Some July Happenings

A Proud American in the Parade

Nothing super eventful has happened in the last month. But I thought I'd post a short recap of July.

The semester officially ended! July 19th was my last day of teaching the majority of my students. I was happy to leave the sixth graders but it was sad to finish with the third as they are so stinkin' cute!

So, now that the semester has ended, it's time for summer school...yeah. So for three days, I had to teach a "summer camp" which consisted of three different grades. The planning was a bit chaotic as the leader of the summer camp does not speak much English. One of the days I decided to make a 'cooking day' where we talked about different foods all over the world and I had them make puppy chow. If you can imagine, 25 third graders, powdered sugar, melted chocolate, chocolate Chex cereal and peanut butter; I'm sure you can visualize the outcome. The kids LOVED it but the room was a disaster!!!

Once the official camp was over (the school hosts one just so they can get money from the district office) I have to teach my 'vacation classes.' Not much differs except myself and Belle are the ONLY teachers in the school. So, for 13 days, I have an hour and half of third grade and then and hour and a half of fourth grade; while Belle has her own classes upstairs. Our classes end at 12:10pm, but we have to stay until 4:40pm because my principal is such a stickler...

It's doesn't sound so bad, teaching three hours a day, sitting for five. However, about two weeks before these classes started, I was told to plan for two classes of first grade. I had never taught first grade nor did I know what to do with them for three hours and no co-teacher. But I planned the 19.5 hours of material thankful for the two week notice which is rare.

Well, five days before these classes were to start, I was told that now, instead of two classes of first grade, I was going to have one class of first grade and one class of third. Oh super, another 19.5 hours to plan because the stuff I planned for first grade was not level appropriate. Oh, but it gets better. Three days before the classes start, once again, things had changed. I was no longer going to teach first grade. But one class of third and one class of fourth! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!

I was so irate I stopped planning. As I write this, I have just finished day seven of these classes just winging every lesson. I'd have to say, I think I have a hidden talent for making up lessons on the spot and fun games to go along with them with random material I find in the classroom. A skill I know I inherited from my dad. He was always making up games with us as kids :)

All in all, the vacation classes are kind of terrible. The kids don't want to be there at all. Most of the kids in my classes are the trouble makers that I know were sent to me to babysit. It's their summer and they want to be out with their friends. Not stuck in a room with me speaking only English. Poor kids...

July 28th was mine and Andrew's 1st wedding anniversary. We wanted to do something special so I called and got reservations atop the Galaxy Hotel for dinner and a view of the beach. The fireworks festival is going on at the same time so I thought it would be romantic to dine and watch fireworks on our anniversary! Well..to be honest, the food was terrible but the view was nice. We also said no gifts. Well, me, loving any holiday where I can give presents, I of course broke this pact. I looked up the traditional first wedding anniversary gift, and it said paper. I knew just the thing!

In our downtown area we often stroll by a caricature artist drawing anyone who would stop. I begged Andrew to do this countless times but he always said, "later." So I took matters into my own hands. I took a photo of the two of us to this artist and in a mix between English, Korean and charades, I told him I wanted a picture of us drawn wearing traditional Korean wedding hanboks. He shook his head and told me to come back in an hour.  To his defense, the picture I gave him was SUPER dark because the printer at my school is terrible but I thought it was obvious that the girl in the picture was me. Well, when I looked at the drawing I just burst out laughing! Maybe he doesn't draw many westerners because we look Korean. We both have black hair and dark brown eyes. When I gave the picture to Andrew he laughed and said, in all seriousness, "Is this us?" Anyways, makes for a special memory of our first year of marriage and living in Korea.

The 'Korean' Lacy's!

As I mentioned before, the Pohang fireworks festival is going on at the beach next to our apartment. Well, there was a Facebook invite going around that they wanted members of the foreigner community to walk in the opening parade. There wasn't much interest until it was revealed that we would be given a free t-shirt and glow stick. I'm in! Andrew just laughed and said he'd sit out and take some pictures; so my South African friend Kate and I showed up at the designated spot, got our t-shirt, glow stick, and country flag and took our place in the parade! I mean, how often do you get to walk in a parade? And in a foreign country no less?! We had to! All the other acts in the parade stopped and did performances. Sadly, we just walked behind a bag piper from Texas, waving our flags and smiling at all the little kids who were probably wondering why their English teachers were in this parade. The walk was a short 20 min, kind of awkward, but worth the shirt.

That's all for now. There will be one last post before we leave Korea and then off to Europe for just shy of eight-weeks!

