Thanksgiving and such

Well, things have been really really busy here. As I mentioned in my last post, I undertook the ridiculous task of cutting out roughly 3000 feather for my students hand turkeys. 15 headaches, 5 paper cuts, at least a dozen severe hand cramps, and many many hours of mindless cutting later, I have to say, it was worth it. My students created some amazing things, some hilarious things, and some just plain off-beat things. I'll post my favorites here.

First, some pictures from my classroom with hand turkey decorations. Mind you that this is with four or five piles of hand turkeys from my Friday classes not hung up.

There is still a full wall you cannot see, plus the backs of the two doors.

And some of my personal favorites:

Clearly, my students are adorable. I don't care that this turkey looks like a chicken and has chicken babies. It's just so darn cute.

Fo real, that turkey is FLYYYYYY.

This is 100% typical. Click on the picture to see a bigger version, but if you look, it is essentially a shrine to YG Family which is the entertainment company that owns BigBang and 2ne1. Also, note the appropriate use of gobble gobble gobble, which I taught them!! Also, the words on the body of the turkey are the names of the members of BigBang: GD(or G-Dragon), T.O.P., D-light (a.k.a Daesung [who is the least popular]), Victory (or Seung-Ri who is the cutest little guy in the world), and my personal favorite Sun (a.k.a. Taeyang a.k.a. Young Bae, which is his real name, and omg, watch this video [complete with English subs] and tell me you don't want to eat him up)







These two girls clearly understood that on Thanksgiving we eat this bird we were creating. I think they were feeling compassionate for the poor guys, and made them sad. The one on the right's caption is, "I'm eat" So her grammar isn't perfect, but you get the idea.

Clearly, this student simply didn't understand the premise. It's not halloween. It could be some abstract work, though. Something about the surreal realization that your senses, your very being is light as a feather and floating on the wind like spirits in the night.

This is one of my favorites. My student said to me, "teacher? Have to turkey? I turkey no." And I said, well, that's kind of the point. And she said, "Teacher, indian" and promptly made this. So creative and still related to the holiday, even in its moderately derogatory characterization of native peoples.

Turkeys in love. Or should I say chickens in love? This was a big problem with my students. Turkeys don't really exist here, so they weren't 100% sure what they were drawing. Women and men are the arrows.

"Not chicken. I'm turkey." That just about sums it up, although I'd like to point out the oddly shaped egg in the bottom left corner.

So, that was my week. Details about my Thanksgiving dinner(s) coming soon.

I'll leave you with these tidbits:
1. On Sunday I got really mad at an old lady because she bowed me in the head while I was sleeping on the subway so that she could put her hand precisely where my head was resting in a peaceful slumber. There were about 2 dozen other locations she could have equally comfortably rested her hand,but she clearly saw that my spot was the most comfortable and decided she had to have it.
2. Today I raked in the goodies. I got 2 boxes of ddeok (korean rice cakes, which unfortunately I'm quite picky about), 2 bottles of juice (grape and orange) AND a coffee from a student complete with a note that reads: "Allison Teacher~ I love you with hearts and more of these: ~~

xoxo
A

A Korean Wedding

So I had mentioned that last weekend I was headed to a Korean wedding. Well, I went and this is my description. I didn't know what to expect, but it certainly is different from an American wedding.

In very traditional Korean weddings, the bride will wear hanbok, which is traditional korean clothing (on the site, click the side tabs for various pictures and such). This wedding was not super traditional, but the mothers of the bride and groon each wore hanbok, and some other people did as well. The ceremony was held on the third floor of a rather large building that is connected both to Shinsegae (a huge up-scale department store) and the Incheon Express Bus Terminal. In terms of romantic wedding-like locations, this was not one. Incidentally, this type of place is the most common location for a marriage (big huge hall). The second and third floors are the wedding hall (2nd floor for the "reception" and 3rd for the ceremony).

When we first got to the wedding hall (I initially inadvertently typed hell, hahahah), we went to the bride's room. Now, American weddings usually have a bride's room, but they are for wedding party members and the photographer only. The bridal room at the wedding hall in Korea is pretty much just a chair and a pretty backdrop so you can take a million and one pictures with the bride. This, of course is exactly what I did. In the picture, it's me, my main co-teacher Yang Hye-sun (in the middle back), another English co-teacher (who is like my Korean mother, and whom I ADORE) Oh Yoon Kyung, and the bride, Cho Hye-jeong.

Then, you go around a corner to where the ceremony will be held. Basically, the hall is really really big, so there may be 3 or 4 weddings going on simultaneously (which is a sight to behold--so many people, so many brides!)

