Eat, Pray, Love: June 2014

My favorite 3rd graders celebrating my 4 months in Korea with me!

So maybe I should just focus on blogging once a month?! Because obviously I am not doing too well at every 2 weeks! It is hard to explain, those of you that blog understand, but life is busy and then when you blog you want it to be done PERFECTLY-to paint the picture for all of you at home. So of course there is never enough time for that...and then I put it off and put it off and then, a month has gone by! ;)

Where do I begin...I feel like the last month has been kinda relaxing...kinda. Or maybe I just haven't traveled as much? I have tried to make more 'me-time' but stuff always comes up (surprised?!). I went to a baseball game with a few friends that have now moved back to Sacramento-it was a great day for baseball. Weather was awesome...the Daegu Lions were on FIRE. In ALL my years of going to games NEVER HAVE I EVER been to a game that was 18-0 top of the 9th...yes, you read that correct! I also got to experience 'musical chairs' at the baseball game. We bought general admission seats BUT they actually oversold those so we decided to just sit wherever...well we got 'bumped' out of our seats 2 times. The 3rd time was truly the charm...they were GREAT seats but I knew we wouldn't get anyone saying we were in their seats b/c we had partial view of home plate haha. We did see some cute kiddos try for signed balls and were only 5 feet away from a lot of the players that came over to talk to them (pics below!). The kids were soooo excited!

I also had some time to do lots of thinking and really evaluate what my plans are for the next 8 months, year, etc. I have talked to some of my friends here and we have all agreed that the 'honeymoon' phase is over. I don't mean that in a bad way, but after 4 months of being here we all know that this is what it is-everyday. We aren't feeling like it is a vacay anymore. We are here to stay. Not to say that something 'new' doesn't surprise you everyday ;) this is Korea after all!

I finally went to the movies here! It was actually great-you get to select your seat before going in. They don't have previews BUT my movie was in English (saw Maleficent). It was a lot of fun and looking forward to many more movies in the future ESPECIALLY since it will be a nice escape from the heat & humidity that has moved in for summer.

I just saw my first cat the other day...it was strange b/c as soon as I saw it I realized I hadn't seen ANY since I got here. Just thought I would share that! Also, some of you have mentioned to me you thought that I taught with other English teachers in my school (Native English Teachers) and the answer is NO. I am the only English speaking 'Westerner' at my school. Some schools have 2 NETs but that is rare (and they are usually HUGE schools). I also don't live in an apartment complex with other NETs...I am SUPER lucky and have 4 other NETs all within a 3 minute walk but again, that is not normal either.

Lots of stuff going on with the fam at home: Mom retired, youngest nephew graduated high school and heading to Navy boot camp, dad turned 70 and my oldest nephew got married! Technology allowed me to be a part of some of these moments ;) I was able to see my mom walk in to her 'surprise' retirement party & witness my nephew exchange vows with his wife-I know I have said it before, but still can't believe how advanced technology is compared to 10 years ago.

Voting Day-we got a random Weds off the beginning of June! Y'all know that I live for days off so I took full advantage and enjoyed a pedi (with some CBTL which I know some of you cannot believe we have in Korea-I am still shocked!).

Got my summer clothes from home-yayayay! Thanks Andrew for hauling the luggage back :) I feel like a new person having a new wardrobe to pick from (& clothes appropriate for this weather)!

Roof-taking full advantage that I have roof access and the awesome lounge chair from Zach. From laying out, to napping, to hosting birthday dinners and hanging out I am stoked to have this available to me! Oh, and the clothesline comes in handy too ;)

Busan-went (again) for the Holiday weekend-Memorial Day. Had a great trip with some of my girlfriends (no baseball and no sunburns this time!). The beach was PACKED though-so different from a few weeks ago when I had gone (I am also going next wkend for the 4th...what can I say, I LOVE Busan!). We hung out on the beach Friday and Saturday-The World Sand Sculpture Exhibition was going on as well. Although I have seen several sandcastles in my day it still amazes me at the detail that goes in to some of these (pics below). We had SUCH a chill wkend-it was great! The weather was perfect Friday and the early part of Saturday. Went to a pretty cool speakeasy bar-I was interested to see how it would be since I have been to a handful in the states. They did pretty good-the entrance was cool (and hidden) and the cocktail selection-well it was legit. I actually got a French 75-was shocked they had it available!

