Mike's Korean Adventure!

Adios Korea!

2010-10-04T09:59:00.000+09:00

Today is officially my last day in Korea. Emily and I got back last night from our month long trip around SE Asia. The trip was amazing and so much fun. When I get back home and settled down I will be sure to post about the trip and load pictures for everyone to see. I am staying at a friend's apartment for my last night. I'm currently in the process of re-packing a few things so my bags fit better. The main plan of my day is to eat all my favorite Korean foods! It could be a 3-4 meal type of day. Why not eat as much as I can? There's not much for Korean food in Iowa!

I'm quite excited to go home because I haven't seen family or friends for over 1 year. This past year has been a wonderful one. I taught so many bright, fun, and polite kids. I met people that I'll probably be friends with for a very long time. I was able to travel to 7 countries, many more than I would have imagined I would travel to in one years' time. Just like college, this year flew by incredibly fast. My time in Korea was definitely one of the best years of my life. South Korea has so much to offer and I encourage anyone to give it a try and visit or live here! I will never forget my time here.

Well, I better keep packing so I can get outside and do the last few things we need to get done before we leave tomorrow. See you in America soon!!!

Travel Time

2010-09-01T22:55:00.000+09:00

Emily and I just finished our teaching contracts yesterday. In about 7 hours, we are going to take off on our travels for 1 month around SE Asia! As of today there is a typhoon heading toward South Korea. Hopefully this doesn't delay our flight to Beijing. We already had 1 major setback that happened yesterday with our flights, but that's another story for a different blog. Luckily we figured everything out.

During our trip we will be going to Beijing, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Hong Kong before departing back to Seoul for 1 day to grab our other bags. We're excited because one of Emily's co-workers, Rob, will be joining us in Vietnam and Cambodia. He finished his contract at the beginning of August and has been hanging around SE Asia. Well, just a little more packing to do then we gotta go to bed. I will try my best to update my blog on the trip. I made the decision to bring my computer, hopefully it's not a bad choice!!! Off to China!!!!

The Dempsey's Visit Korea

2010-08-17T22:58:00.000+09:00

Summer break 2010 has come and flown by fast! I think each time I blog the time in between gets longer and longer. Korea does not slow down. Sometimes it's hard to keep up. My family came to Seoul for 1 week during my summer break. Before this year I never thought I would travel to this part of the world, let alone have my family come and visit me while I'm here! In order to make sure they got the Korean experience I loaded the week with many things to do. Although there is a TON to in Korea my family was most interested in seeing or doing the things that I have seen over the past year. I feel like I've done most of the big things in Seoul, I probably haven't even scratched the surface of things to do/see.

On the first day I went to pick my family up at the airport. They made it! The week or so before they arrived I started to get excited, especially when I was making my list of things to do. After getting into Seoul by bus we got to the hotel. The hotel they stayed at is very close to my school and about a 15 minute walk away from my apartment (although I preferred to ride the bus or take a taxi to the hotel). When we were walking up to the hotel, I saw one of my students who lives in the apartment in the top of the building. I said hello to him and he responded with, "How could you be here?" and then continued to ride his scooter. I think he was a little shocked to see his teacher outside of school! I wouldn't be surprised if the kids thought we lived at school. Heck, we are there for almost 11 hours each day. After dropping their stuff off at the hotel and getting situated, I took my family out for the first "Korean" dinner. Although it's Japanese we'll consider it Korean just for fun. The food is called shabu shabu. Basically, each person gets their own pot and they are able to throw thinly sliced pieces of beef in the pot to cook it. Once it's cooked (20 sec. later) you take it out and put it inside of a piece of lettuce that has rice in it. You could also put garlic, kimchi, etc. in the wraps. Each meal comes with about 10 pieces of beef and lettuce wraps to create. At the end of the meal you put in some noodles and cook those. It's definitely one of my favorite dishes in Korea. I think my family liked this meal. Just like I felt my very first night in Korea (and for about the next month) their chopstick skills weren't the best, but I could tell they were getting better through out the week!

The second day I took my family to Insadong. This is an area of Seoul pretty close to where I live. It is a traditional area that has many shops selling antiques and artwork. It's also a popular spot for foreigners, where they can buy memorabilia. Insadong is a very cool area. We ended up going back the last day of their trip so they could buy some things to take home. Later in the day we went out for dinner because it was Emily's birthday. We went out to eat with her parents who were also visiting and some of her co-workers. The restaurant we went to served a spicy chicken dish that it cooked in a big pan on the table. This is another favorite food for me! I think it was a bit spicy for my family though. It did take me a few times to get used to it, even though it will can be too spicy!

Another thing we did during the week was walk around the massive outdoor/indoor shopping center, named Myeongdong. This area is very popular with Koreans and foreigners. There are many street vendors selling foods and clothing. Also, just about any clothing store is included in this shopping area. A ton of restaurants line the outside of the area. I won't hesitate to say that it's probably every Korean girl's favorite place because of all the clothes and shoes one could buy are sold here! After seeing the Myeongdong area we walked around some more and went down by a stream that runs through the city. The stream has been rebuilt within the past couple of years. It is very cool looking. At night there are lights all the way up and down the stream.

Another day, Emily and I had to get our passports from a travel agency, so we too our families to a group of palaces that were in the same area. This area is named "Gwanghamun." It's a cool area because it features modern Seoul and traditional palaces right in the same area. We may have take our Christmas card photo in front of the palace. Guess I'll have to wait and see! Another place we went to was the Korean War Memorial. I really liked the museum here and I knew my family would do. The museum tells all about Korean history, takes you through the Korean war, Vietnam war, and other operations the Korea has been involved in. Whenever important talks or speeches are given regarding North Korea they are usually given here by the President of South Korea. The week before we went here, Hillary Clinton visited the memorial.

My favorite part of week with my family was when we visited the DMZ. I had gone to the DMZ last November through with a different tour group. This time we went with the USO (US Army). This is the tour that you NEED to go on! It was a ton of fun. This tour takes you to the JSA, where you can literally step into North Korea. Before arriving at the JSA we were briefed by a few US soldiers who were leading the tour. At the JSA itself is where North and South Korea have little blue buildings side-by-side that are on the line of North/South Korea. On one side of the line is the the big North Korean building. The other side is the South Korean/US building. We went in one of the blue buildings which houses important meetings between N/South Korea. When we went in the room there were 2 South Korean guards. These guards always stand at the taekwondo "ready" pose. They are ready to kick some butt if needed. On other parts of the DMZ tour we went to the bridge of no return, which literally means that. Right as the war ended, prisoners from North and South Korea were allowed to cross the bridge back to their homeland, or stay where they were. Once they crossed they could not turned around and go back. Next, we went to an observatory which you can see into North Korea and see "Propaganda Village." Unlike the first time I came here it was a very clear day so we could see clearly into NK. After the observatory we went to the 3rd tunnel, that was found after the Korean War. A NK defector helped tip SK guards as to where a tunnel was that NK would use to infiltrate SK. The last stop on our tour was at Dorasan Station. This is the last train station in SK. Koreans stay optimistic that someday, this station will connect through NK and into Russia to become the worlds longest train route, connecting all the way to Europe.

Overall, I think my family had a wonderful time in Korea. Coming to a country like this is definitely a huge change, especially if you haven't experienced a culture like this before. We did many fun things and did things that most people don't get to do in their lifetimes (like step into North Korea). I introduced my family to some Korean foods that they did and didn't like. It's all about the experience though. I hope that they had fun adventuring half way across the world to see a culture that you would NEVER see in Iowa! I'm sure that I forgot some of the stuff that we did. But, if you have talked to my parents or sister about the trip I'm sure they have showed you tons and tons of pictures! So, if I did forget something then there's a good chance that they told you about it. Also, for as much as it usually rains on Dempsey family vacations, it only rained once when they where here, for about 10 minutes. That's pretty good luck I would say for being in the middle of rainy season! Thanks for coming to visit me!!

Here are some photos of things we did...

After leaving Indsadong and heading toward the stream (I cannot pronounce the name of the stream, it's too long!)

4-person bike at the Olympic park We don't look like tourists at all!

That's Bob. He is a North Korean guard. He literally looks through his binoculars all day. Must be boring.

Dad, the first night eating shabu shabu

outside the 3rd tunnel at the DMZ

Entrance to the palace

Inside the building that separates North/South Korea. The soldier is South Korean. Rocking the aviator glasses in his Taekwondo stance. Don't bump him on accident, he will hurt you!

Half of each blue building is in North Korea, the other half in South Korea. The big building is the back is a North Korean building. The South Korean guard on the right stands only showing half of his body, so if anything happens he is not totally exposed.

In front of the palace

Eating seollantang (beef soup) with Emily's parents

Standing in the middle of the stream

Top of the Seoul (Namsan) Tower

Foreigners using the Korean workout equipment found in any park in South Korea (probably North Korea too!!)

