Reunited in Korea

I'm a little late with this post because I've been so busy with everything going on here, but one of the highlights of this past month was having two of my very favorite people from home visit me here in Korea.

I spent this 4th of July making my way to Incehon, where I met Nate and Jess and finally got to see them in person for the first time as an engaged couple.

We spent the weekend in Seoul, where they surprised me with their ability to immediately get started with sightseeing. We were lucky that the weather was beautiful--warm, but not the oppressive Korean humidity that I was afraid of. All in all, we had perfect weather for sightseeing around Seoul.

Gyeongbokgung Palace. 

I love Gyeongbokgung! It made me sad to know this would be my last visit!

Bukchon Village

Although the weather wasn't quite as nice for the rest of the week (lots and lots of rain!), we were fortunate that my middle school had exams the week they were visiting. My co-teacher at that school asked the principal if I could stay with my friends since I wouldn't be teaching that day anyway, and he thankfully said yes. So, instead of sending Nate and Jess off on their own, I got to go with them to Andong. Our first stop was at Hahoe Village, then we made our way downtown for jjimdalk for lunch.

Korea is so green in the summer! The rice is getting taller and taller!

I loved these flowers! They were all over the place for a solid month.

 After lunch we stopped at this famous wood bridge. The fog on the lake was beautiful--a nice perk to the rainy day.

Nate and Jess spent the rest of the week with me in Jeomchon, before going back to Seoul after school on Friday. It was much hotter this time around, but we were still busy exploring the city. We made a stop in Insadong to wear hanboks and do some shopping, then made our way to the other side of the city to check out the Kakao store (yes, this was actually requested...this time it wasn't my doing!)

We found the perfect bar in Hongdae!

On their last night in Korea, we ended our crazy busy day with a trip to Seoul tower. I've been to Seoul so many times that sometimes it's easy to forget just how huge the city is. By the end of the day, we were completely exhausted and even though we had done so much in a short amount of time, it was hard to believe their visit to Korea was already coming to an end!

I'm so thankful that last year I was able to have Megan and Nate experience Korea, and I feel like I hit the jackpot getting to have two more friends come this year. Sometimes I feel like my life at home and my life in Korea are two different worlds, so I love that even for a brief amount of time my worlds were able to collide. So close to the end of my time in Korea, it was nice to see this country through a fresh set of eyes. You truly don't realize how much you adapt to things until someone new points out everything that is different and you think "oh yeah, I remember the first time I saw that."  

It was sad to say goodbye to Nate and Jess at the airport, but at leas this time I could say "see you soon!" Knowing I have these great friends at home has been such a huge comfort in thinking about my post-Korea life, and I'm excited for all of the adventures I will have with them in the year ahead!

The Christmas Season

It's hard to believe that Christmas has already come and gone.  The holidays really snuck up on me this year and overall if just didn't quite feel all that Christmas-y for me this time around. Last year we had lots of Christmas movie nights in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and maybe we should have put in more of an effort to do the same this year, but I think it just got kind of crazy for all of us in town in the weeks before Christmas.

The weekend before Christmas we all had to spend the entire Saturday at the Mungyeong English play competition that all of our schools were competing in.  The whole English play ordeal was pretty much a terrible experience for me--mostly due to the fact that my coteacher dictated how I had to write the play, then did not help me whatsoever with ANYTHING after that point.  I did the entire thing by myself, which is in no way how it's supposed to be.  The whole thing was a big source of frustration for me because the kids and I put in a ton of time to practice, but because he basically didn't care, the end result was noticeably way worse than what the other schools did.  In a lot of ways, I felt like I was set up to fail with a lot of the things that went on, which not only made me upset for the time I wasted trying to work on the play, but also because the kids spent so much of their time practicing and trying to learn their lines, which is obviously not that easy for fifth and sixth graders to do in a language that isn't even their native language.

Anway, I was a judge the day of the competition, meaning that I had to be there not just for the plays the elementary school kids did, but also for the speeches that the high schoolers and middle schoolders did.  Needless to say, this was a VERY long day for me, and on Tuesday I had to go and judge the finals for the competition.  I was happy I got asked to judge because it meant I got to make a little extra money, but I was less impressed with the strong inclination I have that our scores didn't actually matter. I don't want to say too much, but in the end we had a suspicion that we were asked to judge to make it appear more fair.  The whole speech and play competition thing bothered me only many other levels as well, but I will spare you all with the details because I won't want to get to negative and rant-y.Overall I'm just happy that I won't ever have to do this whole thing again.