"Don't worry, it's just for fun..."

I wish this was taken on the opposite side so you could have seen the crowd!

Short but kind of funny story...

On Saturday, June 29th, I was checking Facebook and noticed one of the girls in my Bible study group was asking for a volunteer to play volleyball later that evening. She said her team was one girl short and needed another player. I wrote back that I would be her last resort and that I was terrible since I hadn't played in three years. (Since the whole Ulsan elementary school volleyball fiasco...)

She wrote back a few hours later saying they needed me to play and if I could show up at Bukbu Beach at 6pm wearing all black, that would be great. Again, I reiterated my lack of ability but she said, "Don't worry, it's just for fun." So I walked the seven minutes to the beach, Gatorade in hand and dressed as a ninja.

When I arrived I saw no foreigners. I assumed because it was "just for fun" we would be playing a bunch of other four-player foreigner volleyball teams. I sat on a bench for a bit waiting until people started showing up. A girl named Paulina came up to me and asked if I was Kelly's friend Sarah, I nodded and she said "thanks for coming." She proceeded to mention that we will be practicing since our game doesn't start until after 8pm. Confused of what she meant by 'game', I asked her. She said, "Oh, we play Korean ajuma's (older women)." Taken back, I asked her to clarify. She said, "Ya, they are really good. We play around 8pm after the boys game."

At this point, I'm thinking about all the ways I can murder Kelly and get away with it. She left out the minor detail that this was a real tournament game with official nets, referees and an ever growing crowd! Being that I am in Korea, I should have suspected something like this. Nothing is ever done just recreational. It's always a serious competition.

I met Meg the other girl on "my team" and we began practicing. After about 30 minutes of hitting the ball around with each other a group of Korean women who we though were our opponents came up and wanted to practice with us. We welcomed the warm-up competition and boy were we terrible. It was clear we had never played together and it took us about 30 minutes to get the hang of things. We began to gain a little confidence in our ability and were getting excited to play this team for real.

By now, we had warmed up for an hour and a half and my arms were already starting to bruise and get tender. The nerves and worry kicked in when our game time neared and the crowed grew bigger and bigger. I mean who wouldn't stop to watch a sand volleyball game where four young American women were playing four older Korean women? It had to be comical.

Turns out, the team we thought we were playing, we were not. We were playing a team that was apparently REALLY good. Just great. They introduced us, we bowed, shook hands and it was game time. I'm literally shaking at this point just hoping I don't get a spike to the face. You see, in Ulsan when I played, it was a nine-man team. Six guys and three of us girls stuck in the back. I never had to touch the ball! But in this case, there were only four of us, so touching the ball was inevitable and taking hard spikes was a reality.

We played to 21 points, best out of three. On their very first serve I pulled my left quad. It should have been an indicator of how this match would play out. Needless to say, the first game was over in about five-minutes as it was CLEAR we did not have our groove. The crowed started to feel sorry for us and turned into a whole section of cheerleaders which was nice! Sadly, we lost the second game as well but we played SO MUCH BETTER. We started to figure out everyone's strengths and Andrew said we actually looked pretty good :)

Considering it had been years since I played I was very proud of myself. Being that we had never played/met before Saturday, our team did better than expected. We hung around after the game and played another 45 minutes to practice before I had to call it quits. My body was aching so bad, the walk home was a bit torturous.

Two days later, I can seriously hardly walk, but look forward to 'subbing' in future games!

Culture in the Classroom

Celebrating with a pizza dinner!

In March I was told that I needed to write a skit so our school could participate in the city wide English play contest. The only guidelines I was given was that it needed to have some sort of message and could be no longer than the allotted five-minutes. Belle told me that last year popular topics included bullying, taking care of the Earth, and Dokdo Island rightfully belonging to Korea and not Japan. With all of these pretty serious topics in mind, I decided to take a risk and go the lighthearted route.

I decided to make my skit about things I experienced as a foreign teacher in Korea. Easy enough right? I mean, I am a primary source for information on this topic. Being that it was only five-minutes and I had never written a play before I approached it like an essay. I mapped out my three main topics, wrote a thesis statement and a concluding line to wrap up my ideas; then, all I would have to do is fill in the details.