It's Been Awhile

2010-07-14T22:53:00.000+09:00

Time is moving too fast in Korea! The last time I blogged I had just gotten back from Taiwan. It seems like years ago. A lot is happening over in "my" part of the world. Summer is finally here. It is getting hotter and more humid. I could sure go without all the humidity since I have to wear pants to work. People are slowly leaving Korea as their contracts are over. Matt, one of Emily's co-workers and a good friend of mine left this week to head back to Canada. He has been here for a couple of years at a few schools. Emily's school has a lot of people leaving in July/August, compared to my school I am the next person to leave.

I got my official last day a few weeks ago. My last day is August 31st. This is the last day of first semester. I was originally supposed to be done in the middle of September, but they figured it would be best if I ended on the last day of the semester. This is especially good for the students because they won't have me for 2 weeks in September, then have a new teacher come after just getting used to me. It works best to start the semester with a new teacher. Emily extended her contract from 1.5 months and we are now ending on the same day. In the past few weeks we have begun planning our travels for September. As of now our plan is to visit Beijing for one week, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia for around one week each, and Hong Kong for 3 days. We are scheduled to fly out together on October 5 from Seoul, as we will be flying back there from Hong Kong to see people one last time and get extra stuff we are not taking with us.

We are both extremely excited for the SE Asia trip, but China decided to pull a fast one on us!! As of July 1, China put a new visa law affecting non-Koreans living in Korea into effect. This law states that you must have 6 months or more left on your ARC (Foreigner ID card) card to be allowed to apply for a visa. We booked our flights to China and other places around SE Asia in June together as a package. Since July 1 many people have been turned away for China visas because their ARC cards don't have 6 months left on them. We heard about this new law from these people. NOWHERE on any Chinese embassy or consulate website in Seoul, Chicago, etc. has this new law posted. How are travels supposed to know this? The only place we have seen this law posted was on a travel agency website in Korea. Obviously it isn't fair to do this without announcing that a new law will come into effect. You would think that people who bought their plane tickets prior to July 1 would be exempt from this law. One of my co-workers had booked plane flights and hotels for her and her parent's in China over our summer break. She did this before July 1 also, but was forced to cancel those plans. I'm not sure about her, but our plane tickets are non-refundable so we are doing everything we can to not lose a lot of money! There are a few options that could possibly work and we are checking into these. They all involve spending more money than we should for the visas, but we will do whatever it takes because we both want to go to China! I will have to keep you posted if we are able to get the visas or not. I wouldn't mind spending another week in Thailand, but I'd rather not have it at the expense of China.

An another note, school has been moving a long quite well. All the kids in my kinder class have been doing a great job lately. I've noticed a ton of improvement in each student since he/she began in February. My class, unlike every other kinder class at my school did not go to pre-k at the school. They were all new to Poly School. They have adjusted well and are doing awesome! It's really bad timing that my contract is done at the end of August because my Korean teacher is pregnant. She does activities with them during break time, eats lunch with them, and has 1 class at the end of their day. Needless to say, the Korean teachers work very hard. They call most parents on a daily basis to keep them up to speed on things. Her last day is next Friday, the day before our summer break starts. I feel really bad for my kids that both me and the Korean teacher will be leaving in the timespan of about one month. I just hope that the new Korean teacher will be a good one because my co-teacher has done an excellent job and all the kids love her.

In June we went on a field trip to another park (who would've guessed). The gym teacher came too and played some field games with the kids. They had a lot of fun. This Friday we are going to an aquarium. It's a pretty cool one. Emily and I went in February. Some of my students have been there. It will definitely be a lot of fun for everyone. That's about all that has been going on lately over here. Time is moving extra fast. It's weird to think I only have 6 weeks left! In little over a week my family is coming to visit for our summer break. They've never had Korean food before (since Iowa has nothing to offer for Korean food). If they are like me then they will love the food. I'm excited to show them all the things I've been doing in the last year. I hope it doesn't rain too much, since it always seems to on Dempsey family vacations!! People in my area of Seoul are used to me since I see a lot of the same people each day to work, around the school building, and on the way home. It will be funny to see how people react to 3 more tall white people!! Many, many stares will be occurring, that is certain!

Buddha's Birthday Spent in Taiwan

2010-05-27T22:43:00.001+09:00

**A little update to the Gorge section. The other night when I was typing there was an error on the website so the section about the gorge got deleted and I didn't notice!**

This past weekend Emily and I traveled to Taiwan for a 3 day weekend. It was Buddha's birthday so everyone in Korea and probably most of Asia had a long weekend. We searched for awhile in the weeks coming up to this weekend in hopes to go to Beijing or Shanghai. We were unable to find decent flights to either spot. In most situations the flight times were horrible. In others, we were given the idea that very cheap plane tickets were available, but when we went to put our credit card/travel info in we were told that the flights were full. That's okay with me though. To go to China we have to pay about $130 on top of the plane flights for a visa (no visa for Taiwan). We plan to go to China at the end of the year here in Korea so paying for the visa will be worth it because we will have more time to spend there.

We boarded a 9:30 a.m. flight on Friday and arrived in Taiwan at about 12 p.m. By the time we got from the airport to our hostel it was around 3 p.m. It took us forever to find the hostel. The directions given to us were anything but good. Luckily after wandering around for over 30 minutes a nice Taiwanese couple stopped to help us. They had seen us walking around a little bit before that too. They spoke perfect English as they have lived in North Carolina for a few years for school or work. The hostel we stayed at was very nice. It was quite cheap and in a good location. The website we booked through had nothing but good comments to say about it. The owner of the hostel was very nice. Her English was also very good. She kept the hostel in perfect condition. The hostel was in the middle of a night market in Taipei. It was pretty cool to walk through the night market as we made our way home the last night.

After getting to the hostel and taking a quick breather we got headed on our adventure. Nearly everywhere we went in Taipei we took the subway. Seoul's subway system is very easy and I thought Taipei's was easier. All the stops were said in English and it was a fairly small subway system so it was not hard to find our way around. First, we stopped by the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. This was a massive building with a statue of the late president, Chiang Kai-shek. Inside this room there are guards who are always watching over the statue. Once an hour there is a ceremony called "changing of the guards." Not remembering this, we arrived just as the ceremony had started. It is kind of hard to explain what they did. In simple form they changed guards, but it was more complex the way they did it. I took a video of it but I don't think this blog can support videos. But here are a few pictures of it.

Street just outside our hostel

In front of the CKS Memorial Hall

During the changing of the guards ceremony

On the other end of the plaza where the CKS Memorial is

After we left the CKS Memorial we headed in search of a hot spring to sit in. We went to an area known for them. Since it's not hot spring season right now we wanted to get a deal. We saw a few places for about $20-30 per person but finally stopped by a place that said $10. It was actually $10 for the both of us. Needless to say, it was probably equal to the $10 we paid! A lot of the springs are outside but this was inside a room that looked like a converted storage closet. It wasn't the best place we could have found I'm sure but it was still fun to give it a try. Later in the night we walked through Taipei's largest night market. This market had tons of street food vendors and clothing shops. I think the night market in Bangkok was much better but it was still cool to walk around it. We tried some of the Taiwanese street foods out. It was all very good food.

The next morning we woke up very early, 5 a.m. to get picked up around 5:45 at a nearby hotel. Our tour was headed to Taroko Gorge, which is in Hualien, Taiwan. It is located on the eastern cost of Taiwan. Our tour hopped on a plane about 7:30 in the morning for a short 30 minute flight down to this city. There, we met our tour guide. She was a very nice lady who spoke English well. We were warned by the bus driver to the airport that once she started talking she wasn't going to stop until we left! He was sure right. She was born and raised in the city near the gorge so she was very knowledgeable about the gorge. She was a great guide to have. We took a bus tour through the gorge. At some points the bus stopped and we walked around for a bit to explore the area. The gorge was amazing looking. Sharp cliffs on both sides with such blue water flowing on the bottom.

One area of the gorge was accustomed to rock falls so we had to wear hardhats. I put a picture down below of how goofy I looked wearing the hat. Since Taiwan is frequented by earthquakes some areas of the gorge were closed to visitors. There was a section were a group of construction workers were fixing something. They were nearly hanging off of the edge. Looked pretty darn scary to me. There were a few temples inside the gorge park. One that we drove by had the largest Buddha statue in Taiwan and it was made from gold. Before we stopped for lunch a little bit higher up on the mountain we had the chance to walk across a suspension bridge (picture below). Before going on this trip I figured that everyone would be forced to walk across one as a means of getting to the next part of the tour. It was hard to tell because not too much information was given to us about what we would do. Luckily we didn't have to walk across if it we didn't want to. Knowing my fear of heights I attempted to walk across. I got maybe 1/4 of the way across and then the bridge started to bounce from the other people who were farther ahead of me. I said, "No thank you," among other words and turned back around! I think that if it was just me and 1 or 2 other people I could have made it across, but with 8 other people on the bridge it was moving too much for me.