Thankfully, all of the play madness was over by Tuesday, which was a big relief for all of Jeomchon's NETs.  Wednesday was Christmas Eve day, which is pretty much just an ordinary day in Korea.  However, in the elementary schools it was the last day of the semester, meaning that classes finished by 12:30 and then all of the teachers went to a restaurant for lunch.  Once we got back to school we had a meeting and some time later teaches slowly started to leave school early.  Now, typically when teachers leave I wait for someone to tell me to go home because technically according to our contracts we are supposed to stay at school the whole time.  However, many times the principal or vice principal will tell us to go home and then it's ok.  Since I don't want to get in trouble and assume anything, I will usually just sit there and wait for someone to give me the okay.

Surely at my old school last year they would have told me to go home right away, so I guess this set my expectations a little too high.  Around 3:30 it was only me and the other Korean English teacher (who only comes to that school once a week) left in the teacher's room.  She looked at me and said "did everyone else go home?!"  At which point I replied by saying that I had no idea because I never have any idea of what's happening at that school.  She nodded in complete agreement and we continued to talk for some time, which was nice because I got some interesting insight about how this school compares to others she works at (the kids are way less motivated to learn) and about the play situation (my CT told her he had helped me the whole time....which made her feel bad because she would have helped me if she had known the reality of the situation).

Needless to say, we were both not too happy about being left in the dark and being the only ones left at school, so when 4:20 came around I was more than ready to get out of there.  It was Christmas Eve, but it didn't feel the least bit like Christmas.

Luckily, we had a party planned here in Jeomchon that night.  We were lucky to be joined by not just the people in Jeomchon, but also some friends from the neighboring towns of Sangju and Yeochon. It was similar to the secret Santa type thing we did last year--we all got assigned a person, bought a present for them,then after they opened their present they had to guess who their secret Santa was.  The night was absolutely lovely, and finally made it feel like Christmas for me.

One of our friends who left in August sent us presents.  Nice to know we aren't forgotten by those who left us!

America, Korea, South Africa, and Scotland

Jeomchon's finest ladies

Country count: 7 South Africans, 1 Australian, 2 Canadians, 5 Americans, 1 Englishman, 1 Scot, and 1 Korean.
So lucky to have so many friends from all around the world to be my family away from home.

 We really had a great night, but I tried not too stay out too late because the next morning we were having another gathering at my place.  I was lucky enough to catch a few friends on skype before I went to bed, but it did mean that I didn't get a ton of sleep before waking up for church in the morning.

It was tough to get out of bed in the morning, but I made it to church then quickly walked home after to get my place ready for Christmas lunch.  We had a small gathering Christmas day, but still ended up having a ton of really great food.

After we ate lunch, it was time for some movies.  We spent the afternoon and evening watching Christmas movies (and The Interview, of course), drinking wine, and relaxing.

Our celebration didn't last too late though because some of us had English camp the next day.  

The day after Christmas I had a full day of camp, meaning that I taught fifth and sixth grade for four periods, first and second grade for two periods, and third and fourth grade for two periods.  I love many things about Korea, but they really need to learn to celebrate Christmas for more than one day.  I won't lie, having a full day of camp right after Christmas was ROUGH, but I am lucky that I am done with my camps now.  A lot of people are stuck with weeks of camp this year, so I'm definitely quite lucky in that department.  

Now it's on to a few weeks of deskwarming before I leave on my vacation on January 12th!  

So there you have it, folks! That was how I spent my second and final Christmas in Korea.  Although I wish I could be home to celebrate with my family, I am again reminded of how amazingly lucky I am to have friends who feel like family here in Korea.  

God willing I will be back home for Christmas next year, but I will surely always remember my Korean Christmases fondly.  If I couldn't be with my family at home these past two years, there is no better group of people I could have asked for to be my family away from home.  

A second Korean Thanksgiving

 As you all know, this past Thursday was Thanksgiving.  While last year this was the first time I encountered real homesickness, this year was a pretty different experience.   It’s not that I didn't want to be home for Thanksgiving, because of course I did.  However, I remember last year I had a full day of classes on Thanksgiving Day.  In a number of those classes I was teaching my students about Thanksgiving, which pushed me to the brink of tears throughout the day. 

