Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Christmas Tree!

We have a tree! It's only about four inches tall, but with blinking lights, a toy train, and presents, it's very cute.Thank you Aunt Lydia and Uncle Brian!

anniversary

William is finally back from the field again. He got back just in time to celebrate our first anniversary yesterday! We celebrated by going shopping and eating dinner at a Thai restaurant. Each time we eat out now we go to Thai restaurants because we like the food so much better. I found an Indian restaurant that we'll hopefully try soon too.

This is the result of our shopping. For the first time in my life I own high heels! They're surprisingly comfortable and not hard to walk in. Korean women older than school age and younger than senior citizens tend to wear high heels just about everywhere, so there are hundreds of styles to choose from. I personally think it's too cold to wear them right now, but I also don't walk around in skirts and tights when its only twenty degrees outside. I frequently see men, women, and children who have on no hats, no gloves, and often not even winter coats. It's no colder here than at home, but it's still cold enough for all of those things! I usually look like Nanook of the North by comparison and I'm still cold, but I'm excited to try out my shoes when it warms up again.

These are the custom-made shoes that William ordered a few weeks back. Next he's getting a navy blue pin-stripe three-piece suit and a topcoat. Hopefully he'll have somewhere to wear them once he's out of the Army.

I miss Christmas!

It doesn't feel like Christmas season. Koreans celebrate Christmas, but there are no lights, no trees, few decorations :( Some stores have decorations inside but none outside. It's not festive at all and doesn't seem possible that Christmas is only nine days away.

more food

I went to lunch with my "teachers' class" today. Each time I go out to eat I think it can't be worse than the chicken feet incident, but it can. We went to a sashimi restaurant. I've never been very fond of seafood, with a few exceptions like salmon. With the teachers all watching me and telling me to try this and that (and actually putting things on my plate whether I wanted them or not) I felt obliged to try things I never would have considered putting in my mouth previously. But, I can now say with certainty, I don't like most seafood. The flavors weren't all bad, but I can't handle the textures.

The thing I absolutely refused to try, and don't care if I offended anyone by not trying, was crawling off the plate as the waitress set it on the table. I believe it was very recently cut-off octopus, or possibly squid, tentacles. Just looking at it made me want to gag so I kept my eyes down. By the time that came I had already tried squid, shrimp, octopus, eel, crab, raw fish and fish skin, and other things I did not even want to identify. I figured I'd tried plenty already and something alive and squirming was just too much.

One of these days William needs to be with me so that he can enjoy all these wonderful new foods too. I came home and had a couple homemade banana chocolate chip muffins. I needed comfort food!!

mountains

Here are some pretty pictures from a mountainous ride we did on Sunday with another cyclist William met recently on base. I think Pyeongtaek is in the far distance in this first one. The fall colors are still around in some places.


There are two interesting towers on top of the mountain below if you click on the picture to open it full-size. We were told it's a park at the top so I'm not sure what the towers are for.


The climb after it had started to flatten out. It wasn't very long since it took less than 10 minutes to ride up, but it was steep in a few parts with some fun switchbacks for the decent.

Songtan

On Saturday William and I went to Songtan to do some shopping. Osan Air Base is there so shop owners are more likely to speak a little English. Plus there are a few great Thai restaurants we've tried. It was really cold for walking around outside, but we had a nice day nonetheless.

We went into a couple tailor's shops and found one, Mr. Bo's G.Q., that does custom suits. William could get a three-piece suit with really nice fabrics for $200. Not bad! An Army Captain was there who said he'd previously ordered seven suits and gave a glowing recommendation. William will probably do a suit later, but he got sized for a pair of shoes from the man who shares the same space as the tailor. If William wants to buy any shoes while he's here he doesn't really have a choice other than custom because men's shoes off-the-shelf are huge. I doubt the shop had any smaller than a 12. The men don't seem to have particularly large feet, I think they just wear their shoes too big. Later we noticed a guy whose shoes were all curled up because his feet obviously weren't in the ends of the shoes at all.