The basis of my skit was as follows:

• There are five characters: The foreign teacher, an exchange student from America (Britney), and three Korean students.
• The Setting: The first day of school at a Korean elementary school
• The First Issue: The teacher is wearing her "outdoor shoes" inside and didn't know that "indoor shoes" were a thing. --Korean students politely explain the significance
• The Second Issue: Exacto knives. In Korea, students carry exacto knives around instead of scissors. Something that catches ALL foreign teachers off guard the first time you tell them to "cut something out." --Again, Korean students explain why.
• The Third Issue: Fan death. The foreign teacher turns on the fan because the students are hot but she does not open the window. The Korean students act dramatically about how they are going to die because there is a fan on and no window open to circulate the air so they fear their own fan death (TRUE Korean theory). --The teacher secretly closes the window and Britney points out that the Korean students are all alive.
• The Theme: Explaining differences to other cultures helps us learn new things. You are not right and I'm not wrong in the way we do things, it's just different

Then, Belle thought we needed a song at the end. I agreed so she sent me a popular 30-second commercial in Korea and asked me to change the words. I obliged and it actually turned out really cute! The cheesy song lyrics are below. Feel free to click the link and sing my lyrics instead :)

You and me, you and me.

Korean, Thai, American, cultures are unique.

I'm not right and you're not wrong no matter the technique.

I might think one way is best and you might disagree,

If you are confused I want you to just ask me.

Exacto knives? Alight!

Changing shoes? Allllright.

You and me, you and me, oh ya, ya

You and me, you and me!  Hooray!

Okay, now that you have the gist of the play, let's talk about the casting and practices. In  May, my school had their own speech contest for 3rd-6th graders. Being the only native English speaker I had to judge the three day after school event. Anyone who knows me knows how sensitive I can be. Well, I was beaming like a proud mama while my other co's sat with their stern, serious faces. I cringed and held back tears for the kids that were obviously pushed into the contest by their parents, and lacked all confidence in their abilities.

Their ending pose :)

They were fidgeting, sweating and holding back embarrassed tears of their own. I made it to the last day without tears. And then one of the sweetest sixth grade boys walked in all dressed up. He handed us his full paged English script and began. He made it through about a sentence before what little confidence he had escaped him. I spent the rest of the time feeding him his lines one word at a time, and then when he teared up, I lost it. We were both sweaty (bc there is no AC) and wiping the endless streams of tears that were running down our cheeks.

It took me back to my own speech failures. I relived 7th grade speech and drama class where I had to perform a 5 min skit on my own in front of the class. I didn't eat for like three days prior. I started crying in the middle of it because of my nerves and tried to play it off like it was part of the skit (which no one bought). But we've all been there, and bless his little heart I wanted to show as much compassion and support as I could. However, looking back, I'm sure he was like, "What the heck is wrong with Sarah Teacher? I'm the one messing up here..."

One of our many practices

Ok, anyways, so it was from this pool of participants that we casted our five member play. We had two fourth graders, He Young and Seung Min, two fifth graders, In Ah and Seo Jeong, and one sixth grader Chae Eun. Our practices started May 27th and everyday after school, we spent TWO HOURS rehearsing this five min play. Oh, ya, I not only wrote it but I had to DIRECT it as well. Not my forte but the kids were good sports with me constantly changing my mind. 

My biggest complaint was that other teachers from my school would just wander in, knowing nothing of the plot because it's all in English, and began correcting my students' actions and offering their opinions. The student's were given so many different directions from different people that I could feel their frustration. But in Korean society, the older the person, the more their opinion matters. I had to play the "foreigner card" and wave everyone off. The student's were getting nothing but criticism from people that DIDN'T SPEAK ENGLISH! I really had to hold in my emotions (and vent to Andrew later).

I didn't realize that every elementary school in Pohang would be competing in the June 27th event. Belle told me that last year they did horrible and the other schools were amazing. She said other schools had students that spoke perfect English and they had awesome costumes. I'm thinking, "Oh great." And the kicker, the Principal is putting a lot of pressure on my two co-teachers to make sure we get a medal. We were competing against 28 OTHER SCHOOLS!

Performance time! -Mi Young and I with our "cast".

Fast forward to June 27th, performance day. We arrived at the auditorium, homemade props in hand and nervous butterflies in our stomachs. I tried my best to give as much confidence to the students as I could because two days earlier one of my co teachers went off on the students about how bad they looked and we wold never win a medal...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! We were as ready as we were going to get. When it was our turn, I put on my proud mama smile and my over done cheerleader facial expressions and encouraged them all the way! THEY DID AMAZING! I was so proud and they felt so good afterwards which was the best reaction I could have hoped for. Their confidence level was so high and their smiles were so big that all that hard work had paid off. So naturally, we headed to get pizza and celebrate. 