After the bridge we went to lunch at a small resort higher up on the mountain. This place served us traditional Taiwanese food. It was delicious. the food consisted of fried fish, some vegetables, a pork stew, mashed potatoes (Taiwanese style), and a bamboo stick that was full of rice. The bamboo stick was the best part. We cracked the stick open and ate the rice straight from the stick. It tasted like oatmeal! It was probably the best rice I have had since being in Asia. On our way back down to the bottom of the gorge we stopped by a memorial shrine for the workers of the gorge. A long time ago when construction first started the workers had to create all the winding roads and tunnels. Many people died during this time so there was a shrine set up for them. I took a few pictures of that below. Overall the trip to the gorge was an awesome time. The weather was perfect, our group was full of nice people, and our tour guide was fantastic. I definitely recommend this trip to anybody thinking of going to Taiwan someday!

The trip to the gorge was from roughly 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. We took a train back into Taipei after leaving the gorge. It was the first real train I have been on! We then attempted to go to Taipei 101, the world's 2nd tallest building. We didn't get there until about 9 p.m. The line was MASSIVE and the lady selling tickets said it would take about an hour to wait and that the place closed at 10. Also, they were pretty much sending people up to the top and right back down to get more people in and out before it closed. I only considered going to the top of the building at night, and I would not have minded if the elevator doors opened, I peeked my head out, and then went back down! I'm sure my fear of heights would have not fared so well. But, we didn't feel like waiting in such a long line because we were hungry and hadn't eaten in awhile. I know Emily wanted to go to the top and I was hoping that I would at least attempt to get to the top just to say that I went to the world's 2nd tallest building and that I may have slightly reduced my fear of heights. Oh well, there's plenty of other tall buildings out there.

An entrance to the gorge

Picture of the bottom of the gorge

Hardhat time! I looked like a total goon. But then again, who didnt?

Temple type building inside the gorge

Suspension bridge

Traditional Taiwanese lunch

The memorial to all those who died constructing the roads and tunnels throughout the gorge.

Taipei 101 from a street bridge

On Sunday before leaving we went to a historical museum. The museum was pretty cool. It was full of ancient Chinese artifacts. While there we ran into my Korean partner teacher! Earlier in the week we both found out that the other was going to Taiwan for the weekend. She was there with her husband. We were doing a lot of the same stuff but with the couple million people in this city I didn't expect to run into her. It was fun to see somebody we knew! Over all the trip was a blast. It would have been nice to spend more time in Taiwan so we wouldn't have to feel crunched for time. It would definitely be fun to go back again!

Night market

Chicken feet, hearts, probably other random parts too. Yummy!

Front of the national palace museum

Spring Activities

2010-05-11T22:25:00.000+09:00

I have turned into a bad blogger over the last few months. My blogging entries are starting to grow farther and farther apart! About a month ago the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Not knowing anything about these trees besides seeing them all over Seoul, a group of us went to the cherry blossom festival in Yeouido (right across the river from me). This area is the financial district of Seoul. The streets around this area were lined with many cherry blossom trees. Apparently these trees are only in full bloom for 1-2 weeks each year. I think this year they were a few weeks behind schedule because it took a little longer to warm up. We went to the festival/park on a lazy Sunday afternoon and hung around the area for a few hours. This area was FULL of people. Well, most places here are so it was nothing new to me! We walked around for a bit, tried some really good street food, and camped out in the park for a bit and people watched.

Me taking a picture of a Korean couple!

A weird police woman thing?

Over the past two months my kindergarten class has adapted well to the new school. Everyone in my class was new to Poly School. They all attended Pre-K somewhere else. It was nice to have a brand new class to the school. This is mainly because they haven't had a previous teacher at the school. When I came in September my kinder class already had their own collective character. Crazy, wild, yet very smart. I feel that I didn't change much for my previous kinder class because they had another teacher for the longest time. Everything we were "learning" they already knew very well.

The students in my new class (the tigers) have all grown a lot in the past few months. They are wild at times but nothing compared to the craziness of my old class. I've got children of all ability levels. I will end up being with my new kinder class for 6 months. It has been very gratifying to teach these new students because I feel that I am teaching them so much more than my previous class. They have done a great job so far and I'm excited to see the progress that they will continue to make!

We have gone on a couple field trips in April and May. We have gone to two different parks. The last one we went to was to celebrate Children's Day. This is a special day to celebrate the children. How come this isn't celebrated in America?? Children's Day was last Wednesday. Nearly everyone in the country has the day off to celebrate with their children, take them somewhere, buy them gifts, etc. We celebrated with the children last Tuesday by taking them to a park across the river from where I live (Mapo). While there we rode bicycles with the kids, played games, and ate lunch. It was a great way to spend the morning.

Lunch time

Throwin' up the peace sign (from L to R: Justin, Henry, Angelina, Julie, Ryan)

With the weather finally warming up we have started to go to some Korean baseball games. Since I got here in September last year I wasn't able to go to any games because it was around the time the playoffs started. I'm only able to go to games on the weekends because games during the week start at 6:30 and I don't get off until 7:30. The Korean Baseball League (KBO) has 8 teams. 5 out of the 8 teams are in Seoul and the other 3 are in other major cities. We have been going to Mokdong Stadium (Emily and her co-workers live very close) to watch the Nexen Heroes. The team has a man from the USA. His Name is Doug Clark. He played in a few games in the MLB and spent a lot of time in the minors before deciding to come play in Korea two years ago. So far we have been to two games and plan on going to many more. The games are a ton of fun. The stadium is nearly split in half with the home team fans all sitting on their site and the visiting teams fans' on their side. Both sides sing songs through out the game and there are cheerleaders on top of the dugouts. You can also bring in WHATEVER you want into the stadium. Water, pop, beer, fried chicken, you name it and you can bring it in! Needless to say the games are quite different from what you would experience in America, but they are a lot of fun. When we went to the game last weekend Emily got a foul ball coincidently enough from the American player on the team we were rooting for! It's quite funny to think about considering the odds of that are pretty slim. I see many more games in the future since the weather has gotten much nicer recently.

Finally, this past weekend I woke up and turned on the TV. Flipping through channels I saw that there was a triathlon on. I didn't know if it was live or not so I looked it up on the internet. It was going on live just across the river from where I live. The tri was a men's and women's professional race. Seoul was just one of the stops of about 10 international cities in the circuit. I have heard/seen a few of the American athletes from the Hy-Vee Triathlon. Seeing that it was live I headed 1 subway stop away and watched the men's race for a few hours. It was a very nice day outside and a good chance to see something I have become interested in.

Start of the race (in the dirty Han River!)

Bikers leaving the first transition

background

Meet the Tigers!

2010-03-08T00:19:00.000+09:00

Last Tuesday was the first day of the new year in Korean schools. Sadly I was not there for the first day due to being on Gilligan's Island for an extra day. We were assigned all new elementary classes and grades. Some kids I taught last semester and some are new for me. I'm not teaching any of the Hummingbirds in first grade because 8 of the 10 made it into the top first grade class (RS1-1). One is in RS1-2 and one is moving to Hong Kong in April so she is just waiting until then to go back to English school. I'm teaching the RS1-3 and 4 classes for first grade. I will still see my kids running through the halls being crazy like always!

The kindergarten class I have no is new to Poly. Usually the kids from from the Pre-K program at the school. I'm kind of happy that the kids are new. I will have more of a chance to mold them into the types of students I want them to be, how they should act in class, etc. When I came my kindergarten class was already transformed well so I wasn't able to change much. It'll be nice to be able to help the students more and watch them grow as a result. Without further ado here is my new kindergarten class!

Frank

Ashley

Jasmine

Julie

Angelina. She tried her hardest not to enjoy the picture!

June

Henry

Justin

Ryan

Stella

Lucy

Vicky

Kindergarten graduation

2010-03-07T23:58:00.000+09:00

The day we left for the 3 day weekend trip to Geomundo Island we had kindergarten graduation. This was a day that the kindergartens had been preparing for since last February. The ceremony was held nearby our school in a little convention type room. The room was much smaller than I had pictured it to be. My school is quite small and we only had about 40 kindergarten students graduation, while Emily's school had about 100. For the ceremony each student had to prepare a speech. That seems crazy especially since they are only in kindergarten! Not one kid messed up or cried. They all went through like little robots. They had been practicing the speeches for about one month previous to the ceremony. Knowing how smart the kids are itOf c didn't surprise me how well they did. Along with the children all the teachers had to give speeches. I was a little nervous but the speech went well. After the kids gave their speeches and got the diplomas they sang a song. It was titled, "It's a wonderful life." Of course they had that song memorized too. It was funny to see how hardcore the parents were about taking pictures. There were parents running right and left taking pictures from every angle possible. All the kindergarten students did a great job this year. It was nice for them to be recognized for all the hard work they put in. Here are some pictures from the graduation.

The Hummingbirds, minus Christine. She was on vacation instead!

Daniel must have gone to a pre-graduation party

Andrew, Ben, Daniel

Ashley giving her speech. All the kids stood here in the spotlight.