As we were leaving I asked if they knew of any similar places for women. It turns out they make women's shoes too. All I have to do is bring in photos or pictures from magazines of shoes I like. He seemed pretty confident that they can make any shoe. So, Kim, if you come to Korea and want some nice shoes then bring some pictures of your favorite shoe styles with you :)

The two guys who owned the store were cool. We liked this place better than others we'd been in because Korean shop owners tend to hover and follow you around the store. I'm sure it's a cultural thing, but it drives me nuts. I don't like feeling as if I'm being hunted as I shop. I prefer to go in and look on my own and if I have a question I'll ask (or try to with the minimal Korean I've learned), otherwise leave me alone. It wasn't a big shop but these guys let us walk around and look and didn't try to push us into buying something (also pretty common).

the hat

We're wondering how long he'll get away with having a moustache.

happy Thanksgiving

William technically had the day off, but he had to go on base to serve lunch to his men while wearing his dress blues. Then he had a Company gathering, so it wasn't really a day off for him. This picture is from July at Fort Gordon because I don't have a recent one in his dress blues. I need to get one when he's wearing the hat...it's great! He thinks he looks like a train conductor or a pilot with the hat on.

Even if I'd wanted to go to the Thanksgiving meal on base, I couldn't because I didn't have the day off school. So, when I got home William and I made his mother's vegetarian stuffing.

That was the extent of our Thanksgiving celebrations. I hope everyone enjoys their family gatherings! I wish we could be there.

Happy Birthday Mom and Uncle Brian!

food

Today during school lunch I tried one of the worst things they have made the whole time I've been here. Just as I was going to try stealthily spitting it back out (yes, it was that bad), my coteacher looked over and asked if I liked the fish. I'm sure she could probably tell from my face that the answer was a resounding NO, at least for this particular fish, whatever it was. The thing was, I didn't even eat a piece of the fish. It was a stew of sorts and I was trying one of the vegetables in the stew, but the fishy flavor was so overwhelmingly strong that it had permeated everything in the stew. I do like some fish but this was awful! I kept it in my mouth though and quickly swallowed to get rid of it as I shook my head "no" to my coteacher as politely as possible.

snow

We had our first snow flurry in Korea this afternoon. We went from 60 degree weather last week to snowflakes today. I already miss the warmer weather :(

not much new here

I've been too lazy to post anything lately. Other than going to school and then coming home to relax in the evenings, I didn't do much last week. This weekend William and I stayed in and watched movies we'd downloaded to our computers. I know we should be going out but it was nice to stay in, especially since it was a rainy weekend. We did go to Itaewon a couple of days after I went to Dongdaemun. Itaewon is an area within Seoul. This is a view of the N Seoul Tower from the train.We walked around the main shopping street for awhile then ate dinner at a Thai restaurant. The Itaewon area had quite a few western stores interspersed with Korean shops. There were several men's tailors so if William wants to get a nice suit while we're here, this will be the place to go. I liked these because the uncut fabrics are out and neatly arranged for men to browse and pick what they want for a suit. The shops looked very professional and had really nice fabrics.

The main shopping street was lined with big Sycamore trees interspersed with bright yellow gingko's (fan-shaped leaves). The fall colors in Seoul arrived sooner than they have in Pyeongtaek. We finally have some fall colors now, but mostly the yellow gingkos.

On the train on the way home I snapped this picture of the Han River and Seoul skyline.
And here's a photo for Lana, who was sad that there had not been any photos of William yet :) Sorry, I tried to get him to smile.

dongdaemun market

I spent yesterday with three other English teachers in Seoul at Dongdaemun Market. This first picture is the Great East Gate, or Dongdaemun, and was one of the first things we saw after coming up from the subway. It was first built in 1397 and rebuilt in 1869 in its present form. It was once the main eastern gate in the wall surrounding Seoul and is one of only two main gates that have survived. There were three until February of this year when the South Gate, Namdaemun, was set on fire by an arsonist. That made news in the States because I remember reading about it when it happened.
Dangdaemun is one of the largest shopping centers in South Korea, so we spent the walking around and shopping. I'll definitely go back again by myself or with William because the area is huge. We probably didn't even see a quarter of the market. Both sides of this canal are lined with hundreds of shops in both directions from where I was standing and it fans out from the canal. There are also large shopping centers that run underneath the roads and buildings.