We won't know the results for a couple of weeks so keep your fingers crossed! You can watch their performance below :)

There's More Than Meets the Eye

We had a three day weekend so we decided to get out of Pohang for a bit and enjoy some time in Seoul. Instead of checking out palaces, temples and museums; we were focused on western food options!

We left about 8:15am on Friday morning to catch the intercity bus that would take us to the closest KTX (high speed train) station. Our only option was to get on the 8:50 am bus to SinGyeongju station because the next bus didn't leave until 9:45 which would have been cutting it WAY to close. We got to the bus station at about 8:45am, just in time to purchase tickets and wait in line. Well, the bus already looked pretty full and we were about 10th in line to still get on. When we finally got to the front of the line to hand the driver our tickets, he told us our only option to get on this bus was to stand. With no choice, we stood in the aisle along side 50 of our closest Korean friends. Picture a smaller version of a charter bus...now picture us standing in the aisle.

It wasn't so bad actually. It was a quick 40 minute ride to the KTX station. We had about an hour to kill until out train to Seoul so we grabbed a quick breakfast and enjoyed the view. This is a new station, less than a year old, and is located in a truly beautiful surrounding.

We boarded the train and 2.5 hours later we arrived at Seoul Station. It was great to be back in Seoul. The city is so vast with more than 10,000,000 million people! We felt like little country Pohang bumpkins visiting the big city.

We stayed at the BOA Guesthouse located in Hongdae which proved to be a smart choice. The hostel was clean, updated, and the location was perfect. After checking in, we decided to venture to Itaewaon, which is also known as the foreigner district. It's always a nice change to be around other foreigners. The citizens in Seoul see foreigners so often that they don't stare at us walking down the street, like we get in Pohang. Our first stop was a late lunch at Taco Bell! And wow was it delicious! After walking around for a few hours, we decided to grab at beer and people watch at a cute little pub.

We went back to the hostel to rest for a bit before heading out to the river to witness all the lanterns lit up in honor of Buddha's birthday. It was SO UNBELIEVABLY crowded, but we managed to snap a few photos. We grabbed a really late dinner at Subway and then headed back for some much needed rest!

We let ourselves sleep in a bit on Saturday morning because we were tired and we really had no plans. We decided to just explore the Hongdae area. It's home to Hongik University and has a real college town feel. Tons of cheap clothing shops, bars, and restaurants for every pallet! Our first mission was to find the "Trick Eye Museum." An overpriced exhibit where you can take pictures with the paintings as if you are a part of them. Well, it took us about an hour to actually find it. Between the terrible internet directions and a little arguing, we finally gave up and asked the tourist center for help. Turns out we were within about 50 yards the whole time.... Again, it was overly crowded but we had a really good time. Check out the pictures below :)

After the Trick Eye Museum, we headed for lunch and then did a little shopping. Went back to the

hostel for a little R&R before bearing the downpour to eat dinner. It rained REALLY hard the entire night which dampened any evening plans. We found a small little burger place then went to a coffee house to people watch. Have you ever walked narrow sidewalks in a city of ten-million while everyone is carrying an umbrella?! Super annoying and frustrating.

We left about 10:30am on Sunday morning and headed back to Pohang. It was a great short little trip and fun to get out of Pohang for a weekend. Seoul really makes our city seem like a small little town; but we do love it! We can't wait to return to Seoul in August and act as tour guides for Brian and Becky!!! We could not be more excited to introduce them to some Korean culture :)

Until next time!!

Just relaxing!

Oh sneaky, sneaky!

Sarah is "big size."

Will you accept this rose?

Spider Woman!

Come on!

Nice trick shot!

   

How cute is this :)

Hey, how ya doin? Thanks for coming out!

Whatcha lookin at?!

 

Yummy!

Just hanging around with a panda.

Oh no! My bags!

Hahahaha!

A DRAGON!!!!

Hi-ya!

Inappropriate...

Oh, hey there...

Chillin' in the pool!

A Blazing Saturday

I had been looking forward to Saturday all week. The weather was predicted to be a perfect 70 degrees and sunny. After such a cold winter, I could not have been more excited for springtime weather. Andrew and I decided to check out a local park to see what it had to offer. After a short 10 minutes bus ride we arrived to be beautiful park, built on the side of a mountain and bustling with kids and families enjoying the beautiful day. We decided to climb one of the hiking trails. Hiking isn't a common past time for Andrew and I but we wanted to get a birds eye view of the beach and coastline of Pohang.