This year, I wanted to be home, but I was OK with being here.  This year just felt more like “Oh yeah, this is just how it goes.  Everyone at home will be filling facebook and Instagram with pictures of food that I can’t have…but that’s OK. That’s not my life right now.”

Other expats have told me it’s usually this way—your first time away from the holidays is the hardest.  While it’s never exactly the best part of living abroad, it does get easier.

My Thanksgiving Day, or just Thursday, as it’s called in Korea, was just another regular day.  Luckily, Thursdays are my favorite day of the week because I go to my VERY rural school where the classes are small (I teach a total of 15 kids between four classes), no CTs bother me, and I get to go home early.  Since I get to go home early and I knew I would be a little bummed about being away on Thanksgiving, I rewarded myself for completing the day by putting up my Christmas tree when I got home.  I've been itching to put up my Christmas tree for some time now, but I've made myself wait until Thanksgiving, even if my non-American friends think this is the strangest thing.  A Canadian teacher in town was telling me that in Canada once Halloween is over it’s officially Christmas season.  I guess this is kind of true in America too, but there are still plenty of people like myself who hold off on starting the Christmas season until after Thanksgiving.  Nonetheless, although it’s obvious, I guess it never occurred to me that the whole “Your Christmas tree cannot go up until after Thanksgiving” thing is totally an American concept.

After my tree was up, I went to run some errands around town when I bumped into one of my friends.  He decided to join me as I did the rest of my errands, and on our way to Homeplus, we ran into another friend.  Then, once in Homeplus we saw another friend….and then another.  Errands are always more exciting when you have friends there too. 

To cap the night off I had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner of….kimbap.  Ok, so this is nothing special, but that’s because the real Thanksgiving celebration was planned for the next day.  When you have a full day of work on Thursday and another full day of work on Friday, it’s a bit too much to have a big get together on actual Thanksgiving, so Friday it was!

My Thanksgiving dinner. I do love kimbap!

For our Thanksgiving celebration, we invited over everyone in Jeomchon, as well as some of our friends from the next town over.  The dinner was held at my place since I have a larger apartment then almost everyone else in town.  I had some serious doubts about how we were going to fit everyone as all of the “maybe” people began to confirm that they were in fact coming, but it ended up working wonderfully.  We moved my kitchen table into my bedroom to be the food table and everyone brought over their Korean floor tables for us to sit at. 

My bedroom became the food room.

And we all squished into my living room!

We even had pumpkin pie!

It was a lovely night, that truly had that warm holiday feel to it.  Our food wasn't the most traditional, but we did have some of the essentials—stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, and even apple and pumpkin pie. 

This was the first time that we've had such a big get-together in town since all of the farewell parties in August.  Things have been really different in Jeomchon since so many people left, but it was really comforting to have everyone together again. 

Of course, Thanksgiving is always a time of reflection, and I couldn't help but think about just how lucky I am.  These past 15 months have been filled with unbelievable memories. Although life in Korea can seem so normal at times (especially when my alarm clock goes off in the morning), when I step back I am amazed that this is actually my life—that I've actually been working in Asia for the past 15 months, working and teaching students who don’t even speak the same language as I do.  I've seen and done so many things, with only more to come.  I never would have imagined that life would have brought me here, but I’m so glad it did.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was a combination of 8 Americans, 3 South Africans, 1 Canadian, 1 Irish woman (is that the right way to say that?), 1 Scot,1 Englishman, and 3 Koreans.  That means the total number Americans was less than the number of people from other countries—I highly doubt I’ll ever spend my Thanksgiving this way again. Although I will be excited to be home for Thanksgiving again next year, a part of me will we be missing this eclectic Korea family when I return home. 

Thanks to everyone who has loved and supported me through my time in Korea.  I couldn't be more in awe of your unwavering love through this crazy adventure I’m having.

XO

A Random Saturday in Seoul

Last weekend I had originally wanted to go to the Lantern in Festival in Jinju.  Unfortunately, my travel partner had to back out because she had a wedding she had to go to instead.  Not wanting to make a journey that far and expensive by myself but determined not to spend the weekend doing absolutely nothing, I instead decided to go spend Saturday in Seoul.

One of the things I like about living in Jeomchon is that we aren't far from Seoul.  Two hours may seems long to some, but the bus ride always go by quickly (especially since the buses are super comfortable and I usually end up sleeping). Seoul is really easy to navigate and full of things to do, and is one of the places I've become quite familiar with these days.