Cultural Field trip complete with a concert from a local band (and they were really good-Hayley and I laughed and said the music was better than the 'music festival' we went to in April!) So basically there was an email that came through, from the Daegu office of Education and I completely missed it, offering this opportunity to us 'foreigners.' I applied and was accepted and get to go on field trips around Daegu for FREE! It is awesome. The first one we went to Seomun Market and it was quite an experience! It was jam-packed and there was so much to see! I was very excited for my fresh squeezed grapefruit juice :) Our next field trip we are going to a temple-cannot to experience that!

Celebrated Summer Solstice with friends and went out in my small, cute downtown (Chilgok). I was a bit bummed the morning of bc I was starting to get sick AND I wanted to be able to 'host' a party like I would back at home...but I don't have all those things I would want to make/prep/bake. I got creative though and put together a little tray of goodies 'Korean' style. When in Rome, right? I went to my little neighborhood market and bought some yummy fruit, and then some of the local Korean sweets. We all hung out for a bit at my place (and enjoyed the roof!), then went to eat Jjimdak-one of the Korean meals I do really like! After dinner we decided to do some bowling. I figured it would be fun, and what better way to people watch :) Let's just say bowling is SERIOUS business in Korea. No joke-you cannot bowl if the person in the lane next to you is bowling (meaning throw your ball). It breaks their concentration...? At first our 'neighbors' told us this and pretty sure they weren't happy about having the 'foreigners' next door/next lane BUT they warmed up to us and would cheer for us when we would get strikes, etc. It was a really fun night and I cannot wait to do it again!

Cultural Differences...just to name a few that stand out:

Hangers-they have the smallest hangers here. Seriously, they are like toddler size...I know that a lot of things are smaller here but still can't get over that one.

The 'peace' sign that you ALL have asked me about in the pictures...it isn't for 'peace' first off :) When you take a picture here they often say 'kimchi' and then put their hands near their face to make it look/appear skinnier.

There is SUGAR in everything. I am in shock at the overwhelming taste of butter in their breads as well BUT even more surprising when you go to eat garlic bread at an Italian restaurant and there is sugar on top...SURPRISE :)

Motorcycles have NO laws here. It is seriously scary how they can drive ANYWHERE. I do question it half the time, the other half I am looking up, down, side to side to make sure I am not going to get hit by one! You laugh but I am SO serious :) They will be on the sidewalk, on the street, will go into crosswalk to get closer to wherever they need to go. My favorite was a few weekends ago I was at this famous marketplace on a Saturday (so crazy packed) and the motorcycles were going down the aisles there-dodging people that were walking-see pics below :)

Smoking-who knew the Koreans (Asia in general so I have been told) enjoyed smoking so much?!?! It kills me-but is really killing them. I should seriously educate them on this. Perhaps I will have some of the info from the AHA San Fran/Oakland office sent to me and distribute accordingly. Sheesh!

I feel like Danny Tanner (from Full House for those of you that don't know). I mean, I have NEVER considered myself a germ phobe BUT it is OUT OF CONTROL here how much I feel dirty haha I am not sure if it is b/c the food is shared in the same dish and you just go for it, or if the no covering mouth when you cough rule is part of it. Or, no soap/paper towels in the bathroom areas, the options are endless. I was at the gym the other day and there was a COMMUNITY water cup. I died when I saw one guy use it, put it back and a few minutes later another girl use it and put it back. Can't.figure.it.out. Hence why I feel like Danny Tanner with my hand sani and trying to not think too much about cleanliness when I am out and about. (for my SF peeps-Muni looks clean compared to some of what I have encountered!) Another funny thing about the gym-people rent gym clothes there. So here I am, running on the treadmill, and I look around and about 80% of them all have on matching clothes. **It is very common to match your clothing with your significant other as I have informed you on previous blogs.