This colorful street is probably heaven for Korean tailors. There's fabric, thread, buttons, zippers galore...in shop after shop after shop.

bus drivers

There are some really bad bus drivers here. They constantly run red lights and move into the opposing lane of traffic whenever it suits them. And I think some bus drivers try to see how many passengers they can knock over when the bus is packed with people standing. Either that or they don't know the meaning of gradually slowing down and speeding up. Today's bus driver was especially bad! I'm surprised a few gray-haired men and women didn't fall and break their hips.

weekend stuff

On Friday I celebrated Halloween for the first time in years, which is a little odd since I'm in a country that doesn't actually celebrate Halloween. My coteacher told me that until a few years ago Halloween was a foreign concept to most Koreans, but as more and more foreigners come to teach English it is becoming more well-known. The event I went to was on base and American and Korean kids from the nearby community were invited to come trick-or-treating for a few hours. There was a costume contest, a band, and some other things going on in addition to the trick-or-treating, but for the kids it was all about the candy.

I went straight from school so I wasn't dressed up, but some of the kids had very original costumes. I'm still bummed that I didn't think to get my camera out. The best costume was this one little Korean girl who dressed up as a present. She had a small box around her middle (her arms were free and the box stayed up on its own) that was wrapped in birthday paper, then she had a big curled ribbon in her hair right on top of her head that really was wrapping ribbon, not a hair ribbon. It was a great costume, plus she was an adorable little kid.

After not doing much yesterday I went out for a nice lunch in Pyeongtaek today with some of the South Africans I met at the teacher orientation recently. We ate at a Pacific Northwest Canadian-style bistro. I'm not sure what made it "Canadian-style", but that's what the sign said. They had a wide variety of foods, from pork ribs and other meat dishes, to pasta, seafood, pizza, and fajitas, so maybe someone else can tell me what's Canadian (or Pacific Northwest) about any of those. I had chicken fajitas and even tried a couple pieces of chicken until I bit down on something unnaturally crunchy and that was the end of that. I finished off all the veggies and the others ate most of my chicken.

It was a fun time and nice to just sit and talk. We sat at the restaurant for quite awhile then went to a Dunkin' Donuts nearby for some coffee/tea and dessert. I had a muscat black tea that was very nice. There were several tea choices I've never had before. I'll have to go back soon to try the chrysanthemum tea. I almost tried it but changed my mind at the last minute. I wonder if it's like eating dandelions :)

In case you're wondering, William has been out in the field again for the past week (with another week to go), so that's why he didn't join me for anything in this post. This will be a recurring theme for at least a couple more months, or so the Army says.

candy

It turns out my students can be bribed pretty easily. Since Halloween is coming up I'm doing a Halloween lesson this week for fun. I went to the Commissary on base and bought a lot of candy, like Snickers, Milky Way, Twix, etc., thinking that maybe some of the students have never tried some types of American candy.

All I had to do was say, "When you finish this Halloween crossword puzzle, come show it to me. If you say Trick-or-treat you can get some candy." The puzzles were done in record time! I had several students get back in line to try to sneak another piece of candy, and a few who tried to grab multiple on the sly. They're teenagers but say the word candy and their faces light up like they're little kids again :)

I feel a little bit bad about the bribery, but in the end maybe they learned some new Halloween vocabulary. Even my co-teacher has endorsed giving out small treats, so that makes me feel a little bit better about it.

field trip

Yesterday I went on a field trip to Seoul Land, an amusement park, with the first graders. No teaching again, but I knew about this ahead of time. I think it was Student Day at the park because there were kids in uniforms everywhere, of all ages. The really little kids were adorable in their uniforms!

Going on a field trip here was very different from my field trip experiences as a kid. First, every first grader in our school went at the same time on the same day so we had a convoy of 10 greyhound-style buses headed from Pyeongtaek up to Seoul. I don't know if permission slips were required from parents, but there were no chaperons except the teachers (maybe 12 of us) for about 400 students and the minute the kids got inside the park entrance they were off. There was no staying in prescribed groups or with buddies or anything like that. The kids went off and did their thing while the teachers gathered for lunch, after which the teachers did their own thing and didn't worry about the students at all. They were in a park where it was mostly if not all students and teachers, so it wasn't unsafe except for the normal trouble boys can get into anywhere they go, but it was just weird. The field trips I remember as a kid were always pretty structured and if you were given leeway to go off on your own you usually had to check back in at least once during the day. Not here. They had free rein of the park all day.