The parents of the bride and groom and greeting guests and shaking hands. The usual. You go up to a hotel lobby type registration desk (there is one for the groom and one for the bride), and you give someone who works there your cash envelope. In Korea, the traditional wedding gift is cash, which is easy but super impersonal. There was recently this article in the NYTimes which addresses precisely this issue. Interesting enough. Anyways, so you give them your cash envelope (my co-teacher and I put our money in the same envelope since I don't know what a wedding cash envelope looks like in comparison to a funeral cash envelope which could be problematic) and then the person working the cashier's desk writes your name down and gives you a food ticket. Yes, you read that right, a food ticket. More on this soon.

Then you go into the ceremony hall. It's quite pretty, looking not terribly different than a ceremony hall. It is decorated with flowers and an alter and there was a little orchestra off to the side. They also had this adorable slideshow of photos of the bride and groom running before the ceremony began. I guess before the wedding, most couples get elaborate engagement photos done, with dozens of different outfits and sets or locations. The pictures at this weddng were ADORABLE.

When I said you go into the ceremony hall, I really just mean that some people go into the ceremony hall. Let me clarify. Before we went in, one of my coteachers, Oh YoonKyung asked me, "Are you going to watch the wedding?" And I initially though that this was merely a Korean phrase lost in translation somewhere. So I just said, yeah, of course, and left it at that. Oh Teacher had to run an errand at Shinsegae or something before the wedding so she left, and my other co-teacher, Yang Hye-sun told me, "The reason she asked that is because most people don't watch the wedding. We said hello to the bride, so we don't really have to watch, but we can if you want." I hate to be a bother, but, yeah, I did want to watch the wedding.

So we took a seat and chatted a bit before the bride and groom took center stage. The wedding began and the parents walked down the aisle (mothers together and father together bowing to each other at the end of aisle). The song playing was a variation on "Someday my Prince will Come" which I thought was adorable. Then the wedding began. My co-teacher explained that they pretty much immediately do the I do's. Then this random guy off to the side started talking for a long time, and I was asking my co-teacher some questions about the wedding, and then I asked her what the guy was saying because he was talking for an awfully long time. My co-teacher just replied, "Um, I think he's praying" ooops. A minor faux pas. haha. Everyone in the whole place except my co-teacher and I were silent and had their heads bowed.

Also, I saw some students from my school who were not invited but came for foooood. SO korean.

We left a bit early because I didn't understand what was going on (obviously) and my co-teacher was clearly bored. We headed downstairs to the reception hall. And by reception hall, I really mean huge buffet room where all the guests from all the weddings in the hall congregate and eat together without any personal touch for one wedding. In fact, my co-teacher and I sat at a table with people that were not from the same wedding we saw. When we entered, we saw a couple tables full of other teachers, who had clearly never even stepped foot in the reception hall, which was hilarious. There was a TON of food (naturally, there were hundreds of people eating) and everying to choose from. They even had spaghetti, and some chinese food. Plus four soups, sushi, and a billion appetizers and salads. So we ate food for about an hour, and I never saw the bride again after we left from the ceremony.

It was very different and mostly just seemed highly impersonal. The bride did look positively stunning, and the ceremony, or at least what I saw of it, was very nice. Plus after the wedding, we were able to go down to Shinsegae and pick up some starbucks and relax in the food court. haha.

That's all for now!
A

Good Morning Korea

Just woke up here. It was supposed to maybe snow last night, but it didn't. It DID snow a couple nights ago, though. I didn't see the snow falling, but I saw snow on the ground, which was awesomely cool! I am up early for no apparent reason except that my body has clearly adjusted to getting up at 6:45 a.m. everyday. So, yeah.

I've been cutting out feathers this morning. It's been a busy day already. So, this week is Thanksgiving, obviously. In Korea, of course, they don't celebrate this holiday and so I wanted to introduce it to my students. And I though, gee, what better way than to make hand turkeys? It's the classic Thanksgiving art project and my students LOVE to do arts and crafts. So, I'm going to do a powerpoint about Thanksgiving for 10 minutes, and dedicate the other 35 minutes to hand turkeys. I figure it will take 10-15 minutes to make five I'm thankful for ___________ sentences, and then 20 minutes for everything else, the assembly of hand turkeys. I had considered having the students cut out their own feathers, but I assure, that would have taken 20 minutes of the class just to draw and cut so they would never be finished at the end of class. So, I thought, I'll just cut out feathers. I printed out several pages of feathers (I'm not good enough to free hand them) and started cutting. After about 72 feathers (I printed 72 of each color in the first round) I did the calculations, and it suddenly struck me that I have to cut out roughly 3000 feathers. Now here I am at just over 300, 10% done, and I think I'm going to kill myself. haha. My over-ambition is biting in the butt yet again.