I took a 9 AM bus to the Express Bus Terminal in Gangnam. I stopped at the bookstore because I wanted to pick up a few new Korean books to help with my studying.  After getting my books and picking up some Starbucks (a given when I'm in the city), I had plans to meet my friend Ji Young in Itaewon.

While I was at Starbucks, I checked my phone and saw she left me a message on Kakao.  She told me that her dad got two tickets to a concert to see Taeyang, a famous K-pop singer, and wanted to know if I wanted to go with her.  I had no idea who he was, but I am never one to turn down a concert.  I told her that of course I would go with her, then quickly texted my other friends to see if they knew who this guy is.

It turns out just about everyone knows who he is except for me.  Taeyang is one of the two very famous leading men from the band Big Bang.  Big Bang is one of the most popular K-pop boy bands, and among the members Taeyang is known for his ripped body...and his nice voice too.  He's had a very successful solo career, which he is is currently promoting on his Rise tour.




The concert didn't start until 6, so I still met up with Ji Young in Itaewon where we were surprised to see there was a huge international festival going on.  There were TONS of people, as well as vendors selling all different kinds of food.  We walked around for a bit, then made our way to a Mexican restaurant (another MUST when in the city).  It was great to catch up over Mexican food and an afternoon margarita--amazingly it had already been nearly two months since we had seen each other.

Surprise festival in Itaewon!

After we finished lunch we made our way to Olympic Park, where the concert was being held.  There were naturally already tons of people lining up, but I was surprised to learn that even though we were in the standing room section, we still had numbers on our tickets.  Turns out that we had to line up in order according to our tickets before entering the concert.  The whole process was super orderly, as things generally tend to be in Korea.

So legit

The show had an early stat time--around 6:00.  There was no opener, and I was a bit surprised to see how small the venue was.  When I think of K-pop concerts I expect them to be held in super huge arenas, packed with fans.  This wasn't really the case.  The venue location itself was pretty small, and there were some empty seats.  However, I should mention that when Taeyang came out Korea's pushing and shoving reached a new level of craziness.  I've been to a lot of concerts in my life, but I've definitely never been pushed like I was by these aggressive teenagers. 

The show itself was pretty much what I expected from a K-pop concert.  Taeyang spent the majority of the show with his shirt off (which I totally didn't mind), but when he was wearing clothes he was dressed in quite the flashy ensembles.  There was dancing, complete with backup dancing girls wearing very little clothing, a section of the show where Taeyang serenaded a member of the audience on stage, a number of costume changes (unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos), and a bunch of screaming teenage girls.  Needless to say, we had a great time. 

Ji Young and I left the show during the last song to try to beat the crowd a bit.  It was a good thing we did because there was a a League of Legends world championship going on, which had a crazy number of teenage boys leaving at the same time as us.

We got on the subway to get our distance from the concert craziness, then found a place to get some dinner.

Dalkgalbi is just the best!!

After we finished dinner, it was already time to get back to the bus station.  As much as I love being in Seoul, I wanted to sleep in my own bed and have all of Sunday at my own place.  I took the last bus from Seoul to Jeomchon at 11:00, and was back in Jeomchon around 1 AM.

Overall, I'm really glad I made the decision to get out of Jeomchon for the day.  It would have been easy to just sleep and watch tv all day, but instead the day turned into an adventure I never could have predicted when I woke up in the morning.  I originally was really disappointed I couldn't go to the lantern festival in Jinju, but instead I ended up checking off something I also really wanted to do in Korea.  It's usually really difficult and expensive to get tickets to K-pop concerts, so it was something I didn't think I would feasibly be able to experience in Korea.  However, sometimes things just fall into place and take you for surprise--days like these remind me of how much I love the opportunities, freedom, and friendships I have in Korea. 

Welcoming 25

Having a birthday at the end of June means that over the years I've experienced all of the benefits of having a summer birthday.  When I was younger that meant being able to run around outside or having the option of doing water activities at my birthday parties.  But most importantly, my June 26th DOB has always meant that I would never have to go to school on my birthday.  I made it all of these years without stepping foot in school on my birthday, but alas! At 25 my birthday fell victim to Korea's summer semester.  I wasn't exactly thrilled to go to school on my birthday, especially since Thursdays are my craziest days.  With six classes, I pretty much don't stop teaching all day.