As we walked to a park restaurant for lunch I saw kids with corn-on-the-cob on a stick which looked really good, but I didn't know if I was supposed to stay with the teachers or not so I continued on to lunch with them. Later I wished I'd said I was getting the corn-on-the-cob. The food here is not growing on me. Every once in a while there's something really good, but this lunch was not one of those times. We sat down to a table set with a broiler full of raw beef, onions, long stringy mushrooms and some greens, which was cooked when we sat down. There were some sides of kimchi, some brown jello-ish stuff, some lettuce leaves, green chili peppers, and rice. As much as I still don't want to be eating meat I still try the various meat items at school in small quantities, so I tried this also. It wouldn't have been too bad except there was so much fat left on the meat! If it had at least been lean I think I could have eaten more of it, but as it was I ate a small amount just to be polite, then mostly ate rice wrapped in lettuce leaves and some of the jello stuff. It looks a lot like jello but it's made out of acorns, is a not-so-pretty brownish-gray, is salty not sweet, and was drizzled with hot red pepper paste. This was one of those things that was better than it looked.

I've done food so here's a cultural thing. It isn't uncommon here to see friends walking arm in arm or holding hands. This goes for women, girls, and boys (not so much for adult men). The idea of personal space here is not the same as it is back home. Kim and I were always together growing up, but we never walked around holding hands or with our arms around each other everywhere we went. Even William and I don't always hold hands when we're out, but I've become used to seeing grown women and children walking around in this way. After lunch, several of the teachers wanted to see "Grease: The Musical" playing at the park theater. This didn't sound appealing so when Mrs. Ta, one of the teachers I'm helping with her English, suggested going for a walk I was all for it. We walked all over the park and even left it for awhile to go to The Korean Museum of Contemporary Art nearby. Off and on throughout the day as we attempted to converse she would put her arm in mine or hold my hand as we walked. I'm sure this was a completely natural thing for her, but it was awkward for me since I don't know her very well and it's not something I'm used to doing. But, as awkward as I felt, it was nice to know that she felt comfortable enough to treat me as she would a friend.

It was a fun day but in the end I was a little disappointed about not riding any rides. There was only one roller coaster so the line was huge all day. None of the other teachers rode anything either. At the very end of the day Mrs. Ta and I stumbled across this ride, which was a favorite at King's Island! I wasn't surprised to see the roller coaster and other festival style rides, but I never expected to see a log flume in Korea.


One last food thing I just remembered: if you don't know what a cuttlefish is, look it up online because it is an amazing animal that I can't imagine ever eating. But, I saw a food stand at the park labeled, "butter baked dried cuttlefish." Definitely not something you would EVER see at an amusement park back home! They did have the normal fried foods, ice cream, popcorn, and candy stands to go along with the cuttlefish :)

Here's one last pretty picture from outside the art museum.

no classes, again?

I am continually amazed by the number of days that I don't do any teaching. Yesterday I walked into my first period class as the traditional Korean music that serves as the bell "rang" and was surprised to find a completely empty classroom. I stayed, thinking maybe the students were delayed in homeroom, but no one ever showed up. At the end of the period I learned from my co-teacher that all 3rd graders had a practice exam of some sort so I had no classes to teach all day. I haven't taught a Wednesday class since September 17th. That was five weeks ago! Keep in mind that I only see my students once a week, which means I've only seen the Wednesday kids three times since I arrived here about seven weeks ago. As little as they've seen me, I would be surprised if these students even remember my name.

At least they all recognize me. Some say what they can whenever they see me, which usually entails a "Hello, how are you?" from me, with a "Hello, I am fine, and you?" from them. Many are too shy to say more even if they can. Sometimes when I ask how they're doing, students will run off laughing to their friends to find out how to respond, then come running back with the answer. They may be loud and don't always listen in class, but they do keep me amused :) On my way home on the bus today I was a couple stops away from school when I looked out the window and saw a few of my students standing at another bus stop at the same time they saw me. They all yelled "hello" and waved. It was pretty funny and several people on the bus laughed as I said hi and waved back before the bus pulled away.

a cute video

Kiwi!

This video was shown to the teachers at the native English teacher orientation. It was used as an example of ways to get the students speaking English by talking about it afterwards.

Sarah seongsaengnim

That means "Teacher Sarah" in Korean. I learned this during four days of native teacher training I attended this week with about 250 other foreigners who are all here teaching English as a second language. I haven't heard my students call me seongsaengnim (pronounced song-sang-neem) because they call me "teacher" in English. "Teacher" is one English word my students know so they use it a lot, and only a few ever say my name.