As an aside, I'm going to a wedding this afternoon for one of my coworkers. I'm really looking forward to it, even though my co-teacher has warned me that it's not very interesting and it's really really short (30 minutes + eating and you go home)

Also, yesterday sucked. Well, yesterday was awesome, but the after school hours SUCKED.I got out of school early (my coteacher wanted to go somewhere, and I had a bill to pay, so I was cool with her using me as an excuse to get out early). Last time I had this bill to pay, I went to work on a day off (founders day of my school) and paid. This time, however, I got to the bank too close to closing time and they wouldn't do it. Luckily, my bill can be paid at other places, like the SHOW store. Show is the company that provides my phone service, and they are a subsidiary of the company that provides my internet service, which is what my bill was for. So I go to the Show store about 10 minute walk from the bank and give them my bill and my debit card. She asked for my Alien Registration Card, which is normal. I give it to her, and then after some typing, she says to me (in Korean) something along the lines of, your ARC card doesn't match you account information. Do you have another id number? At which point I realized I needed my passport because it is what I used to open my bank account, not my ARC. Unfortunately I didn't have my passport, and could only remember the first half of the numbers. So, I couldn't pay my bill. This was really frustrating. Supposedly I can pay it at the convenience store, which I will try today, but if that doesn't work, I'm going to rip my hair out and scream. And probably cry.

So yeah. That's that. Now it's time to focus on cutting out more paper feathers.

xoxo
A

MAIL!

Today I got a package from my sister! It was awesomely awesome!

Included in the package was:

1. Toothpaste. Here in Korea, toothpaste doesn't have flouride and the water doesn't have flouride, so everyone's teeth are rotting. Seriously. Half my students have a mouth full of cavities and the other half have visibly rotting teeth. And, since I don't want my teeth going the way of the average Korean citizen, Melly sent me some flouride-tastic Aquafresh.

2. VELVETA MACARONI AND CHEESE. Not one box, but TWO! oh. my. god. It looks so delicious and I have to be smart about eating it. I border on having no self-control, but I am restraining myself the best I can, in order to savor the cheesy goodness.

3. Hello Kitty dry-erase message board. This will be the perfect addition to a Korean classroom. I'm thinking about getting a suction cup hook and making it a sign on my office door.

4. Hello Kitty hair ties. oh my god so cute. I will wear them tomorrow.

5. VS pink underwear. I made the unforutnate decision to change preferred underwear choices (AE to VS) immediately before moving to Korea, where VS no longer exists (but rip-off pink stores do, but they only sell sweatpants and sweatshirts). As such, I've been meaning to expand my collection of VS underwear, but have yet been unable too. CUTE underwear from sissy!

6. A puzzle. I will bring it to school and do it during my free time, and allow students to work on it. I am going to be the most kickass teacher at my school.

So, yeah, THANKS MELLY! Shout out to the best sister a gal could ask for!

After school, I went to the Family Mart for coffee (as per usual) and the boy (that I am madly in love with) that works there asked me what the package was, and I said it was from my sister, and he said, "you look really happy" and I was like uh, yeah, my sister is the best and I am in love with you. Okay, so I didn't say that last part, but I did say the first part. ^^

What a wonderful day.

It's freezing cold today. As a type this (at 5:30 p.m.) the temperature is 34 degrees, feels like 28. When I woke up this morning, it was 19. God, someone kill me.

Rescued.

I was sure that today was going to be a disaster from the moment I stepped foot inside my school, but things were salvaged nicely.

It was very cold this morning (25 degrees when I woke up, getting as warm as 36-38 or so by midday), and I was excited to wear my winter coat for the first time. I had a cute outfit, and even had time to do my hair and put on make-up, so I was feeling good. Got McDonalds for breakfast which is bad for me, but so delicious for my tummy. It was terrible walking there and to school, but I managed it.

However, I've been stressing for a couple days because one of my co-teachers gave me her flash drive so I could put the video and a copy of the picture of the girls with Mike on it (she was in charge of organizing our group). I had put the photo and video on the flash drive a while ago when she first gave it to me (the week before Halloween), but somehow I had misplaced it and couldn't find it. I hadn't told her and I she had asked me for it on Friday and I was planning to do a last sweep of my apartment for it before I told her I had lost it. So I have been stressing hard about that, because it's so irresponsible of me, and I was really disappointed and felt pretty bad about it.

Then, I get into school and run into my main co-teacher from whom I usually pick up the key to the English zone where my office and classroom are, but she said to me, you have the key right? You didn't drop it off on Friday. Naturally, I didn't have the key, and moreover, I had no idea where the key was (usually when I take it home, I put it on my keychain, but it wasn't there), so I was pretty much 0-2 on the day, and it was only 8:30 a.m. She went to look for a spare key while I scowered my purse for the key.

