not want to send any ajummas or ajosshis (grandmas and grandpas) into cardiac arrest at the sight of someone wandering through the rain (kryptonite) unprotected. Even if you opt for a hat as protection from said kryptonite the stares and shock thrown your way can get intense. Alas, we took the umbrellas and made our way home.

Now that I am home I am reveling in the comforting sounds of rain on my window. Sometimes I open my window to hear the cars driving through the rain and wind. Ah, sounds like home.

Well the rain is not why I started to write this particular blog post so let me get to my intended topic; my funny students.

The past week our teaching schedules have been all up in arms due to the fact that middle school levels are in testing. I don't know much about this testing except that as with any "test" it is a life or death sort of thing for the students. Poor grades on said tests will doom you to a bad job, sub-par clothing (Heaven forbid) and an ugly spouse (Oh! the shame). As a result I have been teaching some of my classes more and others none at all.

Today I had two class periods (as opposed to the normal one) with a particularly interesting class. They are some of my favorite students. In the class I have Anna who tries to be teacher and order the other students around; William who delights in perfecting my Korean pronunciation; James who looks like a Korean Pillsbury Dough Boy; Michelle is the new girl who is shy and does not fit in with the other wacky ones. I must also say that everyday before class I find these students spinning in circles in the kindergarden room until they fall to the ground from dizziness.

They drag themselves into my class and are acting as if sitting is an impossible task. They are falling all over the chairs and can't stop laughing. Realizing they are in no mood for a rigorous english class and I am just as unenthusiastic as they are I decided to change my class plan for the day. We played a few english games instead of the writing task I originally prepared. The game was successful and once I had them on teams they were totally into this pictionary sort of game. They are a really bright class and I let them slack off frequently but when I raise and eyebrow and wipe any sort of amusement from my face they shut up and listen; this dedication to my mood is something that I appreciate about them.

Success, one class period down another to go. They spent the rest of this class trying to give me a Korean name. It was a long process guided by Anna who gave me many options and William who advised me against the name options that sounded like "korean grandma" and James who laughed at everything while sitting in the corner. Finally, we decided on Lee-sa-young as an appropriate name and I told them they could call me that from now on. Also, Korea borrows a lot of its language from Chinese so with my new Korean name also came a Chinese meaning. In Chinese Lee-sa-young means gifted with reading comprehension and writing. Well, at least that is what Anna told me.

-Till next time!

*If anyone wants to send me some oatmeal I would be eternally grateful. It is hard to find and very pricy over here and for some reason all I want to eat is oatmeal!!!!

What I See So Far

It has been about 7 weeks since I first met SK. Unassuming at first yet slightly and strangely familiar to me. Obviously the language threw me off completely but I was expecting large obstructive culture gaps and that is just not what I found. I found a city that felt a little off, but basically normal.

Gunpo, where I live, is about 45 min outside of Seoul. We are right on the subway line which is convenient. Gunpo is also at the base of Mt. Suri (yea, I think) and is said to have better air quality than other cities. (I don't buy it. All air in SK is hazy and stale.) Gunpo is to Seoul as North Gate is to Seattle. We have it going on here in Gunpo, but we are still a little removed.

SK likes to assume the position of familiarity while still holding a very distinct culture. It seems to be the little things that add up totaling large and peculiar differences between cultures. Only now, a little over a month in, do I feel that the distinct culture of SK has begun to show its teeth to me.

I don't mind. I like teeth. Mine are crooked and slightly misshapen and they serve me well. The teeth of SK can be seen slightly in my last post (my list of random differences between American and Korean culture). Though, through these things I have seen only the flash of a smile. I know only what I can recall and can piece together through my memory. I may have seen wrong or caught a reflection and not the real thing. I don't know yet. I will have to wait and look a little closer next time.