The training provided some perspective on teaching here and made me realize I'm not alone! Most of the other teachers are in the same position I am....large classes, seeing the kids only once a week, loud and disruptive, etc. I actually seem to have it pretty good based on some horror stories people told. At least I get along with my co-teachers and my main co-teacher tries to help me as much as she can. It sounded like some people don't have good relationships at all with their co-teachers. The lectures were mostly fun to attend, and I only felt like sleeping through one incredibly dull one. I learned a lot of creative ways to try to get the kids to speak English in class as well as ideas to use for lessons.

The best part was the new and interesting people I met. It never occurred to me that the other native teachers would be from so many different countries. I met Australians, British, Canadians, New Zealanders, and South Africans. We were divided into groups based on the regions where we're teaching, so I met all the people who are in cities/towns near here. We had a fun group made up of one Australian, four South Africans, five recent graduates of the Univ. of WI-Madison (whom I spoke with the least), one New Yorker, and myself. Two of the girls are actually teaching here in Pyeongtaek and the others aren't far away by train, so we've all exchanged information to stay in contact. Yey, I have some new friends in Korea!

air show

It's been a long day! I just got back about an hour ago from the air show and I'm downloading my photos now. I need a camera with a good zoom for events like this. I'm sure many of my photos aren't any good. The planes looked so close as they flew past, but they looked minuscule on the camera. I took some video toward they end when they did a mock rescue of a downed soldier. It involved four A-10 Thunderbolt's, four F-16 Fighting Falcon's, and two Black Hawk helicopters, so it was by far the coolest part of the whole day. Prior to that, there was a lot of lull time in between things happening in the air, so not quite as fast paced as I was hoping. An air show should have stuff going on IN THE AIR the whole time, or at least most of it. This didn't, but there were lots of planes, helicopters, and other equipment parked around to be able to see them up close, and you could get in some of them. I think I got some pictures of the U-2 spy plane in the air, but if they didn't turn out I got some pictures of it on the ground too.

I started to get a little irritable as I sat there people watching (nothing going on in the air) and realized I might have been the only person there by myself. Everyone seemed to have their significant others, kids, or friends with them. It will be nice when William is done in the field and we can start doing things together.

But, other than that, the day was good. The jets sounded awesome! Normally I hate really loud noises, but with jets the louder the better. I just checked some of the video I shot and the sound comes through much better than I expected. Hopefully I can post videos to Picasa. So, pictures coming soon and maybe video too. Until then, here's one I took of myself at the end of the day.

weekend activities

I was undecided all week, but yesterday I finally signed up to go on a bungee jumping trip on Saturday, through the army's Community Activities Center. I've never been bungee jumping so I figured now's as good a time as any, but it wasn't meant to be. I got a call this afternoon saying the trip was cancelled because only four people signed up. I'm sort of disappointed, sort of not. I was going by myself because William is still in the field, so now maybe we'll get to go together some other time. He's never been bungee jumping either. I wonder if he would give me a shove if I have trouble making myself jump? :)

Even though my plans fell through, I'm still planning to get out and have some fun tomorrow. Osan Air Base (close by train) is hosting an annual Air Power Day. I haven't been to an air show in years. The jets always set off car alarms and rattled our windows at the zoo during Chicago's air show, which I'm sure the animals didn't like too much. I know I should hate the jets because they're weapons of war and they're horrible for the environment, but I can't entirely. There's just something about them.

students and other stuff

Some things I noticed right away about the students here....most, if not all, wear school uniforms: trousers and dress shirts for the boys, skirts with a white t-shirt under a vest or blouse for the girls. I'm not sure if this changes to pants in the winter for the girls. The uniforms can be different shades of blue, khaki, or plaid, but the style seems universal from school to school. The boys in my school wear blue for school and green for P.E.

These are some of my students doing the standing long jump during their fitness testing about a week ago. This day was similar to the once-a-year physical fitness testing at American schools. They were tested in sprinting, standing long jump, push-ups, sit-ups, and maybe a couple of other things.

In addition to a uniform, students wear sandals in the building. They show up in tennis shoes (Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars are still popular here) and change into sandals when they come inside. Occasionally students will walk around my classroom in socks. In theory I guess the floors should be cleaner since the shoes they wear inside don't get worn outside. Even the teachers, myself included, have indoor and outdoor shoes. I leave my dressy sandals at school so that I can show up in tennis shoes and change to my "indoor shoes" when I arrive. I was told of my mistake on day one when my outdoor and indoor pair were one and the same. Oops.