Andrew

Geomundo Island

2010-03-07T23:44:00.000+09:00

Last Monday was the Korean Independence Day from Japan. Emily and I decided to take a little weekend vacation to an island off the southern tip of Korea. We booked the trip through a travel/tour group called Adventure Korea. This is the same company that took us to the DMZ back in the fall. We left Seoul about 12 a.m. on a charter bus and slowly made our way down south to the ocean. The bus trip was around 6 hours. We got to the ferry at 6 a.m. Saturday morning. The ferry ride took us to Geomundo Island, which was 2 hours off the coast of Korea.

After getting to the island bright and early on Saturday we had a few hours to do whatever, so we took a nap! Since we were on the bus for 6 hours and we left at midnight I hardly slept. I've never slept well on planes or buses. We stayed at a little hotel run by an older lady. Emily had stayed at places like this before. I was shocked to see that we didn't have beds! We each got a thick pad, a blanket, and a pillow to use. I didn't take a picture of it but I should have. The "bed" was more comfortable than I had imagined it would be.

The first thing we did on the island was take a walk up a hill to see a few graves of British soldiers. The British Navy had once been in this part of Korea to protect against the Russians. The top of the hill had a great view of the ocean. The rest of Saturday we hung around the island. We walked around a bit to check things out. It wasn't the nicest day so we were saving the big hike for Sunday. While at the island we had most of our meals at the same little family restaurant. The owners served us various traditional Korean dishes. It was the type of restaurant were you sit on the floor a little butt pads. Those restaurants are always hard on my legs since they are so long!

Sunday was a very nice day. We went on a hike that took about 4 hours. At the beginning of the hike we went what felt like straight up for 15 minutes. Then, we began to walk along the side of the mountain which overlooked the coast. Knowing my fear of heights I made sure to stay along the side of the trail that had the trees and bushes. There were a few parts of the hike that scared me but I made it through with no problems. The goal of the hike was to make it to a lighthouse that was off in the distance. We finally made it there after a couple of hours. The views from the mountain were awesome. I was able to take many good pictures. The ocean water was almost teal in color, it looked pretty cool. Thankfully it was such a nice day on Sunday for the hike. We were supposed to take the hike on Saturday but it was colder and it rained a little.

Now for the fun part. We were supposed to leave Monday morning and return to Seoul around 9-10 p.m. We woke up Monday morning and the wind was howling. It wasn't raining at the time but it had rained before we woke up. The island is very small and only 2 ferries leave each day back to the mainland. It was so windy that the 10 a.m. ferry was cancelled because the ocean conditions were horrible. We waited around in the little coffee shop and PC bong (rooms where Korean's go to play computer games) and messed around on the internet, waiting for any new news. As 2 p.m. rolled around the decision was made that we could not take ferry AGAIN because it was still bad out on the ocean. As much fun as it would be to stay there another day it put everyone in a bad situation. The tour group had 45 people in it. Everyone in the group was a teacher! Needless to say we weren't able to leave the island until Tuesday morning, which was the first day of the new school year at my school and most all Korean schools. I felt really bad that I wasn't able to be there to meet my new kindergarten class. I had contacted my AC (academic coordinator) and director the minute we found out on Monday that we couldn't go back. Although we are already short staffed because 2 people finished their contracts at the end of last week, they seemed to take the news well that I would not be there for the first day. Obviously there was nothing I could do about it since it was just bad luck because of the weather. All in all it was a good weekend trip even though it lasted longer than it was supposed to! Emily and I had the chance to watch many movies on TV Monday since it was windy and rainy and there was nothing else to do on the tiny island! We met a bunch of cool people on the trip. Also, everyone we met on the island was very kind and accommodating. It was a great way to spend the weekend. Note to self: It's probably not a good idea to visit an island when all you have is a 3 day weekend. Maybe next time I'll stay on the Korean mainland!

Ships in the tiny harbor

View of the ocean from the British grave sites

Elementary school

Memorial to the British soldiers that died here

As you can see taking pictures felt like being part of the paparazzi. This is Baekdo Islands. It was a chain of about 40 islands. It took our boat about 40 minutes to get there from Geomundo Island on Sunday morning.

Emily and part of the Baekdo Islands

The town we stayed at. This was taken while on the hike on Sunday.

Emily and I at one of the rest spots while on the hike

The very edge of the mountain

The lighthouse that we hiked to

The main road on the little island we stayed on

Lunar New Year and My Birthday

2010-02-21T23:07:00.001+09:00

It has been awhile since I last posted a blog. Maybe a little too long. The weeks after Christmas break were pretty laid back with not a lot going on during the weekends. Two weeks ago we had a 3 day weekend because of the Asian lunar new year. This time of the year is very important to Koreans. It may be even more of a celebration in China because people will celebrate for the entire week around the new year. This year the new year was on a Sunday. Normally on holidays you get the day before, the day of, and the day after off of work. It was too bad that this fell on a Sunday. It would have been nice to get more days off. Emily and I had planned to visit either Shanghai or Japan but the prices were a little expensive and the flight times weren't the best. Instead we decided to venture around Seoul some more and visit places we had not seen yet.

On Saturday we went to a popular mall named Coex. Among all the stores there was an aquarium and a kimchi museum (which I definitely want to see someday). The aquarium was really cool. It took us about 1.5 hours to walk through it. The aquarium had many types of fish from all around the world and some land animals. The path to follow in the aquarium took you through different parts of the world showing you fish from that region. One cool part of the exhibit was that fish tanks were created using household or things you might see outside. There were fish tanks inside of a refrigerator, washing machine, phone booth, toilet, mail box, etc.

A very interesting looking fish

Washing machine fish tank

Spider Man mailbox fish tank. That was my favorite.

Traditional Korea next to a Coke machine

A pig-turtle

Shark tank

Emily and the jellyfish

The last part of the aquarium was the penguin habitat

Sunday happened to be the Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day. We started the day off by going to Gwanghwamun, a region of Seoul. I have been here before to look at some of the palaces. This time there was a big festival going on on the street to celebrate. Along the street there was different concerts going on, an ice skating rink, and many people flying kites. Emily and I decided it would be fun to fly kites like all the Koreans were. After flying the kites and walking around the area we went to a little sandwich shop for dinner which was delicious.

Kites in the sky

Emily flying a kite

After the street festival we went to Seoul Tower. This tower is in central Seoul and has a great view of the city especially at night. The tower is 777 ft. tall. The tower sits on top of a big hill so in order to get to the base of the tower we had to take a cable car. When we got to the base of the tower there was a few restaurants, gift shop, and things to look at. The cool thing about the tower is that along the fence that surrounds the tower at the top of the hill people who are dating or married put padlocks on the fence and then are supposed to throw the key over the side. All of the fence space is full of locks that couples have put over time. We were able to find a spot that was open. We put a padlock on the fence that we had bought from the gift shop. Putting the locks on the fence is supposed to bring good luck to those people so hopefully it does! After doing that we went to the top of the tower. Knowing my fear of heights I was surprised that I wasn't freaking out. I did get a little scared however, when walking to the window to look outside. I made sure to stay about 2 steps away! Who knows if I'll ever get over that fear or not. On the windows around the top of the tower it showed international cities and countries that you are looking out at. Going to Seoul Tower was really cool and it was a cool way to spend Valentine's Day. I plan on visiting it again in the future but during the day this time so I can see how much different the city looks when its light outside.

View from the spot where the cable car left

Base of the tower. I liked this picture because in the corner is a traditional Korean structure. It looked cool to mix a traditional and modern styles.

The fence that went around the base of the tower. As you can tell it is full of locks people have left. Our lock it behind the while pole near the Korean couple.

Somewhere far, far, far away is Des Moines!

Lastly, Saturday was my birthday. The plan was to go out to dinner with Emily and then meet up with friends in Sinchon and Hongdae (two places very close to where I live. These places have universities so many people around our age hang out there). Little did I know that Emily secretly planned a surprise party for me. The restaurant was On the Boarder. A Mexican restaurant from America. We got to the restaurant at 8. Not expecting anything we were walked to our table which was in one of the big rooms set for larger groups. As we walked I finally saw all of our friends sitting at the table. I was extremely surprised and excited! It was a great way to spend the night, eating and going out with all of my friends here in Korea. A few of my co-workers and a bunch of Emily's came. As we all know at restaurants when its someone's birthday they sing happy birthday to you. They gave me a poncho and sombrero to wear. After dinner we went to a bar owned by two Canadian men and we watched some of the olympics. It's been cool to be able to watch the olympics here. Also, it has been interesting to see the focus on the athletes from a different country. All in all it was a perfect way to spend my birthday. I had NO IDEA that Emily was planning a surprise party for me! It was much appreciated. Thank you to all my friends and family back home that wished me a happy birthday! Also, congrats to the SJU swim team for the great job at the conference meet this past weekend. I was able to stream the swim meet for parts of 2 evening sessions. It looks like everyone swam well which is great to see. This weekend Emily and I are searching for places to go. Hopefully we will be able to find a flight somewhere, in or outside of Korea.