After a while, we descended down the backside so we could walk beachside. We stopped for about 30 min to watch a group of fellow foreigners playing some beach softball. After a while we all started smelling smoke. Looking around we could see some smoke clouds, but we just figured it was burning trash, a common practice in Korea. Andrew and I decided to venture back to our apartment and noticed the smoke clouds getting bigger. It was be becoming more difficult to breathe and ash was beginning to fall from the sky. We decided to run to our apartment to close all the windows we had opened and then venture to see where the fire was coming from.

Walking down our street to find the fire

We walked about 400 yards from our apt and stopped dead in our tracks as we could see a raging fire among the tree tops. We looked around nervously as the other Koreans were also stopped and staring at the fire. Not being able to understand what was being said, Andrew and I became very uneasy. We decided to walk back to our apartment when we saw one of the scariest sites of our lives. It was straight out of a Hollywood movie. The elementary school near our home was directly in the growing fires path. I have never seen flames like that in all of my life. It looked like the school was set in front of a green screen and the Forrest fire was digitally created. I quickly snapped out of that day dream as I could feel the heat from the flames and the loud crackle of the fire moving down the hill to the school. Its next stop was our neighborhood.

Not getting direction from any sort of authority, Andrew suggested we run home, grab a backpack with a few essentials and get out of there. So we ran to our apartment and started throwing in our computer, chargers, a change of clothes, camera, passports, and toothbrushes. As we were leaving, we could see the flames rolling over the hill behind our apartment. That's when it really hit me. This is happening. Our apartment could burn down.

I put the handkerchief over my mouth and we ran out of the building and watched in awe with the rest of our neighbors as the fire trickled down the hill. I had my one moment of panic but Andrew calmed me down. Reassuring me that we were safe and the stuff we had in our backpacks was a bonus. He grabbed my hand and we decided to walk downtown to a coffee shop to see if we could get Internet and find out what was going on.

The scene during our walk downtown looked like a movie set. Between the building gaps, you could see flames and the smoke turned the beautiful blue sky grey. It was so windy that containing the flames almost seemed like an impossible task. Planes were flying over head with their buckets of water and the traffic out of the city was at a standstill. Announcements were being made over the intercom system but being totally in Korean we had no idea what was being said which put me on edge a bit. We made it to the coffee shop but we weren't able to get any information.

Andrew next to our apt watching the firefighters

After a while, we decided to head back with our fingers crossed that everything was ok. The smoke in the tree lines was so thick it was hard to see if the fires were still burning near our apt. When we got to our street, people were still outside but none of the homes or apts seemed to be damaged! The flames were still trickling down the hill but they were containing it! It now looked like hundreds of little campfires all over the hill. The fire department was there with their hoses trying to wet the last bits of dry forest and doing their best to put the fires out.

We noticed people going back into the apartment buildings so we felt safe enough to do so. We had not eaten since 11am and it was now almost 8pm. We decided to get something to eat and get out of the area of our apt once again as the smoke in the air was heavy and my lungs and eyes were beginning to burn.
We we returned, the firemen were still there but we were very confident that everything was under control and the hundreds of little fires had greatly dwindled.

I had such a feeling of humility come over me. A fire, or any natural disaster for that matter, just reassured me that I am really not in control...but I know who is. When we were for sure our apartment was engulfed, I can honestly say that I felt a sense of calmness that everything was going to be ok.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear) but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control. -2 Timothy 1:7

God is out refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. -Psalm 46

You can see how wide the wind spread the fire

Here you can watch a video of the fire from a Korean news team.

6th Month: Recap

Now that we have returned to Korea and are approaching the 6th month mark on February 23rd, here is a poem about all of the oddities that we never thought we would get used to again and some we still don’t understand:

Korea is a funny place, filled with new age and tradition,
Experiencing different cultures has always been our mission.

There are things here and there that just don’t seem right,

*Not my photo*

Some make us laugh while others enrage us to fight.

With so many awful smells we often hold our noses,
Between drying fish, trash and kimchi, we’d rather sniff roses.

Walking the streets you’ll notice one thing can’t be found,
Public trash cans don’t exist but there’s no trash on the ground!

Convert this to memory, you’ll never want to assume,
Bring your own toilet paper into the public restrooms.

Speaking of bathrooms, that’s its own gross situation,
Used paper goes in the trash, are there no laws for sanitation?!

To save the city money, schools aren’t cooled or heated.
We have to suffer in the winter and in the summer repeated.