Because of the prevalence of uniforms, it didn't take long to realize that there are students everywhere! One night I ate dinner in Pyeongtaek w/ the other English teachers from my school (all Korean), so I didn't leave the city until 7 p.m. Even then, hours after school had ended, students were still in their uniforms. I'm not sure if these were students who attend the special evening academies for English, or if students are comfortable enough in their uniforms that they don't change out of them after school. Either way it's bizarre to realize how many students are in the city since they're so easily recognizable. If you walk down any city street in America you can try to guess who the students are based on age, but I don't remember ever feeling surrounded by students like I do here.

I also find it strange that the students don't bring things with them from class to class, or at least not to my class. I remember hauling textbooks, notebooks, calculators, pens/pencils, etc. from class to class. Un-needed items for any given period got stored in a locker, but I always had something with me. I have yet to see a single student with a backpack during the day and there are no lockers that I've seen. I've taught for four weeks now and still have students showing up to class without so much as a single piece of paper or a pen or pencil. They have English notebooks that they've been told to bring to every class, but many still don't. It makes it difficult when half the class has nothing to write on or with. That first week I had to make sure I had plenty of scrap paper with me for every class and even now I try to keep some around.

One last thing, I have to mention lunch. I walk past the kitchen each morning when I arrive and they're already getting everything going for lunch. They're often unloading or starting to prepare huge amounts of vegetables and rice by the time I arrive. I try not to think about the quantities and types of meat they're also preparing. The hallway outside the kitchen is lined on both sides with a bunch of metal carts on wheels. There isn't a school cafeteria so the metal carts are used to wheel big pots of rice, soup, kimchi and whatever else is made that day through the first floor hallways to the classrooms. The carts stay out in the halls where the students line up to put their food on metal trays with indentations for each course. Then they eat in the classrooms. The teachers eat in a small classroom next to the kitchen, also on metal trays. After being told I'd put the wrong foods in the wrong spots in the tray on my first two days, I now know where each item is supposed to go and haven't made those mistakes again. Who would have thought rice should be on the bottom left, soup on the bottom right, and the kimchi and other sides in the three smaller indentations at the top? Not me, I was just hungry.

an expat for one month already

Time is flying! I feel like there's a lot that I've been meaning to write about but haven't had a chance yet.

Our shipment of "household goods and unaccompanied baggage" finally arrived last week, which means I have my bike again, yey! And I've already found the best route for commuting to school. I should say that William actually found the best route using Google Earth. Maps seem to be nonexistent here (along with road names a lot of the time).

William's route takes me around the edges of the city then on smaller country roads, but on my ride home yesterday I rode through the city so I could take some photos. This first one is a main intersection near Shinhan Middle School, where I'm teaching. I took a few "this is the city" pictures, then I rode through Tongbok Market, which is a big outdoor market near the train station. Some of it doesn't really look like it's outside because there's a thin covering overhead, but there are no doors to get in, its all open to the street. It's a cool atmosphere! It was crowded with people selling their items, whether food (lots of raw seafood), clothing, household items, toys, etc. and with people like me walking around, looking, or buying. There's a photo of a pile of raw squid in the Picasa web albums if you're interested in being at least mildly grossed out :)

I wasn't the only one riding through the market on my bike. I thought this older guy in suit and hat looked cool on his bike. I like my racing bike, but this guy's bike is what everyone has here....an old metal bike with a chain guard to keep the grease off of pants/skirts (that would be nice), with big shiny fenders, and sitting completely upright. I've even seen people my grandparents age (70's-80's) riding around town. Slowly yes, but still riding.

As for school, it's going okay I guess. I will say I have far more respect now for some of my former teachers, who I thought had to be the worst teachers ever at the time. Teaching is hard and I don't think I'm very good at it. It doesn't help that I have somewhere near 40 students for every class and I only see each student once a week. I don't know a single student's name after a month of teaching. And with so many in a class, I have some who can say next to nothing in English and others that can hold mini-conversations with me if they stick around long enough after class. It makes it difficult to come up with a lesson plan that hits both ends of the spectrum. Either one half is completely lost or the other half is completely bored out of their minds. I'm going to start playing games to hopefully get them motivated to speak more English. Whether they learn anything, we'll see. I think I might be learning more than they are.

crop circles or a really big party?