My attire for the birthday song

A shot of most of the people at the table. Apparently I have one blue eye and one red eye.
(Thanks Nicole for the pictures!)

90 degree weather in Thailand....OR....low 20's and snow in Korea??? Hmmmm

2010-01-04T13:03:00.001+09:00

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone!! It was quite different this year not being home for Christmas. What stunk the most was that we had to work on Christmas Eve! But, I did get a lot of presents from students ranging from a winter hat, gloves, lotions, etc. As much as Christmas is celebrated in Korea it didn't really seem like Christmas time. Maybe the lack of snow played a part in that. Although it did snow a little on Christmas Day when our plane was taking off and while we were gone. Figuring that staying in Seoul for our winter break would be very boring I went to Thailand with Emily and three of her co-workers (Matt, Cindy, Elyse). We left Christmas Day around dinner time. Our flight stopped in Taipei to pick up some more people then we headed to Bangkok. In Bangkok we stayed at a little hostel. We stayed in Bangkok for 2 full days.

On the first day in Bangkok we rode a boat that took us through the canals of Bangkok to one of the many palaces the city has to offer. It was a fun trip. At random times people in their little boats would float up to us and try to sell us something. Water taxi's are very popular as we saw many people on the river/canal. After getting off the water taxi we walked through a local market. The market had all kinds of food and goods to buy. Our plan was to go to the main Palace in Bangkok but it was a special day so that palace was closed so that the monks could pray. Instead we went to a few smaller ones. We went to one that had a massive Buddha statue. In order to get to this place we had to take a tuk-tuk. This is a type of taxi you can take in Thailand. I recommend that if you ever to to Thailand, only to ride this ONE time! Here are the reasons: 1.The drivers like to take advantage of tourists and try to rip you off as much as possible. Our hotel was very helpful when we asked them how much we should be charged when going from one place to the next. Of course the price that the tuk-tuk drivers told us was outrageous. You are able to bargain prices with them and we always got our price down to what our hotel had told us, or even lower in one case. 2. The drivers try to make you go to more than one location so that they can coerce you into making a "stop" for them which allows them to refill on gas. The drivers claim that the government gives them coupons for gas if they take you to either a jewelry or tailor shop. In the 3 times we took a tuk-tuk we went to 4 tailor shops! Compared to America tailor shops are VERY VERY cheap. Around $300 for an Armani suit. Obviously we didn't want to get a suit but we had to go into the shops for about 10 minutes each so the driver could get his coupon. Riding in the tuk-tuks wasn't a bad experience since our hotel helped us in telling us prices we should demand. Also, it was fun to ride in one because they zipped in and out of traffic. In Bangkok driving would be a nightmare. I though a lot of people in Korea rode little motorcycles. Thailand has thousands more and they are driving every which direction.

Boat trip through the canal

See the little green motorcycle/car? Those are the tuk-tuks!

Standing Buddha

Emily and I in front of the statue

A shrine to Buddha in a small temple

One of the various palaces at night

The 2nd day in Bangkok we went to the Grand Palace. This was the one that was closed the day before. The Grand Palace covers a massive amount of area and has many palaces and temples inside its grounds. To go into the palace grounds men have to wear pants. Women have to wear dresses/pants that go down to about the middle of the shin and their shirts have to have sleeves. We were allowed to wear sandals which was the only good part about the dress code! It was at least 90 degrees outside with little breeze. I've never worn jeans in that type of heat. It was crazy. I can't imagine the people who do this everyday in Thailand. This area had many smaller palaces that we visited, some you could go inside and others you couldn't. We did go into a pretty big temple but we weren't able to take pictures inside. Inside the temple you had to either sit on your feet or point your feet/legs diagonally behind you. The reasoning is that pointing your feet at anyone is offensive. I would not make a very good Buddhist because I had a hard time sitting in both of those positions! The look of all the temples/palaces in this area and all over Bangkok was awesome. Most are covered in gold (not sure if its real gold or not) and have cool architecture to them. There are also many cool statues, such as Buddhist demons, angels, etc. After leaving the Grand Palace we walked about 20 minutes to the "Reclining Buddha". The Buddha statue lays on his side inside a palace. He is 150 ft. long and 50 ft. high. It is a popular tourist attraction in Bangkok. It is one of the worlds largest Buddha statues. The 2 days we spent in Bangkok were a lot of fun. It was neat seeing a lot about the history of the city and Buddhism in general. The last 5 days of our trip we went to the beach in southern Thailand!!

Outside the Grand Palace wearing pants on a 90+ degree day!

One of the many statues

A palace inside the Grand Palace grounds

Palace with a very modern look to it

Almost like the Buckingham Palace guards. They couldn't move.

Reclining Buddha. I tried to get his entire body in one shot.

A temple that we were allowed to take pictures in.

After Bangkok, we flew down to southern Thailand and stayed about 2 hours north of Phuket, which is a popular tourist area. Our hotel was on an island called Koh Kho Khao Island. The first full day in Thailand was December 26. Many people might not know but that day marked the 5 year anniversary of the tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean. southern Thailand, especially Phuket and Koh Kho Kaoh (where we stayed after Bangkok) was hit very hard. On TV that day there was a ton of coverage marking the anniversary and showing all the memorials people were holding. It's strange to think that 5 years ago most of southern Thailand was gone but today it has all been rebuilt. One of Emily's co-workers, Elyse, went to the area where we stayed in southern Thailand to help with tsunami relief in 2004. We all stayed at the same hotel she stayed at when she came. At one of the markets Elyse was able to find a Thai girl that she had met in 2005 when she came to help rebuild this area.

Our hotel was very nice. The rooms were pretty big, the food was very good and everyone was very nice. For the most part we laid out on the beach. We did go to 2 excursions. The first one was the day after we got there. We went snorkeling out about 30 minutes from our beach. We went to 2 different spots to snorkel then we went to a little island that was nearby. The island was pretty cool. It was FULL of hermit crabs! The water where we snorkeled at was pretty clear so we were able to see many cool fish. After getting to the little island we hung out for about and hour. We ate some food and laid out. The second excursion we went on was my favorite part of the trip. We started of the day by going on an elephant trek. This was a lot of fun. I've always wanted to ride an elephant. The trek took about 1 hour or so through the Thailand "Jungle". Each elephant carried 2 people. On the first half of the trip Emily got to sit on the elephants neck/back. After a break for the elephant to wash off we turned around an went back. The way back I got to sit on the elephants neck/back. At first it was hard to keep balanced. Whenever we were going up or downhill the elephant would pin his ears back against our legs so we wouldn't fall off. These elephants were very well trained. After leaving the elephant camp we went to another site to have lunch and go on a canoe trip. The trip went through a river and took about an hour. It was nice to relax and hang out in the canoe while someone did the rowing for us! The last part of this day trip we went to the "Monkey Temple". Literally. We went to this place that had mini temples and there were hundreds of monkeys around. We were able to feed them nuts or bananas that we bought. Our guides said that their favorites were nuts not bananas. I bought 1 bag of nuts and 1 bunch of bananas. I'm guessing our guides told us that they like nuts more because they went crazy when I pulled out the bananas! I had monkey jumping up and chasing me trying to get the bananas. The nuts they didn't care for as much, since everybody had them. There was definitely an excess amount of nuts so at times it was hard to get the monkeys to take any. It was funny watching them swing from tree to tree or attacking each other. At one point, a little monkey jumped on Matt and Emily while they were trying to feed them nuts. Sadly, I didn't have a monkey jump on me. On New Years Eve our hotel had a buffet dinner and some shows/games for everybody. Our group was the life of the party, taking part in all the games and winning all the prizes! The day we checked out the lady told us thank you for making the party fun because nobody else wanted to take part in the games or activities like we did. A tradition on New Years Eve is to light up paper lanterns and let them go over the ocean. I am in a picture below with the lantern. The point is to put all of your worries into this lantern and then let it go and watch your worries sail away! Hopefully everyones worries sailed away that night. This is also the case on the anniversaries of the tsunami. People light the lanterns and let them sail away like we did on New Years Eve.

The boat that took us snorkeling and to the island nearby

Those are all hermit crabs. This island had them everywhere.

One of the elephants

Starting out the trek

Emily and I riding the elephant. She is riding on his neck.

Top of the hill just before we walked down to the river to canoe

On the canoe

2 of the many monkeys we saw

New Years Eve

About to let my worries sail away!

Overall, the trip was a ton of fun. I couldn't have though of a better way to spend the week off from school. I've traveled to a part of the world I would probably have never thought of going to until coming to Korea. The trip to Thailand definitely ranks up there in my top 3 trips ever! Now its back to teaching again tomorrow. I did however wake up this morning and look out the window and there is about 3 inches of snow which is awesome. I was told it doesn't snow too often in Seoul since its such a big city it melts away. Hopefully the snows stays for a few days! I'll have to start planning another trip. We have a long weekend over Valentine's Day in February. The Orange Bowl is tomorrow, go Hawkeyes!!! I'm going to do my best to find a way to watch and follow the game at work tomorrow, since it starts at 10 a.m. for me. Happy New Year!