While looking for the key, however, I pulled out my spare balloon from Dream Concert and bundled up in it was none other than my co-teacher's flash drive that I had thought I lost. In truth I had put it where i meant to, but it had gotten wrapped up by the balloon so I hadn't noticed it before. This meant that I was only missing one important thing (the key to my classroom) instead of just one thing.

I was still really stressed about the key because I'm not supposed to take it home, and my co-teacher can get in trouble for letting me take it home and then I lost it, and so I was really nervous about where it was in my apartment, if it was in my apartment.

However, my day was all uphill from there, including ddeokbokki for lunch (omg, so delicious, my favorite), and two awesome notes from my students Yu Eun-bin (or, as she asked to be called, Movie Star Eun-bin) and Jaeyeong, or Rachel, which is her English name. The note Eun-bin wrote me had pictures drawn of me and her and it was SO CUTE. There is one picture of me in my signature headband (I wear a headband almost every day) with a voice bubble saying "Teacher like~ spaghetti, orange color, spring, hip-hop music, April 29th (teacher's birthday), and Eun-bin" And then she drew a picture of me listening to my ipod (which I often do during my planning time) and then another that is supposed to be a polaroid of us together. I'm wearing my North Face Fleece (which I had been wearing a LOT the last few weeks) and her in the school uniform, and both of us tossing up peace signs and under my picture is says "tall~^_^" and under hers it says short T_T and it was SO PRECIOUS.

Then, after school I got home and discovered that I had the classroom key in my apartment, in the pocket of the pants i wore on Friday. What a relief!

Then went to On The Map with a big group and had a bacon cheeseburger and potato chips and then went to a waffle and ice cream place that was SO DELICIOUS and then went to Juan underground and bought cozy socks, and now here I am, in a cozily heated apartment, listening to my jams and responding to the notes I got today. It turned out SO PERFECT today. *^___^*

These things single-handedly solved all the problems I was having this morning. Yay!

xoxo,
A

Namsan Tower

This weekend, I got to see Ara again, which was really nice. She had been really busy studying for the GMAT, so we haven't hung out in almost a month, since we went to Gyeongbok palace. Ara took the GMAT on Thursday (she got a perfect score on the math section and is taking it again to improve her English score a little bit more), so she had more free time, which I was really really happy about. I met here at Hongdae, which is where a really big University is. Hongdae is really well known for a couple things: 1. bars/clubs and 2. Shopping and the material arts. On the weekends in Hongdae there is something called Free Market which is when students from the University sell things they made. The things that they sell vary from clothing and hats to stationary to jewelry to knick knacks and everything in between. I bought a little ceramic giraffe with blue spots to add to my growing collection of giraffe stuff. I'm up to 6 giraffe stuffed animals or figurines and 4 pictures of giraffes drawn by friends. Pretty good collection (thanks to Alisha, teen, kate, nicki, justin and Charlotte for adding to my collection), if I do say so myself. The Free Market was really neat, and I definitely want to go back again SOON. Maybe I can convince Bekah to come with me next week.

After Free Market, we went to this moderately well known coffeehouse called Snob. They serve a number of cakes, which are the most well-known thing at Snob. But, Ara and I weren't really hungry so we just got drinks. I got a caramel latte (SO DELICIOUS) and Ara got Earl Gray tea. They brought out the tea in a white ceramic tea pot and had a timer for the tea, and they made a design in the foam of my latte, and it was really nice. Also, the coffee shop was super warm, and it was really really cold outside, so it was perfect. See pictures here and on facebook.

Oh, as an aside, before I met Ara, I went to Myeong Dong (the big shopping area) to get some winter gear. I got my first ever pair of mittens (OMG SO CUTE), one of those beanie hats that everyone wears but I thought look stupid on me but this one didn't, and this sweater tunic (but in ivory) that I am going to wear tomorrow regardless of how cold it is (high of 41, so cold). I also bought a cream colored scarf that is super warm and comfy from a street vendor. YAY SHOPPING (Sorry Paigey, I just read your blog, but some of it I actually needed due to the weather).

Ara and I were Snob for a really long time just chatting and it was really nice to catch up with her there. After about 2 hours there, she realized she had missed several calls from here sister Aya who was going to meet up with us. She called her back and Aya came to the coffee house we were at and we talked a bit more while she warmed up (she waited outside in 30 degree weather for like half an hour).

After that, we went to dinner at this chicken restaurant in Hongdae that was quite delicious. Noodles and Chicken and a little bit spicy sauce and potatoes and then you add rice to the sauce and it was taaaaasty.