In the Classroom:

I think Korean children are born knowing how to play Bingo and Kawi Bawi Bo (Rock Paper Scissors BUT in Korea they say Scissors Paper Rock-when you say it fast it sounds like kai bai bo). The kids are soooo competitive and since Day 1 somehow Bingo is incorporated in the learning process-ways that I have never even seen Bingo played are played LOL

AND the whole Kawi Bawi Bo...well let's just say that students aren't the only ones that do that. I have seen some of the other teachers do it in the lunchroom for the last piece of (insert food here) and also out and about. It is hilarious and very entertaining!

Okay-teacher friends-do students have a hard time with paperclips? This is something I have NEVER noticed but find it hysterical that my students find it difficult. Another English teacher even posted that their students couldn't figure it out (so I knew it wasn't just mine!) and said there should be a hagwon (Academy) class to show this 'skill'...so it makes me REALLY wonder-is this common with elementary students?! I am really curious so please send me an email or comment about it!

Now, I will say my kids are sooooo observant! I got a new pair of glasses and the first week I wore them at the beginning of class (each class!) a student would raise their hand and comment/ask if I had new glasses. I was impressed-who would've thought something as simple as different glasses they would notice?!

Kids handwriting-it is SO nice here! I mean, not to sound sexist BUT even the boys have beautiful writing! I actually took a picture of one of my students to share. I mean, not only is English their 2nd language (obvi) but they just write it sooooo pretty! I can't write Korean at all...and when I attempt it is NOT pretty that is for dang sure! The students are perfectionist though-even when we are doing a matching exercise in their textbook and you match the word to the picture they get rulers out to draw a perfect line. No joke. I am amazed at how creative they are-I have gotten to see that side in my art and theater after school classes and I am so glad!

Teaching English is difficult but explaining it is HARD! I am not even joking-one of my co-teachers is getting her masters and asks me to edit her papers and when I am going through and changing stuff around she will ask 'why' and I am like 'um, because' haha
We LEARNED all of these rules so long ago I can't even remember WHY we do some of these things. My favorite is teaching my 3rd graders the ABCs. My first day of this (months back now) my friend had sent me what she does for her Kindergarten class. Well, as I started looking over the alphabet and realizing I had to explain the 'sounds' that different letters make that have more than one sound I was a tad overwhelmed (I got over it quickly). I now can sing my ABC song in my sleep...A has 2 sounds...haha AND the poor, confused children toward the end of the alphabet. Explaining X (xylophone) and that Y sounds like 'e' (happy)...I was so proud of them for following along and learning-and I felt better as a teacher! I now want to observe a Kinder class back home and watch them learn the ABCs!

So here is a funny story...I teach Theater as an after-school class and earlier this year I had to submit my 'outline' for the semester. I decided Romeo & Juliet would be a great theme and could discuss the play/famous lines, etc. Well, that was before I realized how difficult this truly would be with the language barrier/level of my students. So, as I was preparing for that class I decided to make the theme 'Love Stories' and incorporated a PPT with Mickey & Minnie, Beauty and the Beast (of course-my fave!), Aladdin & Jasmine and then ended with Romeo and Juliet to go into the story. Well, as soon as we started talking about Romeo & Juliet one of the boys yells out 'Sex story' I was like 'ummmm' famous love story! He said it again and I just moved forward and continued on with the lesson. I was kinda freaking out-imagining him going home and telling his family over rice and kimchi that night that his English teacher was talking about sex in theater class-soooo at the end of class I did a review. 'So class what did we learn about today? LOVE stories. Famous LOVE stories including Mickey & Minnie, Beauty and the Beast, etc.' I wanted to make sure that he left with LOVE on the brain and not sex. So far I haven't heard from his parents so thinking I did okay ;)