William and I went for a run yesterday and saw these formations in a few different fields. I went for a run again this morning with my camera so I could get some pictures. They're so strange and look so cool! It rained all day on Saturday and came down really hard at times, so William and I thought maybe some spots flooded enough to push the rice down flat. However, a man was out walking while I was taking the pictures, so I asked him, "what caused this?" His response was, "really big party." He kind of smiled when he said it so I think he was joking, but I don't know for sure. Maybe they did have a "really big party," because when I got home from school today some rice on our road had been harvested. This was the first rice I've seen since we got here that has been cut. Maybe they have a celebration in small parts of certain fields before the first harvest. William did note, though, that there weren't any entrance or exit flat spots from the road that we noticed. So if it was a party how did they get there? Suspicious. I still think it was the rain.

Oh, and our shipment of "unaccompanied baggage" did not arrive today like it was supposed to. I wonder where it could be?

the muppets

Two must-see videos!

ode to joy

carmen

fun at immigration and other stuff

I spent 2 afternoons this week taking trains and taxis to the Suwon Immigration Office to apply for an Alien Registration Card. My first attempt on Wed. was a bust. I had a health check at the hospital and they forgot to give me a page of my results which are needed to receive the card, so I was sent home. When I went back on Friday it turned out I was also missing some other form but this time it can be faxed so I don't have to go back. I did have to relinquish my passport for the second time in a month though. I hope the mail system is reliable. I really hate that feeling that I'm not going to get it back!

On my excursions, I learned how to get around on the express trains and the subway system. The first attempt was a little stressful because I understood enough of what the ticket agent said to know I had about 5 minutes to get to my train, but I didn't know where I needed to go. All the signs and my ticket were in Hangul (Korean writing), but I found someone who figured out what I needed and was able to show me where to go. I made it to my train on time. The scenery to Suwon, which is between Pyeongtaek and Seoul, was made up largely of rice paddies, some rolling terrain, and the large cookie-cutter apartment high rises that seem to be all over the country. If I'd had a seat I would have taken some pictures out the window, but I was standing for the ~25 min train ride.

On the way home from Suwon on Friday I had a broken conversation with an older man on the subway. He seemed very nice and I think wanted to practice his English. He asked how to say a few things, like "glasses" when he got his glasses out to look at the guide book of Seoul that I had with me. We looked at the "helpful phrases" part of the book that had things in both English and Hangul. He practiced the English and helped me to pronounce the Hangul. At one point he asked my age. I told him and he said he was 62 and joked that I was half. In the few weeks I've been here I've already been asked the age question many times. Many of my students asked it on the first day of class, which at first I thought was a little weird. I never knew or asked how old any of my teachers were. I've since found out that a lot of importance is placed on age in Korean society. It's used in determining one's place in the social hierarchy and the amount of respect a person should be given. It's considered a perfectly normal question, and isn't considered impolite or too forward. Anyway, the train ride was more enjoyable and went by quickly since I had someone to chat with.

Our shipment of stuff is supposed to arrive tomorrow! It will be so nice to have more than a week's worth of clothes again. And I'll finally have my bike so that I can start exploring further and take some more pictures. Sorry, there aren't any new ones this week.

still adjusting

I haven't taken the time yet to work on this page like I hope to. The Google map of Korea is new, but I'm not sure I like it. I wish it showed Pyeongtaek without having to zoom in. By the time you zoom in it's not very helpful in figuring out where we're located. So, the map may not stay up long. For now I'm just playing with different things to see what I like. If you do zoom in, center the map near that waterway that juts inland south of Seoul. Pyeongtaek is near the river that that waterway flows into.

I took some new photos this week, which are now in the Republic of Korea folder if you click on the "Picasa web photos" link. I'll probably start a new folder each month. One morning I stopped to take photos as I was walking to the bus stop because the fog was clearing. Dew was still clinging to everything and the spider webs glistened in the morning light, making for some pretty shots.

We are still waiting for our shipment to arrive. We've bought some kitchen stuff to tide us over until it comes, but it will be nice to have more than one pan again and more than a week's worth of clothes! I'm ready to have my bike back too, so I can explore further. I can only go so far on foot. William has made it to the nearby mountains on his weekend bike rides, but I guess they look more like mountains from a distance than up close. He said they're not as big as he thought they'd be.

