In no particulat order, the following is a complilation of pictures of our lives thus far in Korea.

Halloween at our school

We Hiked a mountain in Korea. Justin knows the name, but I forget. It was not exactly what I was anticipating. I imagined sweating and pushing my body to the limits at we scaled the mountain. While we were on the bus, my expectations seemed to be correct because all the other Koreans who were mountain climbing were dressed in hiking gear, boots, and walking sticks. I felt a little unprepared. But to our surprize, the mountain was fully equiped with a cemented side walk and wooden stairs. There were even bathrooms the whole way up.
Our city down below, if you can see it through the pollution. This is why I think I've been sick for 4 months. Someone told me a lot of the pollution comes over from China.

An average city street.

I keep telling my kindergarden kids that Korea is a very small country,

but it has more people than Canada.

Some of the local beverages.

We visited the island of Jejudo on our summer vacation. It was beautiful, some people compare it to Hawaii. These are grandfather stones, that are really famous on this island. Our entire stay there we just laid on the beach. We made plans to climb a mountain and explore lava caves, but just couldn't pull ourselves away from the beach.

This is one of the stinkiest things in Korea.

Bundegi, silk worm larva, just imagine what that would smell like heated for hours.

A monk playing the drum at a Buddhist temple in Insadong.

He could really jam.

These women are wearing traditional handboks at the Korean folk village.

This is Lisa, my favorite kindergardener.

I know I'm not supposed to have them, but just look at her. I love my job.

We went and had a picnic at the Han River. It was beautiful. Everyone had kites.
These are ahgeemas, old Korean women, they love to cover up and wear huge visors,

so as to not get any sun.

The night sights of Busan.

We spent the weekend there for an International Film Festival.

On a field trip.

Joy's Kindergarden girls on Chusok

Some local shops.

The Korean sandwich, Kimbop.

Some sights in Insadoong.

Korean Folk Village.

Golden Buddah on the top of a mountain.

Joy's visit to the island of Wando















Just beautiful.

Justin has a taste.

Writing Takes More Effort Than Teaching Leaves Me

So here are some pictures. And videos.

Interlude

We went on vacation. We'll tell you about it soon.

Running with Chopsticks

So, I've been informed I don't update enough.

Probably true.

Well... definitely true.

Sorry.

So we've officially been here a month. Insane. The weeks absolutely fly. Working at GKI is amazing. I was leaving the kindergarten building yesterday when, for some reason, I started thinking about the jobs I'd probably be doing if I were back in the states. Bleh. Nothing good. Instead, I get to play with Korean kids and teach them the difference between "too much" and "too many." Yeah!

Joy and I are so lucky to be where we are. I've heard some horror stories from the other teachers about previous experiences in Korea, or about friends who've gotten the shaft. It's been nothing but good so far.

We're especially lucky to have landed a school with such a great foreign staff. The other teachers have been nothing short of super-fantastic. They take us where we need to be, answer our questions, hang out with us like every night. It's been quite a welcome. I imagine the transition would've been much rockier without the support they've given us. We're making some good friends.

Ummm... I'm sitting here trying to think of funny things that've happened in the last three weeks. I'm just gonna write 'em as I think of 'em.

So, last night a bunch of us went and go wings in Itaewon, which is basically the foreign ghetto (for us the place most like home in seoul). On the subway, this old guy leaned over to Joy and started gibbering something to her in Korean. Weeelllll, needless to say, Joy had no idea what was going on, and the rest of us just kind of smiled and laughed, happy we weren't being singled out. Thankfully, our friend Tae was with us, and he speaks Korean. Apparently, the guy was asking if Joy was a student. Tae told her she was a teacher from America, and the guys eyes about came out of his head. I really don't know why. It was funny though. He just kept staring at Joy like he couldn't believe she was really standing there in front of him. And he didn't seem to understand that she no idea what he was saying. After Tae talked to him, he was quiet for a while, but he wouldn't stop staring. After about ten minutes, he started trying to talk to Joy again and get her to translate one of the English headlines in his newspaper into Korean. It was funny.

Also, when we first got here, I was aware of Koreans always staring. Mostly, you get the stares if you're by yourself or traveling in a herd with other foreigners. Now, though, I notice Westerners stare far more than Koreans. Actually.... I should rephrase: we Westerners stare at each other. I was talking about the staring with Kenna, one of the other teachers, the other night, then last night in Itaewon, we started laughing cause we realized we were staring at everyone. It's just so weird to see Westerners now. It's jarring. Korea is such a homogenous country.

What else...