I'll be wearing my Hawkeye shirt under my work clothes tomorrow!

Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North

2009-11-30T00:13:00.000+09:00

Things at school have been going pretty well recently. The H1N1 flu has scared the entire country and tons of people have been getting it. There has been over 108,000 "confirmed" cases here in South Korea, with 104 deaths. Needless to say many kids have been gone from school. Students can take "breaks" whenever they feel like, I believe they still have to pay the tuition so their spot doesn't get filled by a new student. I have had classes where a handful of students have been gone this entire month. In one class, there are 6 students but in November only 1 girl has come to class each time. I feel really bad for her because she must be bored out of her mind to be the only one in class. I guess one positive for her is that we usually get all the work done in class so she does not have homework that often! A few weeks ago our director said that a kindergarten class would be shut down for 1 week if any of the students in that class had the flu. At the beginning of the week one of the classes were closed for the entire week. Later that week our director made the decision to close all kindergarten classes on that Friday and following Monday, giving the kids 4 days to get better. I know of at least 2-3 kids in my class who got the flu so my class was closed from the Thursday-Monday. It was really nice only having to teach 1 kindergarten class on the Thursday (I teach reading/library to another class). Then, on that Friday and next Monday we didn't have to come to school until 2 p.m. It was awesome to be able to sleep in 4 days in a row! My director had also brought to our attention that if the government shut down all the schools in Korea for 1 week that our winter vacation from December 25-Jan. 4 would be moved to the week when our school closes. Thankfully by closing down the kindergarten for those few days we got around that situation and our winter vacation will remain the same. I was worried for a few days because we had just booked our plane tickets to Thailand for winter break only a couple days earlier. Other than the flu scare at school, things have been the same. We had another birthday party on Friday celebrating the kindergarten students who had B-days in November. Sometime in December we are having an open class for 1 period of kindergarten classes. This is where the parents can come and watch us teach! From what I have heard it's kind of stressful since the parents just sit there and stare at you. I'm curious to see how well my class behaves, since they want to impress their parents. I can only hope they are all perfect angels! (which happens very rarely).

This weekend I went to the DMZ with Emily and 8 of her co-workers. It was an awesome experience. Hundreds of thousands of tourists/Koreans visit the DMZ each year. We went with a company called Adventure Korea. This group hosts a ton of weekend adventures through out Korea, such as skiing, DMZ, hiking, weekend trips to Jeju (the korean hawaii), ice fishing trips, etc. We started off the morning by driving to a town named Imjingak. This is the furthest point that civilians can go. Our passports/ARC cards were collected by the tour guides and they had to ask permission to allow us to continue closer to the actual DMZ. In Imjingak there were a few statues and a peace bell. People come here often and say prayers that peace will eventually come between the 2 countries. All around the fences of this area people have put peace ribbons up. Many of them say things on them, written both in English and Korean.

A few ladies had little shops set up next to the fence selling DMZ souvenirs and ribbons which cost 1,000 won (about $.80). The shops had a lot of cool traditional Korean goods. I ended up buying a plaque that has a small piece of barbed wire taken off a fence at the DMZ on the 50th anniversary of the Korean War. The city of Paju guarantees that the wire is legit. I also bought some commemorative Korean stamps. Those 2 items were the first souvenirs I've bought since being here. Next, we found a train that had been traveling between North and South Korea and was attacked by the North. The train has over 200 bullet holes and a couple of major holes, probably from an explosion.

A little Korean soldier

Next, we walked to Freedom Bridge. This bridge had been the site of the recovery of over 12,000 Koreans after the war had ended. It is not open right now, and many more ribbons, and clothes offering prayers cover the entrance to it.

The bridge from a distance

Entrance to the bridge with Emily

After receiving permission for our tour group to go further we went to a very tiny town named Paju. Here we ate a traditional Korean meal. Our group had over 100 people and we took every single spot in the restaurant. Traditional Korean restaurants have the tables very close to the ground, so you sit on the ground. Also, shoes are not allowed inside. You have to take them off in the entrance and set them in a little room. I have been to a few restaurants so far where you sit on the ground. It's really tough on the legs especially if your tall like I am. The meal consisted of rice (who would have guessed), kimchi, porridge that had no taste (first time trying that), seaweed squares, a soup with tofu that had clams and noodles (also first time trying clams), a spicy tofu, some nut gelatin thing, and fish cakes. The food was very good. Here are a few pictures of the food and all the people eating.

The restaurant had 3 long tables from one end to the other. I sat at the end of the middle table with our group.

After leaving this small town we went to the 3rd tunnel. So far, 4 tunnels have been discovered. They range from the far west to the eat side of North Korea. There are speculations that 10 more tunnels exist. Everyone had the chance to go into part of the 3rd tunnel. We had to wear hardhats and could not bring cameras down with us. Since I couldnt take my camera I found this picture from Wikipedia.

The tunnel is only 6.5 ft high and 6.5 ft wide. It is 1 mile long. The walk down to where the tunnel begins was a very steep walk. The entrance to the tunnel is 240 ft. below ground. The entire time we walked through the tunnel I was forced to crouch because there were many poles, and only a few points was it actually about 6 ft. high. At the end of the tunnel, well as far as we were allowed there was a door with barbed wire on it. You could actually see into the next room. More of the tunnel for about 50 ft. and then there was another door that looked exactly the same and had a hole in the middle so someone, whoever it may be can look through it. That part was rather creepy. After finally getting back to ground level a few of us bought North Korean beer from the gift shop. The beer was pretty good, it tasted like the Canadian beer Molson.

Emily and I in front of the DMZ sign

People of North and South Korea attempting to push the 2 countries back together. On one side South Korea is raised up and on the other side North Korea is raised up off of the sphere.

After leaving the 3rd tunnel we went to Dora Observatory. This is the spot where you can actually look into North Korea. The front of the viewing area had binoculars that you could use. If you wanted to take pictures you could only do so in a certain area. There was an official photo line painted on the ground that you couldn't pass with your camera. The place was full of Korean soldiers. It kind of stunk because it was pretty foggy so we couldn't really see much. The only thing I was able to see was the North Korean and South Korean flags on huge poles.

Looking into the abyss a.k.a. North Korea

Finally, we went to Dorasan Train Station. This train station is the the very last train stop in South Korea. I really liked this part of the tour. The train station was absolutely immaculate looking. Very few people actually take a train to this station so everything is very clean there. It's also kind of weird being in the station because everything has been set up and it appears that it's a normal train station, which is not the case. In order to ride this far north in South Korea you must apply for a train ticket. Starting in 2007, one time per day every weekday, a train from this station goes into North Korea with materials and takes them to an industrial park. The train then returns later that day with finished goods. We had the chance to buy a train ticket and have it officially stamped. We were allowed to go outside to the train tracks where some soldiers were standing. While outside and train came from the second to last stop in South Korea and maybe 10 people got off. It was weird to see a train actually come. On February 20, 2007 (my birthday) President Bush and the Korean President at the time had a peace meeting here and they both signed their names on a big piece of concrete which is displayed inside the station. The motto of the train station is, "Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North."

When/if this station ever opens into North Korea, the plan is to connect this line with the rest of Asia and Europe.

We have our boarding passes for the first train into North Korea!!

Waiting for the first train....I might be there awhile.

This Korean Soldier took pictures with many of us. When I stood next to him he stood on his tippy toes in order to be a little closer in height to me haha.

Entrance to the train station. A little empty? Perhaps

Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can!

2009-11-03T22:17:00.000+09:00

My school had its Halloween party last Friday. After classes Thursday all the teachers stayed after work for a bit to get their rooms ready for the party the next day. For as little time as we had to prepare our rooms they all looked pretty cool. Friday, all the kindergarteners got to dress up in their costumes. As you might assume just about every girl dressed up as a princess and alot of the boys were ninjas. I decided to dress up as Spiderman. It was quite the costume. I got it at a halloween shop (only a few stores) in Seoul. All of the kids absolutely loved my costume. There was a number of activities going on during the day. We started off the day by carving a pumpkin. It was the first time I have carved a pumpking in a long time. I managed to only break one knife! In my defense the knives were quite dull! Next, we made spiders using styrofoam balls, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes. The kids liked making these since they were able to "customize" their spider after they put it together. During the activities a few of the classes would go around to the other classrooms and Trick or Treat. The teachers as well as the students handed out candy to the class that came to Trick or Treat. I believe that I ended up with more candy than I started out with because whenever I gave a kid 1 piece of candy I seemed to get 2 or 3 in return. Toward the end of the kindergarten classes the kids got to watch the movie Monsters Inc.

All of the teachers (North American and Korean)

Korean teachers with Spiderman!