Then, we caught the subway to Myeongdong and walked a bit up the hill to get to a cable car that takes you to Namsan Tower (N'Seoul Tower). You can walk up the hill to Namsan Tower, but it was way way too cold for that. Namsan Tower is really famous in Seoul for the beautiful views you can get from the top of the tower. We didn't go to the top of the tower (we went a bit late) but even from the base of the tower, the view were amazing because the Tower is on the side of a big hill/small mountain (I'm not sure what it qualifies as). The top of the tower is 1500 feet above sea level, if that gives you any idea. Also at the base of the Tower, there is a Teddy Bear Museum that tells the history of Korea with Teddy Bears. I didn't go to the teddy bear museum this time around, but I assure you, I will. Seoul Tower is famous for their love locks which you can see in the picture. Basically, couples from all over Korea and the world come and attach a lock and a love note to the gates surrounding Seoul Tower as a symbol of everlasting love. In a moment of utter cynicism and gloom (inspired by my seemingly irrevocable singledom) I asked, rather loudly, "I wonder what percentage of these relationships ended. 70%?" You could see people at a cafe on the bottom of the tower writing their notes on little heart-shaped plastics, and I was just like, gee, I hope you two stay together. But, it really was cool, there are thousands of locks everywhere surrounding the tower. I am definitely looking forward to going back to the Tower to the top. Maybe during the day next time, to see a really great view of the city, plus to go to the Teddy Bear Museum. ^^

Today I played frisbee in freezing temps, which was awful. I'm not going to lie, though, it was nice to be back at disc hotel (bekah, beth and dave's place) for the weekend. Dave was happy to see me/drunk Saturday night when he got back from being out, and that was a nice welcome back to disc hotel. Next week I think I'm going to make some pancakes for the apartment for being such lovely hosts to me for the last 2+ months.

I wish

I wish I had the energy to create hot lists, but I simply don't. Additionally, I don't do anything interesting enough to warrant creating hot lists. I don't watch t.v. and I don't listen to new American music (although, Lady GaGa's new video for Bad Romance is fucking INSANE).

I would also add The Year of Living Biblically to my hot list if I had one. The book is by A.J. Jacobs, the same author who wrote The Know-It-All where he chronicles his experience reading the Encyclopedia Brittanica from A to Z. While The Know-It-All was humorous, I found it at times to be a bit contrived and TOO LONG (but when it's an attempt to summarize reading the WHOLE encyclopedia brittanica, what can you expect?), The Year of Living Biblically is sincere and, at moments, even laugh-out-loud funny. I'm finding out new things about the bible and a shocking desire to read the bible all the way through for once and take a shot at analyzing its contents entirely on my own, without the interpretive spin of a pastor, religion or church being fed to me. Will I suddenly become fundamental or evangelical or orthodox? Probably not. Or rather, definitely not, but the premise of the book (an agnostic liberal secular Jewish New Yorker following all of the biblical laws to the best of his ability) is an intriguing one.

I would also like to add that my life here in Korea is intense, and I've found myself suddenly in a swirl of emotions. Strangely, the emotions aren't bad, but I am full of wonder and surprise and elation and still uncertainty about everything that surrounds me. I think what is really striking me now is the question: "Am I really here, in Korea, on the other side of the earth from what I traditionally would call home?" And beyong that, "am I taking this experience for granted? Am I fulfilling that which I hoped to fulfill? What was/am I hoping to fill in the first place?" Korea is a joy and an enigma.

Now, I'm going to catch up on lost sleep, clean my apartment, and prepare for a wonderful weekend of laziness. Good day to you all!

xoxo,
A

Peppero Day

Today was Peppero Day. You see, in Korea, every month has a special love holiday, plus November has TWO. Here are the holidays:

January 14: Diary Day- couples exchange diaries or planners with all the important days (anniversaries, love holidays, 100 day celebrations, etc)
February 14: Valentine's Day- The girl buys the boy gifts
March 14: White Day- The boy buys girls gifts that are white in color. Gifts range from mints and candy to stuffed animals and underwear
April 14: Black Day- This is the day where single people go out to eat alone to mourn their singledom. Also, they eat delicious jjajjangmyeon
May 14: Yellow Day/Rose Day- couples wear yellow and exchange yellow roses. Single people go out together and eat curry
June 14: Kiss Day- self-explanatory
July 14: Silver Day- couples exchange gifts made of silver and announce their relationship to their friends
August 14: Green Day- couples wear green, go for a walk in a park or wooded area and drink soju (which comes in a green bottle); single people also drink soju this day
Sept 14: Photo&Music Day- no one celebrates this, but pics together then Noraebang!
October 24: Apple Day- I described this already. Saying SORRY!
Nov 11: Peppero Day
Nov 14: movie day- less important than and overshadowed by Peppero Day
Dec 14: Hug Day- Couples hug to stay warm during cold winters

Anyways, so today was Peppero Day, which is like valentines day but better because you don't have to give anything to anyone if you don't want to and teachers rake it in. On Peppero Day, friends give friends, and lovers give each other, boxes of Peppero to show affection and as a symbol for wishes that your friends grow tall and thin, like sticks of Peppero (which are the same as Pocky but not strawberry flavored). 11/11 was the date chosen because it looks like 4 peppero sticks lined up.