I have a Palestinian friend! Friend is a relative term, actually. I've talked briefly to him twice. He works at/owns (I don't really know) a Middle Eastern restaurant in Itaewon. I went there the other day to smoke hookah and talk with him, but he didn't show up til I was about to leave. I'm hoping to work on Arabic there eventually. Learning Korean's probably a bit more pressing though, huh?

Alright, that's enough for now. If I try to recap 3 weeks, I'll be here all night, and you'll be bored. I'll slap up some pictures, and try to update more regularly. Cheers.

Dangling window-washers.

Olympic Park

Dinner

Rice

Chris, Lynn, Aden, Duke, Jim, Ryan, June, Dana

Joanne, Aaron, Alice, Julia, Judy, Carrie, Alex, Chris, Peterpan (seriously), Pete

Lynn, confused about Teacher wielding a camera

Joy with her kindies

Annyong Haseo

So, we've been here a week, and it feels like we've lived here a good two months. Time, of course, has been completely screwy from the jet-lag. The first four or five days, I woke up at 2 a.m. and then 5 a.m. regardless of the time I went to bed. We're adjusted, though. Finally.

We arrived here on Wednesday (25th), and on Thursday and Friday we observed other teachers in the classroom. Observing was really our only formal training. When we came in on Monday, we were given a (giant) stack of books and sent to tame GKI's hoardes of unruly Korean children. If I've learned anything in the past week, it's that every day is different. Tuesday I might go in and all my kids will be agreeable and eager to please Justin Teacher, then Wednesday, all of them will be pissed about English and the fact that I am forcing them to learn it. For the most part, though, they're all really good kids. If I didn't have to teach them anything, I'd like to just sit around and talk to them. They're really nice. And fun. And, actually, I feel bad for them a lot of times, because Korean culture demands so much of them. Yesterday, I asked my last class what they were doing after GKI let out, and most of them looked up wearily and mumbled, "study." A few kids had to go to another hagwan after GKI and wouldn't get home until like 11 p.m. (sidebar: GKI is a hagwan, a kind of private school that specializes in a subject. GKI is an English hagwan, but it shares a building with a math hagwan. There are sports hagwans even.) They're some good kids, though, so I try to make their English learning as comfortable as possible.

We teach kids of all ages, which is good and bad. I like getting to interact with so many different ages, but I hate trying to teach the younger kids. They're insane. Lovable, but insane. Joy mostly teaches Kindergarten (four hours in the morning), but also some older kids (I think second graders for two hours in the afternoon). I teach across the whole spectrum. I have kindergarten in the morning, first and third grade in the early afternoon, and sixth/seventh grade in the late afternoon/early evening. We work from like 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. everyday.

Some of you have probably heard about the protests in Seoul over their president's decision to allow American beef into the country. People are going bananas over here because they swear American beef is infected with mad cow disease. It's nuts. Our kids are so adamant that they'll get mad cow if they eat meat from the US. We argue with them like everyday, and always it's, "Teacher, teacher, noooo! Crazy Cow. Is bad meat!" Weird. We try to explain that we were eating that meat like ten days ago, but they just won't listen. It's pretty intense. Here's one of the funny protest posters you'll see around the neighborhood.

They have some other funny superstitions over here besides the beef thing, too. Take fan death, for instance. The other teachers tell me that newspapers have actually reported on fan death - it's that believed in. Fan death occurs when a person goes to sleep with a fan on in their room but with all the doors and windows closed. That's it. If you leave a fan on with no windows or doors open, you will die. And they believe this. And newspapers report on it. And it makes me so, so happy. I also heard they believe if rain falls on your head you'll go bald. I love it.

Sooo.... we've been having a lot of fun, so far. Work is exhausting, but it's far from terrible. I enjoy it. I love the kids, and its definitely preferable to a job making someone's coffee in the States. We have everything we need just a few minutes travel around us. The food is delicious and plentiful and cheap, cheap, cheap. Our apartment is not luxury, but it's not infested. It's a good little home only a few minutes walk from GKI. All things considered, we're settling in nicely, and it'll be great once people start coming to visit. I'm making a list of all the foods I want you to eat and the places I want to take you, so get ready.

We'll report again, soon. Maybe an all-photo post. Until then.

(The pics are 1. our meal at a Korean BBQ 2. the protest poster 3. a korean restaurant sign by GKI 4. our bathroom window)

24 hours til take-off

We leave tomorrow. I have no comment on this event. Joy is forcing me to update.

Let's wait until I have the lay of the (Korean) land, then I'll comment.

See you all on the other side.

Almost There

In a little over 30 days, we're going to send away for our E2 teaching visas, and in two and a half months, we'll be on a plane for the ROK.

Starting in June, check back for regular updates on our new life as Asians.