We teach in thick jackets, scarves, and two pairs of socks,
The kids carry hand warmers and wear gloves to use chalk.

The best thing about Korea, is their public transportation,
Causing many headaches in this developed great nation.

Don’t get me wrong, all joking put aside,
There is no place we can’t go without finding a ride.

The problem is traffic laws equate to merely ‘suggestions,’
Cars, busses and scooters do what they want without question.

The sidewalks aren’t safe and are meant to be shared,
Between cars, motorbikes and people, no lives are spared.

You ALWAYS look both ways when crossing the road
Even on a one-way you can easily get mowed.

In a taxi it’s best to just breathe and close your eyes
All the honking and break slamming, you’re just happy to be alive.

On to the busses; the most interesting of them all,
You are packed like sardines with the goal not to fall.

Whether you’ve waited at the stop 30 seconds or minutes,
No one ever queues and people have no rudeness limits.

‘Bows are being thrown and the pushing’s insane,

*Not my photo*

Old people aren’t against to using their canes.

On the blue or green monster, for only a buck you can ride,
Grab a hold, bend your knees as you’re thrown side to side.

It’s hot and it’s smelly, filled with all different ages
These bus situations often set off my rages!

I’ve come pretty far, but I can’t stand the ‘butting’ in line,
Happens almost everywhere and ALL OF THE TIME!

It’s like they don’t ‘see me’ or think they can just cut,
It’s the older generation that feels entitled to butt.

One thing we have gotten used to but will never make sense,
Is making a laundry schedule, here it’s just commonsense.

There is no such thing as a “quick load of laundry,”
No dryers and cold weather make for quite the quandary.

Many a times, I have left for my school,
With wet pants and/or socks, as I planned like a fool.

Not hours, but days, it takes things to dry,
No more doing a ‘load’, just to get by.

On a positive note, Korea’s internet is fast,
The rate of downloads and surfing’s unsurpassed.

*Not my photo*

With so many cell phones and quick access to the net,
No country takes more ‘selfies,’ I could make a safe bet.

Wherever you go, you can be sure there’s picture taking,
But not of scenery, just themselves, with cutesy face making.

Teens have albums on Facebook, full of self taken snaps,
On busses, in coffee shops, or wearing MLB caps.

Facemasks are worn, no matter the season,
Are they sick? Are they cold? I never know the reason.

*Not my photo*

However in wearing the masks there’s something not understood yet,
Removing the mask to sneeze; not caring who they wet!


Speaking of healthcare, this one still throws us for loops,
Outside of the hospitals, patients will gather in groups.

Not to protest or to complain about care,
But to walk around and get some fresh air.

Now this doesn’t seem odd, no reason for fear,
Till you see them in gowns, IV bags, and drinking a beer.

OK, the beer was a stretch, but this I can’t lie,
We often see them smoking as they wheel themselves by!

With so many more thoughts, there are not enough lines,
To write all them down and create some more rhymes.

This is all in good fun, I will always love Korea,
Returning to teach English was our best idea!

**The comics are curtosey of ROKetship

"I Am Speaking Korean!"

Wow, two posts in one week?! I must be on a roll...

I thought I'd share a funny story from Friday night. If you read my last blog, you know that Andrew and I said no pizza for a month. However, before we even shook on this agreement we had one clause: We could only have pizza if called and ordered it in Korean (another bucket list item: order delivery).

Sadly, it had only been a week into our agreement and we were considering pizza. Before you judge, you have to know that Pohang had a bit of snow on Friday and the roads were covered in an icy mix. Koreans drive crazy when the weather is nice, we were not about to venture out in a taxi or city bus to get something to eat. This is where the clause comes in.

Before leaving school, I had asked one of my co-teachers, Belle, if she could quickly walk me through ordering a pizza. She said I can do it online with Pizza Hut. I thought to myself, this doesn't count, I'm not doing it in Korean. Then she showed me the ordering page and I quickly changed my mind. It was TOTALLY in Korean. Page after page, step after step, I decided right then that we were still within the clause. Belle was walking me through the steps and I was taking mental picture after mental picture to try to remember. Now I can read Korean just fine, but that doesn't mean that I understand it all. When we got to the end Belle said that she could just schedule the delivery for me, to have it delivered to our apartment at 7pm. I thanked her, informed her about our "clause" and said that we had to do it on our own....BIG mistake...