Anyways, so for Peppero Day, I got 4 boxes of peppero, one big peppero stick (I don't know how to explain except to say it was a supersized peppero) and a bag of homemade peppero. I also got two notes from two of my *favorite* students, Yu Eun-Bin and Lee Jae-Yeon (English Name: AMY!!) The notes are quite possibly the sweetest things I've ever seen. Handwritten beautiful with so much effort. I can't help but smile every time I see them. I responded to each of the notes this evening and told the girls to come to my office to get their response notes tomorrow morning.

This acted as a reminder that I love my job, and my students, and my school.

I am done planning for the month of November, by the way. I have two powerpoints to make, and I am DONE DONE DONE with November. Then I have December, and a WHOLE MONTH OFFFFFFF!

Korean Love

Man, I love living here.

Today, I had Korean class. I was about 15 minutes early to class (I try to leave early because I never know when the bus will get to the bus stop, and because I can get some extra studying in at TalkHouse, wear I take classes beforehand). My teacher was there, but none of the rest of the students were there, and she started talking to me about my neighborhood and my experiences before coming to Korea. She is from the same area I live in now (she graduated from the middle school I currently teach at), and so she knows how boring it is out here. haha. Also, she asked me what I studied at university, and when I told her English and Spanish she said, "ah, yes, I can tell you have a talent for languages." YAY! I think I am starting to get Korean, and I'm moving along at a pretty healthy rate, especially now. We are moving really really fast, and the verbs are mind-numbingly difficult to learn, because we are learning present, future, past and conditional tenses simultaneously, and that has been a REAL challenge. It is very Korean to present a tremendous amount of information and basically just say, "learn it," so I'm doing the best I can to succesfully learn things. Honestly, I'm beginning to be able to pick out words and phrases in other people's conversations, which is really AWESOME.

Also, after leaving Korean classes, I went to my usual kimbab place for a light dinner of cheese ddeokbokki (a rather boring recipe video here, but it provides a recipe nonetheless. If you live in Gainesville, go to the Korean market on Archer & 34th. TRY THIS DISH, IT IS SO DELICIOUS), and the ladies were very nice to me (as usual), and my ddeokbokki was delish (as usual). After finishing and paying for my meal (2500 won, or about 2 dollars), I went outside to the bus stop. As it so happened, I left the kimbab place the very moment three high school boys were walking by. They all looked at me, mouths agape, and said, "oooooh, HELLO!" I said hello back, of course, as I always do. Then one turned around and said, "oh! So beautiful!" I said thank you, as I always do. The a different one asked me "aaaah, ki, ki, (ki is height in Korean) how tall?" And I said, 186 cms, indicating also with my hands 1-8-6. They, as people always do, stopped in their tracks and said, "ooooooooooooohhhhh, woooow!" and then proceeded to giggle like 6 year-old girls as they walked by me, gasping out a "goodbye" as they passed. It was hilarious and adorable and it kills me everytime.

Also, tomorrow is Peppero day, another wonderful reason to love Korea, but more on that after the holiday has officially been celebrated by yours truly.

xoxo,
A

Thrillah in Manila

It's 6:00 p.m.

I'm exhausted beyond words. Went the the Thrillah in Manila tournament this weekend in Manila, the Philippines. It was insane. The hotel we stayed in was gorgeous and huge (each room had a king size bed, kitchen, living area, two bathrooms and two singles). Granted, we didn't spend too much time at the hotel. The weather was really hot, really humid, and very sunny. I got intense sunburn on my legs and neck. We played okay, breaking seed and taking 11th out of 32 teams. It's unfortunate that we didn't do better because we are a really talented team, with a ton of experience, but we had never all played together in preparation. At practices, there would be maybe 10 people from the team and then 5 others who weren't playing in Manila, and that was rough. You could tell, though, that if we keep playing together, we could be a force to be reckoned with because the talent is so high. We just have to learn how to all play well together and work that out. Plus, we need to make sure we get Dave and Clay and Adam to go to the next international tournament.