However, my attitude quickly changed as I went to my first class with my second grade boys.  As soon as I walked in they began singing to me, and shortly after started giving me tons of snacks.  While they may just look like small snacks, have no doubt, these boys take their food seriously.  In fact, after morning classes there is a bread truck that comes to school.  The students all rush there to buy snacks as if it is the most important thing in the world. I suppose when your life is completely consumed by school the little things make even more of a difference.  Regardless, I could really appreciate the sentiment behind their gestures because I know snacks aren't really JUST snacks to these kids.

Some snacks from the second grade boys

The day kept getting better as I met my 1-6 class.  Many of the students came into class normally, but when the bell rang they told me to close my eyes.  The next thing I knew they turned the lights off, were singing to me, and bringing a tower of choco pies with a candle towards me. Needless to say, I was thoroughly surprised, and super touched by their gestures.  They also each wrote a birthday message to me, which I will obviously be keeping with me for forever.

The infamous choco pies

My awesome 1-6 class.  I love these girls!

So many notes.  So touched!

After lunch I went to my 2-5 class where I was surprised yet again.  As I went to the 2-5 classroom I noticed the lights were all off, which made me a bit suspicious.  As soon as I opened the door, all of the girls started singing, presented me with a beautiful cake, and gave me a huge card.  As if that weren't enough, they also decorated the chalkboard.  I was so touched I think I had to wipe away a few tears.

2-5 girls.  LOVE teaching them!!

The giant card from 2-5

Throughout the day students kept yelling "happy birthday!!!!" to me as I walked through the halls.  Aside from these organized efforts, many other students gave me small gifts and notes.

One of the 1st grade boys from my night class and his friend (who I don't teach) came and gave me these.  Yes, that's 100 won and a pen.  They told me to keep them forever and bring them back to America with me.  Oh, boys.  

One of the third grade girls (who I don't teach anymore) found me to give me this.  Too cute!

I spent the entirety of the day feeling incredibly touched, and as I was heading home my co-teacher also gave me a bracelet that she made for me.  I have to say, I never expect anything on my birthday, but I certainly never in a million years could have imagined that my students would even remember my birthday, nevermind make such a big deal out of it.

Bracelet from my co-teacher

This wasn't where my birthday ended either.  After school I went out to dinner with some friends, where they then surprised me with an ice cream cake.  After that we got a few drinks--the evening was quiet and calm, the perfect ending to a great day.

I should also mention my birthday surprises weren't limited to just my actual birthday.  Monday two of my friends (who had a cooking class on my actual birthday) took me out for dinner.  When the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed, we went to Mr. Pizza, where they brought this:

A few of my friends also surprised me with a mini birthday celebration on Wednesday at our bible study group.

Finally, my classes that I had today and didn't see yesterday also made sure to recognize my birthday. 2-4 decorated their blackboard and sang to me, and the 2-1 boys sang to me and gave me some random assortments of food.  My favorite was definitely the bag of cheese balls.  When they gave them to me they told me that I might need to put them in the microwave for 30 seconds because of the humidity.  They then told me maybe they won't taste good, and if they don't, I should throw them away.  Ummm....thanks?  This is just more evidence that teenage boys are teenage boys no matter where you go in the world.

The most memorable part of the day for me was when one my second grade boys gave me this picture he drew of me.  These kids think of everything!

Picture drawn by one of my second grad boys.

All in all, I don't think I've ever felt so overwhelmed with love on my birthday.  I've been struggling to find motivation for school lately, but all of these gestures made me appreciate once again just how AWESOME my students are and how unbelievably blessed I am to have been able to work with them this year. There are some days where going to school feels like a struggle, especially since it can feel isolating at times when I can't communicate with any of my co-workers.  But as I've said numerous times before, these kids are hands down the highlight of my time at school, and my time in Korea as well.   I can't believe my time with them is coming to an end so quickly, but I'm thankful that I'll always have these memories with them.

I think many of my friends and I have been having the realization at 25 that whoa! We're really adults now! It's a little stange, but instead of lamenting this fact, I couldn't feel more satisfied to look back on 24 as the best year of my life yet.  I am happy to welcome 25 with open arms. If it's even filled with half of the love, adventures, and learning experiences that this year was, I will consider myself one very lucky girl.