When Andrew and I got home from school, I wanted to show him the convenience of ordering online. We took a vote, and again, decided that we were without our agreement to order the pizza. This was no longer a craving issue...it was about safety, right?

We got on his Mac but sadly discovered that we had to use Internet Explorer to use Pizza Hut's online site. What, how strange we thought....Plan B. I was going to have to call.

We looked up the number and I practiced saying our address like 20 times in Korean. The thing is, I was told by my other co-teacher that delivery people would have a hard time with our apartment because it was a new building and it's tucked away. So I knew if this was going to work, I needed to have my pronunciation down pat.

Nervously I dialed the number. I had thought about my opening statement, "Anyounghaceyo, waygook salam baedal juesayo, Pohang Shi" which means "Hello, I'm a foreigner, delivery please, Pohang city." (Not like they wouldn't haven known by my horrible Korean). Then I was just going to lead with my address and then my order because I would not know which one she would ask for first.

"Ring, Ring, Ring," she answers. I go with my rehearsed line and then start with my address. She starts talking a hundred miles an hour and I have no idea what she is saying. I got nervous and tried my address again. She repeats two thirds of it back to me, incorrectly. Discouraged, I tried again. She says something and then hangs up.

I'm defeated at this point. I thought for sure I was saying our address right. Two minutes later my cell phone rings. I answer it and it's Pizza Hut! And the woman is speaking a little English!! WIN! I say my line, and then my address again, slower this time, really concentrating on my pronunciation. She asked me several times the name of our apartment building, I tell her over and over again and she's still confused. My guess is that she typed it into the system and nothing showed up because A) our building is too new, or B) My pronunciation is so bad she can't decipher what the heck I'm saying. You see, the name of our building is "Castle Ahoe." Even though castle is an English word, Koreans pronounce it differently, so I had to fake a Korean accent saying an English word if that makes sense.

We get through the address and the order and I even pay. She tells me it's going to be 50 minutes. I hang up and then celebrate a little feeling so proud!

An hour rolls around and my cell phone rings. It's the delivery man. He's lost. I can understand what he's asking me, but I didn't know how to respon in Korean, so frustrating and totally my incompetence. I repeat the street name because I know he is somewhere close. We end the conversation by him saying, "Ok, ok, ok." Andrew and I decide to go out and wait for him. Another 10 minutes passes and still no delivery man. I'm feeling so bad for the poor kid at this point. In Korea, delivery men deliver food via scooter. It's like 25 degrees outside and this sweet guy is lost and knows he can't call us back to give him better directions. I see a Korean man walking down our street. I stopped him, pointed to my phone and said, "Pizza Hut, hangumal." (Pizza Hut, Speak Korean)...embarassing Korean, I know. He's waves no and walks away. Two minutes later he comes back. Calls someone and hands the phone to Andrew. The guy on the other end begins speaking great English and then Andrew proceeds to tell him that we need to call this delivery man back, and have someone give him directions in Korean. Andrew gave the guy the number and then the nice man walked away.

We waited 10 more minutes out in the freezing cold. We think we hear a scooter and Andrew takes off running around the corner and was able to flag down the delivery guy. I apologized about a million times and we stuffed a tip into his scooter glove. (Tipping in Korea is not common, ever, but this whole situation was entirely our fault, and this guy deserved every cent of that tip.)

All in all, that pizza was WELL within the clause and I had never worked so hard for a pizza in all of my life. We didn't mind in the slightest that it was cold... YUM!

Random Happenings

It’s been a good month since my last blog. Nothing blog worthy has really happened in the past few weeks but I felt like I was abandoning all of my eight readers.

We are good and settled now, stuck in the inevitable routine. You think when you completely change your surroundings you escape monotony. So not true.

It’s getting really cold. Korea has winters about like the Midwest just minus all the snow with only a few flakes here and there. However, it is making our 45 min walk home a lot less enjoyable. We have caught ourselves paying the extra cash for a taxi or just taking the crowded city bus with all the other frozen commuters.

I am pleasantly surprised that my school has heat in the classrooms, it’s a HUGE bonus! My old school did not and I wore my coat, scarf and gloves all day while teaching. It’s so much more enjoyable to work when you aren’t suffering from frost bite.