Anyways, all of this is mumbo-jumbo to most of you. To sum it up: Manila was awesome and exhausting, but I saw basically none of the city. I cannot wait to keep playing with this team, because they are some of the coolest people I know, especially here in Korea. I had a blast, played hard, and am sincerely looking forward to DREAM CUP in Japan in February or March or whenever it is.

Now, though, I'm completely exhausted and desperately trying to both recover from the weekend and prepare for my classes this week. I have two powerpoints to make up and then I'll pretty much be done. But, my oh my, I AM BEAT.

Also, once again, I took no photos. I suck.

xoxo,
A

Stress.

Somehow I manage to make my job as impossibly difficult as I can. Take this week for example. Tomorrow, I fly to Manila, Philippines. My flight departs from Incheon International Airport at 9:15, so I will need to be at the airport around 7:15/7:30. It will take about an hour and a half to get to the airport from my apartment, so I need to leave no later than 6:00. I get off school at 4:30. no problem, right?

Wrong.

I have to go to the Stationary Store before I leave so I can pick up some materials for my classes next week. I need felt and foam board for the activities they will be doing (creating a news weather report). The stationary store is about 20 minutes from my apartment. So. Get off at 4:30, get to bus stop by 4:45, an hour for shopping and trip there and back, puts me at my apartment around 5:45. I guess I will probably have to take a taxi to the stationary store, which is a big fucking pain because it's expensive and stupid because the stationary store isn't that far from my apartment.

Also, I haven't so much as started making the powerpoints for either of the grades (naturally I decided to make different plans for the grades this week) so I have no idea when I will do that. Tomorrow I have one hour free to make worksheets/handouts AND powerpoints AND make sure everything is in order before I leave. I have to remember my passport and my id and 9000 other things. GAH.

Did I mention I haven't packed and that instead I'm choosing to blog. STUPID ME.

Wish me luck and minimal stress as I embark on this weekend.

Did I mention to anyone that I get back into Incheon International Airport at 6 a.m. on Monday morning. This means I will take a taxi and then manage to shower and eat and then go straight to work (where I am not prepared). FML.

xoxo,
A

Do you believe in Jesus?

This is what a friendly young woman asked me today as I was leaving school. Today was an unusual day because students had all sorts of weird activities in lieu of classes this afternoon including job fairs and handwriting things (it looked like arts&crafts) and stuff, and there were lots of visitors. When I was leaving, I saw a group of three women packing up a van with some Korean writing on the side. I assumed they were related to the job fair or other activities. I bowed to one of the women slightly as a greeting, and continued on. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the woman I acknowledged hurried over to talk to another, younger, woman. The younger woman ran after me and asked me, "Are you a teacher?" And I said yes. "An English Teacher?" And I said yes. "Do you believe in Jesus?" And I said yes, if for no other reason than in a desperate attempt to avoid the evangelizing she was preparing to do. Her response? "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!" and ltos of hand clapping. I'm not sure if I've ever seen someone be so happy about hearing that someone believes in Jesus. It was cute.

Need to buy:
Picture frames for all the pictures of my friends from HOME that mommy sent me
HATS (omg, Korea has the best winter hats in all the land)
more and more and more and more leggings. I just got tealish green ones that I am SO excited to wear.

That's it here.

xoxo,
A

Life in Korea

It's been a while since I've posted (over a week). For some of my blogging friends, that's nothing, but for me, that a long time. So, here's what I've been up to.

1. English Festival.

All our practicing and snacking paid off as seven of my students and I hit the stage for the Incheon Middle School English Festival. I had a freakin' blast hanging out with 8 students (7 dancing, and one in charge of the ppt) for two straight days. I don't think I can explain to you how completely I love my job. There are times I get frustrated, sure. There are times when I feel like no one has any idea what the hell is going on in my classroom, including myself. Yes, sometimes I just want to grab a student around the neck and say, "SHUT UP" but honestly, I have got it made here. The students really aren't that bad. My co-workers are friendly and nice. The food at my school is known to be amongst the best in Incheon. I only teach for 18-20 hours/week. I choose to stay later than I need to in order to talk to each of my students and do whatever I can. And I get to sing and dance and look completely foolish in front of 200 people at English Festivals. I mean, really, can it get better than that? I DON'T THINK SO. There isn't much to say about the festival. There were about 30 schools represented, and they did everything from skits to game shows to dances to re-enacting Harry Potter scenes (completely with British accents hahahahah). I was the only teacher who did more than just recite some lines or introduce the group. My students also fell in love with one of the other native english teachers who was there. His name is Mike; he's from England. He's really tall and terribly skinny. He is also in my Korean class. I'm completely uninterested, but my students are OBSESSED. Picture to the right. They followed him around everywhere (including to the arcade down the street on our break) and would say hello and then just giggled awkwardly while I had to make uncomfortable but hilarious conversation. He does have a fabulously British accent, but I can't emphasize enough how very skinny he was. Anyhow, here's the video of Shinheung Girls Middle School students and Native English Teacher Allison performing School's out from Disney's High School Musical 2 for your viewing pleasure:



2. Planning Lessons

So I'm not very good about this. It's hard because I am in Seoul every weekend preparing to go to Manila for the Asia-Oceania Ultimate Club Championships and Worlds Qualifier. That sounds so official. Basically, I spend every weekend in Seoul doing only three things: playing ultimate frisbee, drinking A LOT, and sleeping on the floor at disc hotel (a.k.a. Bekah/Beth/Dave's place a.k.a home away from home away from home). As such, all my work must be done at school or at home after I get off work. The problem comes into play when I have other errands to run or things to coordinate, including but not limited to, English Festival practices, going to the bank (which is a 10 minute bus ride/walk depending where I go) to pay bills, going grocery shopping (at least 20 minutes each way via bus or foot depending on the weather), taking Korean classes (twice a week, an hour each day, plus a 2 hours round-trip commute, which I am questioning the worth of), and trying to eat, sleep and stay sane. So basically, I have the time I am at work plus Sunday nights after I get back from frisbee. Most of my free time during the week (non-teaching time) is early in the week, which is difficult because I am usually trying to work the kinks out of the lesson I am teaching that week and haven't even begun to think about the next week's lesson. I should be planning more than a week in advance but it's been hard because it was a catch-up game from square one. Luckily, it's only Monday and I have a good idea of what I am going to do next week (follow-up for this week).

3. Frisbee
Two weekends ago was the League finals and league party. You all probably saw facebook pictures of the disaster than ensued (it got its own photo album because it was that ridiculous). I don't have time or energy to upload photos here which is okay because facebook contains every picture that I or anyone else took on my camera from that evening. This past weekend was a hat tournament down in Daejeon. Let me tell you what, ladies and gentlemen of Ultimate, this was an impeccably well run tournament. I don't know if it's luck or what or Korea being awesome as usual, but there was free food and candy and water and vita500 (an orange flavored vitamin c drink) and two parties with drink specials and free pizza and great prizes. I think it helped that it was a fairly small tournament, with just 4 teams. My team went 0-3 in round robin, but kicked it up for play-offs, winning in semis and taking home second place with a 1-4 record. Also, I was awarded the female mvp of the tournament award (Tweezy took home the male mvp award... haha). for winning we got little necklace thingys that are of no value, water bottles and a bottle of soju each. Upon receiving our soju bottles, everyone started cheering one shot, one shot, which is the korean version of chug chug chug chug. Keep in mind, friends that soju is typical 25% alcohol by volume and is sold in bottles roughly the size of beer bottles which are a mere 4-7% abv. I promptly said no, but Tweezy, being the gangsta he is, popped his top open and promptly chugged one half of the soju and handed it to Woody, the TD, who then passed it right along to me. At this point, I threw my hands in the air and said what the hell, and proceeded to finish off the bottle, washing it down with a little Cass beer. Needless to say in about 20 minutes I was wasted as can be. And it was 5:30 p.m. BUT, I was the MVP. We managed to stumble to the love motel (we being 6 of us or) which is the cheapest way to board in Korea besides jimjilbangs, or public saunas. Changed into halloween costumes (was a cowgirl, with the save from ben's cowboy hat!!!!!) and rolled over to BonBon for the party. Had some pizza, drank some beer, danced, flip-cupped, went back to the love motel, slept, played ultimate sunday afternoon.

No pictures. Sorry. I didn't take any.

So yeah, I've been busy busy busy with school and work and frisbee. It's been intense.

Did I mention that my students now swarm my desk and office before and after each class to talk to me and earn stamps to win a prize at the end of the semester? So, I spend probably an hour or more talking to my students and stamping their pairs in an assembly line style. It's good in the sense that more of my students are speaking English, but bad in the sense that the students who really want to learn english and came to my office to talk to me anyways no longer can do that. Instead, they are forced to wait in line and be rushed through. I feel bad for Sara and So-un and Audrey and Scarlett because I know they want to talk to me and they hardly get to at all. :-/ so it goes.

I hope I will be able to post soon about real things, not just the shallow day to day of my life.

xoxo,
A

p.s. I am going to Manila, the Philippines this weekend! OMG SO EXCITED. Keep your fingers crossed for the Korean Ultimate National Team (check the acronym), and hope hope hope that we get a bid to 2010 WORLDS in Prague. Seriously, that would be SO kick-ass.