During lunch time that day a bunch of the teachers went to get lunch and walked around our area for a little bit. To my surprise, not as many people gave us stares or weird looks as I would have imagined. You would think that if Spiderman, a cowboy, a panda, someone in a suit wearing a Disney World style Mickey Mouse head, and a bee would cause nearly everyone to stop in their tracks and stare. It was funny for the people who did stare at us. Their eyes got really big as we walked by and looked confused! A few people stopped us to take pictures with them. It would have been fun if the rest of our day consisted of walking around Seoul trying to amuse people. During the afternoon classes we taught a few classes and also gave the kids candy and played some games such as Halloween bingo and pin the nose on the pumpkin. Not as many kids dressed up in the afternoon, since the Halloween party is mostly geared toward the kindergarten kids.

Another picture of the infamous Andy. He was a Korean drama character from TV. His twin brother was the exact same character!

The Hummingbirds all dressed up!

Spiderman and Spiderman Jr.

A few weeks ago I went to Bukhansan National Park to "climb" a the mountain with Emily, Ray, and Matt (co-workers of Emily). This park was just outside of Seoul and took about an hour to get there on the subway. The mountain is the 2nd tallest in the Seoul area (I believe) at 2,744 ft. above sea level. If you know me then you know how afraid I am of heights. We began to hike up the mountain which was a very good workout. At one point the hiking got very intense as the path got steeper and steeper. Needless to say I did not make it up to the peak! I made it about 3/4 the way up before the heights got to me and I didn't want to try and go farther. Word on the street (Emily) is that the hike only got harder and scarier. She said right before the peak you literally had to hold onto either a rope or pole to hold yourself from flying over the edge and dying? The hike itself didn't scare me since it was very wooded, but at one point there was a wide open shot of Seoul which started to freighten me. By the way, Seoul had so much smog that you could barely see the city. So instead of trying to climb higher I hung out the trail for awhile with Ray, he didn't want to leave there all alone. Thanks ray! Walking up a mountain, hill, or anywhere in Korea is always a challenge since Koreans don't have a consistent walking pattern. They walk EVERY direction possible. You're always dodging people as you walk anywhere. One thing I liked about the hiking was the funny outfits Koreans wear when they hike. They all get completely decked out. The huge backpacks, sun visors, sunglasses, hiking shoes, ski pole looking walking sticks. They take hiking very seriously here! I'm surprised I didn't see any women hiking in high heels because it seems like women do everything in high heels. Just like how men at the gym I belong to wear their golf shoes when they "lift weights".

Stream while hiking up the mountain

Up at the top is the peak. This is a very popular spot for rock climbing.

Peak from a farther distance. No way you could ever get me to go up there!

Outskirts of Seoul? I know, I can barely see it too

Random picture of the Korean hiking attire

On another note, Emily, Cindy (Emily's co-worker), and myself just booked a trip to Thailand for winter break. We are set to leave Christmas Day and get back on Jan 2nd or 3rd. We don't have much planned as of yet but we plan on staying in Bangkok for a few days to see/do some of the stuff there, then head down to Phuket which is where the beach is. I'm really excited for this trip since it will be awesome to get of the the cold weather for a week! After going from around 65-70 degrees Saturday to 30 degrees Monday, I definately can't wait for warm weather.

The past few weekends I have been able to not only listen to the audio but actually watch the Iowa Hawkeye games live through various websites that stream sporting events, movies, tv shows, etc. I have no idea how they were able to pull that game out on Saturday. I got back from celebrating Halloween Sunday morning and I found the game and they were losing by 14 I think. On top of that I watched Stanzi throw 2 more of his 5 interceptions! But I still stayed up and watched the rest of the game. I can't believe they came back to win. It was very exciting to watch!! Lets hope these last 3 games go in their favor. It would be awesome to see Iowa in a BCS bowl game. It's always weird watching a college football game at 1-4 a.m. here when its only the early afternoon back at home. As long as they keep winning I won't complain!

92 yard touchdown!

Time Flies By

2009-10-18T19:54:00.003+09:00

For having such long work days (9 a.m.-7:30 p.m.) the weeks seem to go by very fast. I have been here for 5 weeks now and time hasn't slowed down yet! Weekends here are very relaxing, although it seems most people do anything but relax. It's a nice time to go out and explore more parts of Seoul and to find new things. Not a lot happend last week besides work. This week however, I did a little more. Emily's dad is on a business trip throughout Asia. He was in Seoul for most of the week before leaving to go to China and Japan. On Thursday, Emily, myself and a few of her co-workers took Steve (emily's dad) out to dinner at a Thai restaurant. It was my first time having Thai food and I thought it was very delicious. I had a chicken dish with some veggies top with a ginger sauce, and of course, rice. The food was very good but I felt the portion was a little small. Definately a place I will return to in the future.
Saturday was Steve's last full day in Seoul so Emily took him around to some cool things in the city. I met up with them in the afternoon and we went to the Korean War Memorial. It was an awesome place to go. Outside of the memorial, there were airplanes, tanks, trucks, huge machine guns, and helicopters that were used in war. A few of them you could actually go inside of. This picture below is of a tanker that can be used on land as well as in the water. The back door was open were soldiers would come out of. I went inside and attempted to get into either the driver or gunner seat. It was a very very tight squeeze but I managed to get in.

Another cool part thing outside was a monument/statue of two korean soldiers hugging each other. The bigger man with the gun on his back was a South Korean soldier, while the the smaller man was a North Korean soldier. The cool thing about it is that these men are brothers. The statue shows the willingness for these two men to forgive each other for the violence, tradegy, and problems that have gone on. There is also a split up the side of the monument between the men showing the division that still exists between South and North Korea.

Peace clock tower. There was another clock on the ground behind where I was standing that will be turned on at the time when peace is ever restored between N and S Korea. If this happens, that clock will be added to the peace clock tower.

A monument right when you enter the main gate. Apparently many people stand underneath this hand and get their picture taken.

View of the War Memorial from the front. For the picture on the left I sat my camera down on the stone near the edge of the water. It turned out much better than the same picture I took holding my camera. Once inside the museum/memorial there was a ton of stuff to see. We started off by going to the "war experience" room. Everyone went in this room that was made out to look like a battle during the Korean War. All the lights turned off and it took us through a 5 minute experience of what a battle might have looked like and sounded like during this war using nearly life-size men as soldiers. Next, we went through a few room that showed what life was like during the war. There were little villages, schools, and towns set up. It was kind of creepy because the people looked very real.

Creepy girl that was part of the korean life exhibit during the war

Another room we went to was an exhibit of each country that either sent medical/food support or that fought in the Korean War. Each country had a life like soldier/nurse along with information about how long they served, number of people that came over, number of deaths and injuries. There was also medals, weapons, and other gear that each country used. Below is the American soldier and some medals that soldiers could have gotten.

My favorite part of this room was an exhibit called "The Drop". It consisted of 1300 dog tags in the shape of a tear. It represented those who served and died in the war. The bottom was sand that had a ripple effect in it, as if the tear dropped.

We also went through an exhibit that depicted each war Korea has been involved in. There were weapons, many pictures, information of the war and the result. There was also a section of the terrorist attacks North Korea has been involved in with Koreans, Americans, and others. Finally, with just a few minutes left before the museum closed we walked around to see some other planes, tanks, and cars that were used in the war that were inside. I liked this museum a lot because there was a major focus on the Korean War, but there was also information from every war in Korean history. Ancient and modern wars were all represented inside the museum. There were some big fighter planes and tanks outside that we did not see because they were closing. I would like to return to the memorial again sometime. It would be very easy to spend 4-5 hours there and not get the least bit bored.

After leaving the memorial, we took Emily's dad to a Korean barbeque restaurant that she lives by. She goes there so often that the manager gives her coupons once in awhile. And we even got one last night too! Korean barbeque is definately my favorited food here, I will have to take a picture of the setup sometime an put it on here. Lastly, we went to a noribang. At these places you rent out a room and get to sing karoke. There are million songs to choose from. It was really fun. It would be easy to drop alot of money and spend hours in there. That was another first for me since I have been in Korea! I don't have any pictures of that on my camera, I will have to get those from Emily sometime and put them on here. So things have been going very well here so far. I can't believe its been over a month. Time has gone by very quick! Everything at school is going well too. We have monthly testing this week, which is what teachers look forward too. Watching kids take tests for hours. Then, next week we have some Halloween things to do with the kindergarteners so I have to find a costume. I'm not too sure how well that is going to work. Halloween is not really celebrated here so only a few places even sell costumes, and I hear they are expensive and you HAVE to rent them, which makes it worse. But who knows, I'll see what I can do! I saw the Hawks won again yesterday! I listened to a little bit of it on my computer, but it started at 1 a.m. here so I was too tired to listen to it all. Hopefully they will have a little jump up when the standings come out on Monday since 1 or 2 teams above them both lost this weekend. 7-0!!

Happy Chuseok!!