Random Happenings:

I found out today that one of my co-teachers, Alice, and I are “runners-up” in a co-teaching video clip contest that we decided to do on a whim. I quote “runners-up” because that is what EPIK is calling it. However, it’s more like a consolation prize for participating because we were on of sixty…haha…runners-up. We were also the only ones from our province, so that has to count for something. Most participants were from Seoul and Busan.; the bigger cities with a lot more access to materials. I’m not making excuses though. Honestly, I wasn’t really proud of what we submitted. We had to video tape a 40 min class, then slice it down to a ten minute clip and submit an essay and our lesson plan. I was in charge of slicing the video clip. It was only the second video I have edited using a free program on Andrew’s Mac. I would like to participate again next semester and put more than two days of thought into what we were doing. If you want to watch it you can, I apologize for the cheesiness in advance. And I'm embarrassed to say that my cheesiness was actually scaled down...

A few weeks ago Andrew got roped into participating in a” teachers dance” for his schools fall festival. Let me tell you, he was super pumped (sarcasm). He would kill me if I posted the video of him dancing, so here is the link to the exact dance that they copied from YouTube. I personally like the wiggle and heart improvisation. Gives the classic YMCA dance some new life.

Andrew and I also started volunteering. It’s been pretty difficult to find a place because of the skepticism they have about foreigners, and it’s understood. But we visit The Deaf and Mute Cultural Center once a week. The woman who runs the place, Mrs. Kim, is so adorable and grateful to have any help. She holds classes for adults and children who are deaf or mute. Andrew and I entertain the children of deaf or mute parents in the back room while they take classes. None of the kids thus far, have issues of their own. The few people that work there, the cook and front desk woman are deaf however. We just hang out, and make up games as we go. Andrew brought Jenga this week and that was a clutch move. I sat and made bracelets with the girls.

Andrew and I also have this "Korean Lifestyle Bucket List" of things we want to do to better ourselves while we have the extra free time here. There are many random things on this list, and we are only in the middle of a few. I am proud to say that as of today, we are 65 days into our Bible reading plan. We wanted to read the bible together, cover to cover. I have an iPad app that tells us which verses to read to finish the bible in 180 days. We have't missed a day since we began! December is also our "no fast food month." This would be WAY easier if we didn't live abroad. This means no McDonald's, not even an ice cream cone, no pizza (my weakness), no quick convenient store junk food to hold us over on city bus trips...nothing! I also just figured out how to make brownies in our toaster over, but Andrew said that counts too...ugh. It's going to be a long month. I should have argued for February.

We found out that our ten allotted winter vacation days are set for January 21^st-February 2^nd. My school ends Dec 21^st. However, I have to come in and teach, alone, to get my contracted 22 teaching hours in. Andrew and I only get Christmas day off. We will both be working Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day…boo.

It seems completely pointless and it is. Most likely, I will be teaching about 6 students for four hours a day, then sitting at my desk until my contract time is over, 4:40pm, alone. This will go on for the four weeks until my vacation. Then, we come back to school for two weeks and the students have another week off for their “spring break” before the start of the new school year which begins in March. I however, will not be getting the week off. I will be coming to school, with one other contract teacher, and sitting for eight hours a day. Unless I can convince them to give me the week off as unpaid vacation since Andrew doesn’t have to go into school….grrr. Does it sound confusing and dumb all at the same time? That’s because it is.

I will try to post again soon. Hopefully something awesome happens and gives me something to write about!

Korean Living: Our Pohang Apt

Sometimes, pictures just say it better. Here are some images of our apartment here in Pohang, South Korea.

This is the view from the hall of our apt. complex, looking into our apt.

Immediately to the right, is our 'living room.' Here you can see our futon and our kitchen table

Here is the other side of the living room. Our kitchen table doubles as our TV stand. Sweet wallpaper huh?

Through the sliding doors of our living room is our laundry room. We only have a washer, Koreans hang dry everything.

View of our kitchen from the futon. Our mini fridge-microwave-toaster oven combo.

Our kitchen. Sadly we don't have an oven or a dishwasher. Just a sink and two burners. 

Our tiny bathroom. Notice the odd placement of the shower head? Yup, between the sink and toilet with no curtain. When you shower in Korea, everything just gets wet and it drains under the sink.

Just to the right of the bathroom is our bedroom. We made those curtains out of felt. The sun was AWFUL before we became crafty! To the right is our "closet." It is really just a floor to ceiling rack. 

View of the other side of our bedroom. Closet on the left, and our "dresser" that we recovered from a school's trash pile. The unit above the dresser is the only air conditioning unit in the apt. There are no heating vents. In Korea, the heat comes through the floor. Notice how close we are to the kitchen? Convenient for a late night glass of water!

I hope this gives you a better indication to what apartment living in Korea is like. Super small compared to the United States, but we make due!