I've already walked a lot around town. On Friday I walked all over Anjeong-ri since I had the day off. That's when I took the photos of the community gardens, with the tall apartment complexes and other buildings in the background. Right after taking those couple of photos I continued walking and saw a little old women walking back to the road with a handful of onions she'd just pulled. I'm still not sold on the food, but I like this aspect: if there's a patch of open land, it doesn't seem to matter how small it is or where it's located, it seems likely there will be something edible growing on it. I've seen corn, beans, peppers, squash, pear trees, cucumbers, and some I haven't been able to identify. William says I don't know them because we didn't learn about them in my Wildlife classes (and they're not Indiana flaura and fauna) :)

Both in Anjeong-ri and Pyeongtaek, there are a lot of skyscraper-sized (Eastern European/Soviet style) apartment buildings, like the ones in the photo. I'm glad William didn't choose to live in one of those. I like our location. It feels like we live in the country but we're only a 10 minute walk from Anjeong-ri (for perspective, it used to take me 20 minutes to walk to campus from the apt in Boone).

Oh, and be sure to check out the photos of the apartment keys. They're definitely strange looking. William thinks they look like they might open up the ancient pyramids :)

end of week #1

William and I now live in an apartment on a little one lane road in Anjeong-ri, South Korea, near the city of Pyeongtaek, which is maybe 70km south of Seoul. Different websites show different distances between the two cities.

On my walks to and from the bus stop near our apartment, in addition to the rice and other crops on either side, I've come to realize that we seem to have more BIG spiders as neighbors than people. I mean BIG! One type that I've seen a lot is skinny and is yellow and black. It is actually quite pretty for a spider. Another one that I just saw yesterday for the first time is just way too big for my taste! I got 2 pictures of him that I think will give a good idea of his size. Luckily, we haven't seen any in the apartment yet.

Each day at school lunch is prepared for the teachers so I have the opportunity to try new things. Every meal consists of rice, some kind of soup, two or three kinds of kimchi (explanation below) and then maybe something sweet. For example, we had wine grapes one day for the sweet item. I guess I've never had wine grapes before. Their texture is completely different from green or red grapes and they're sweeter. They don't eat the skins here. I don't know if that's normal or not.

Anyway, some of the items prepared for lunch have been pretty good, some just okay although I don't always know what everything is. There was one soup this week that was just awful, it had a very fishy flavor to it. I don't even know what kind of animal was in it, but they looked like soft hollow vertebrae or something....very gross! I have tried some of the meat options, but the thing I've liked the best so far was a mixture of things that don't seem like they should go together. Here it is:

Chopped green apples, cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumber, sliced beets, and banana chunks all mixed with what I think was a strawberry yogurt. My co-teacher, Mrs. Kim, said she thought maybe it was mixed with some mayonnaise too. It was a thin liquid so I'm not sure if it was thinned out with some milk or maybe the water from the fruits and veggies thinned it out. It was good though. I'll try to replicate it some time to see if I can get close.

Kimchi (pronounced "kimchee") consists of pickled vegetables, like cabbage, radishes, and I don't even know what else, but apparently lots of things can be pickled. It's eaten at every meal and is sort of like appetizers, except it's eaten alongside, instead of before, the main dish. Many of the kimchi served at lunch have a hot red pepper paste on them, making them very spicy. Not spicy in the way Mexican food is spicy because it still has a pickled flavor, but it's a hot pickled flavor! I don't know how to describe it really. But by the time the meal is done my whole face is sweating profusely. Maybe that's why I liked the yogurt fruit thing. It helped tame the heat a little bit.

I'm starting to know a few Korean words, like hello, please, and thank you. But beyond that I'm pretty much lost. If I have my cheat sheet with me I can ask where something is. On Monday, the first day of class, I got off my bus too soon and had to walk the rest of the way to the school. So on the way I asked a few different people where the school was just to make sure I was headed in the right direction. I made it there okay so I guess they understood me :) William and I were talking about how our experiences will be very different even though we're living in the same country. I have more incentive to learn some of the language since I'm immersed in it each day. Even though there are Koreans on base and in William's unit, he's still surrounded mostly by Americans so he has less need to know any Korean.

I have Friday of next week off, as well as the following Mon. and Tues. for a holiday called Chuseok. It's a time when families and friends gather to share food and enjoy their time together, giving thanks to their ancestors for the year's bountiful harvests. I've also read that it's a time for families to visit the graves of their ancestors.