You feel like a local celebrity at school. Seriously. As I walk into the school kids are like 'hello Erin teacher' or 'oh look, there's Erin teacher' it can make the dreariest of mornings sunny b/c you realize how happy they are to see you. We had a fire drill the other day and no joke-the classes were all coming back into the building (and I was standing near the stairway 'monitoring' haha) and I wish I would've videotaped the kids coming in. I probably got a couple hundred hellos-from 3rd graders to 6th graders. It makes you feel good-like they do want to learn English (maybe??). It definitely puts a smile on my face!

Soooo we all know I am not the most modest person. And, I have shared that here you basically don't show chest/collarbone practically (cleavage is beyond NOT okay to show) and your shoulders. So, summer is upon us and it is WARM. Remember, they don't always use A/C in classroom. There is nothing better than sweating through your first period class...it has happened let me tell you! So, the other day I am wearing a summer dress with a cardigan (thank goodness it was the short sleeve kind but still-the extra material was not necessary with the heat) and my co-teacher (the younger one) told me that I could show my shoulders-just not in front of the Principal and VP. I was like SCORE! So, I took off the cardigan and taught with a sleeveless dress on. Here is the deal-I felt soooo exposed. Naked. And, this was only having my arms showing!!! Not even spaghetti straps btw-it was a very 'mommy professional dress.' :) Later my main co-teacher was happy to find out I knew the 'rule' of wearing the cardigan to lunch to see P & VP but I really did feel so odd not wearing the cardigan the whole time teaching (although I was much MUCH cooler!). Who knows, I am sure I will get over it, but wow-I can't believe how just in this short amount of time the impact it made on how uncomfortable I felt (and again, this was just showing arms). I think it is different though bc it was my work place. Because when I am at the beach I have no problem wearing the bathing suit ;)

One thing I have struggled with in the classroom is how I can continue to encourage the low level students who FINALLY raise their hands to say something in class, but while calling on them NOT discouraging the very high level students who raise their hands practically before I finish the question. I wish I could call on them all BUT there are only so many questions. I do try to take turns and don't try to call on the same kid if there are others raising their hands that haven't gone yet. It is a hard one and I imagine that teachers everywhere might struggle with this.

The food. I am really over kimchi. And this is super offensive to Koreans b/c they want you to LOVE their food. I try to pick up 2 pieces during lunch and can't even stomach putting one down. Gag. It just isn't my thing. At all. I like my veggies minus fermentation LOL The hard part is my one co-teacher has commented that I don't eat the food like I did when I first got here. Luckily, one of my friends told me the perfect answer for this hard (& sensitive) question. I simply said at the beginning the food was new and now it isn't. Not sure how she will take the news if I decide to opt out of lunch completely 2nd semester!

My '100 Happy Day' posts are almost coming to an end. I have loved being able to focus on what brought me happiness, or even a smile, that day versus the frustration that might've occurred. With reflection I have also realized the things I do appreciate from home. Still not 'missing' much (maybe that dryer so my towels are soft! haha) but it is a wonderful thing to think about the things we sometimes take for granted. A friend posted a shirt on Instagram a few weeks ago and I loved the saying-Everyone was born to make some sort of impact: Embrace Yours! I told you I have had a reflecting month and this is something awesome to think about. Another quote I just saw this week (thank you Teddy Roosevelt) was 'Comparison is the thief of Joy' and I feel like that is such a powerful statement in such a few words!

I finally feel like I know where I am going when I walk out my front door. I feel familiar with the area, and know a few ways to get to point a, b, or c. I can get into a cab and (most of the time) get myself somewhere. This is such an incredible feeling. I can only imagine how I will feel as more time goes by. I still have so much exploring to do and look forward to the next month to do just that-explore!

Mark Twain said it best: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.