2009-10-05T22:19:00.000+09:00

This past weekend was the holiday of Chuseok in Korea. Chuseok is similar to our Thanksgiving. Chuseok is a major harvest festival. During this time Seoul looked almost like a ghost town. Nearly everyone travels back to their hometowns to pay respect to those who have passed away. On Chuseok morning, people go to the gravesites of their ancestors. They clean up around the area and maybe put some flowers out. Next, they offer food and drink to their ancestors. A major food for this holiday is called songpyeon. It is a rice cake filled with seseame seeds and sugar.

The ever so tasy songpyeon!

This holiday is celebrated over a 3 day period with the actual Chuseok on the 2nd day. It stunk this year because Chuseok was on a Saturday. If it would have fallen on a Thursday we would have gotten Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off of classes. But we only got a Friday off this year. I guess you can't really complain about that. On Thursday, the kindergarteners wore their traditional Korean outfit called a "Hanbok". These outfits usually have many colors on them and are only worn a few times a year. My school had a celebration for the kindergarten students. I started off one class introducing Chuseok to the children although they obviously knew more than I will EVER know about it! It was funny because all the teachers used Wikipedia to find information about it. I then talked about Thanksgiving in America and how there were similarities and differences between the two holidays. We played a few games that are normally played on Chuseok day. One game was pretty much like hacky-sack, or however you spell it. Another game was hopscotch. During activity time we made songpyeon. This was made using rice cakes that we already prepared. We separated the rice cake mix into 5 pieces. Then we flattened each one out and put seaseme seeds and sugar in the middle. Next we folded it in half to somewhat resemble a cresent. Each student brought some home to their family. We were able to eat some songpyeon that was already made. It was pretty good. The only thing that made it good was the sugar though because rice cakes have no taste. They just taste like rubber. Very chewy. Thursday was fun in the morning with all the activities for the little kids. But the afternoon classes were just normal, which really stunk.

My class with their Hanbok outfits

Andrew and Daniel

Kenneth, Daniel, Andrew, Ben

Kenneth

Since nearly everyone in my area of Seoul was gone for the entire weekend it was really hard to find food. I had to rely on the convinent store a few times for meals. I was able to find some american restaraunts in another part of Seoul with a few of Emily's co-workers which was nice. I figured since we had Friday off I should go explore Seoul a little bit. I was looking through one of my travel books and I decided to go see the Olympic park. Seoul held the summer olympics in 1988. It was very easy to get to. I only had to transfer one time on the subway. When I got out of the subway the stairs literally took me to where the park started. The park was massive. I first started off by going to the olympic museum. It was really neat. There was a lot of memorbilia from korean athletes as long as detailed information about most of the olympic games. I got to see the actual suit, swim cap, and goggles that Park Tae-hwan wore at the Beijing Olympics. He is a very good swimmer from South Korea. He won the gold medal in the 400 meter free and silver in the 200 meter free at the 2008 olympics. After leaving the museum I walked around the outskirts of the park along a path that people usually walk, bike, or rollarblade on. My one goal for coming to the olympic park was to swim at the pool that was used in the olympics. Most of the olympic facilities were on the opposite side of the entrance to the park so it took awhile to get there. After reaching the pool, I found that it was closed. It's normally open to the public to swim for a couple of dollars. But, it was Chuseok the next day so all the sporting facilities were closed. Everything else in the park was open such as restaurants, coffee shop, gift shop. It was a bummber that I didn't get to take pictures of the pool or swim in it but I will be back sometime in the near future. The inside of the park was scattered with a ton of small/big parks that had stuff for families to do. There were places to rest, play grounds for kids, some workout equipment, places to eat, etc. Also the part was decorated with a lot of statues from various artists around the world. It took about 1.5 hours to walk around the outside of the park. It felt like I had spent the day at Disney World! The olympic park was really cool and I will return soon to check out more of it when the athletic facilities are open.

My building from the front. I'm on the 4th floor.

Entrance to Olympic Park

Olympic torch

The drum that was played at the opening ceremonies

Entrance to the pool

Park Tae-Hwan's olympic get-up

How old Korean men/women work out

Take 2

On Saturday I went around Seoul again with two of Emily's co-workers. First, we went to Gyeonbokgun which is a part of Seoul. This area houses the US Embassy, a really cool looking art center, and some Korean palaces. I found out quickly that you're not supposed to take pictures of the US Embassy! We were at a stop light across the street from it so I decided to take a picture. I then heard a Korean soldier yell at me, in Korean of course across the street and give the "No" sign which is making an X with your arms. I thought it was funny because what would an American do with a photo of the US embassy? Who knows. He gave me a death stare when we walked by them, it was rather funny. We then went to the palaces. They were awesome. We only saw 1 that day. You could see off in the distance there were a bunch more. I'm not sure if the public can see those, I would like to find out and go back if you can. If you've ever seen a movie that takes place in Asian history this is what the palace looked like. We were able to walk up to the "front door" of it and take a look inside. There was a big throne with some various artifacts scattered through out the room. This was pretty cool, but I eventually want to make it out to the mountains/countryside of Korea and see more palaces. I was told by one of the guys I went with that all of the palaces we saw had been burned down many times by the Japanese so they had all been rebuilt. There is one somewhere in Seoul that is still the origional palace, but you cant even see it from the rode its blocked off very well.

The entrance into the palace area

Throne

Another palace off in the distance

Cheonggyecheon Stream

Street in Insa-dong

After leaving the palace we went to another area in Seoul close to the palace called Insa-dong. There was street in this area that sold authentic Korean goods. So far going out you usually only see massive shopping malls that are 10 stories high that only sell "modern" things. This street sold old school acient Korean artifacts. It would be easy to go crazy and spend a lot of money because there is a lot of cool things to buy. I know that I will be getting some stuff at this place to take home with me next year. Next, we found a newly built stream that runs through parts of Seoul. It is named Cheonggyecheon Stream Each side of the stream is open to the public to walk, bike, run on which is cool because its very quiet down there. The stream is probably 20-30 lower than the street so it takes away alot of the city noise. By the time we left that area of Seoul it was night time which made for some good pictures. That night for dinner we went to a place called Lotteria. It is the Korean version of McDondalds, Burger King, Etc. The food was decent although the pictures on the menu were nearly twice as big as the food itself! It is Lotteria's 20th anniversary this year so they have a special new "burger" out. The burger is half beef half fish! How delicious does that sound? I hope you're thinking not delicious at all. Sunday I didn't really do much. The girl who lived in my apartment before me from my school left a bike. I rode around my area a little bit seeing if anything was open for food. I eventually met up with Emily when she got back. She went to Disneyland Honk Kong this weekend with two of her co-workers which sounds pretty sweet! That's about all for now, working is definately going to be long this week. And for a long time! I dont think we get a day off again until winter break. Yay i can't wait! Its fun to watch Korean baseball here because they are just starting their playoffs. I can sleep easier at night knowing the Cubs are one day closer to the day their new owner takes charge and hopefully one day close to the end of Jim Hendry's horrible reign at the cubs GM. But for now, keep it going Hawkeye football! I purchased a subscription through hawkeysports.com and am now able to listen to the radio broadcast for each game. I went to bed Saturday night after the end of the third quarter figuring they had it locked down. Apparently not! They almost lost. Hopefully they can do well this weekend against Michigan. If I get the chance I'll listen to it again!

When it rains, it pours (in Korea)

2009-09-23T21:16:00.002+09:00

A lot has happend since my last posting. I went to Itaewon, started teaching, went to a dog cafe, and joined a gym. First, last weeked I went to Itaewon during the day on saturday. Itaewon is a region in Seoul where there is an American military base. TONS of americans walking around! I mainly went to buy a cell phone since I felt completely cut off from everyone in Korea. It was always hard to get a hold of Emily if she was not by her computer. I got a prepaid phone so I just paid a fee for the phone and then I can add as much money onto the phone as I want. Everytime I make a phone call it tells me how much money I have left. Its really cheap to text message here so I do that much more than actually calling someone. After I got the phone I walked around a little bit. There are many little shops in this area. Most sell knock off clothing which is funny to see. I was stopped by probably 3-4 korean men who wanted me to buy a suit from them. They all gave me their business cards in the hopes that I'll come again, someday. The best part of Itaewon is all of the American restaurants. Quizno's, Coldstone, etc. I'm definately going back there sometime!

Never though I would see this in Korea!!

A few days ago I went with Emily and two of her co-workers (both have dogs) to a dog cafe. It was a fun experience! A place like this would never ever ever be allowed in America with all the health codes. There was at least 20 dogs running around the cafe. Some of the dogs live there all the time and most people who come bring their dog. It's weird, you sit at comfy tables like a normal cafe, order a drink, but there's tons of dogs running around. One job at the cafe is to clean up any mess the dogs make. Two guys were running around cleaning up pee and poop the whole time we werethere. That's a pretty crappy job! (no pun intended).

On Monday I found out from a co-worker that my building has a gym in the basement. He took me down there just to see what it looked like and find out the cost. We sat down for a little bit with the manager who didn't speak english at all and one of the trainers that spoke a little english. My co-worker was a big help when it came time to settle on a membership fee. Normally for a 6-month membership, it would cost about 620,000 Won (a little over $500 USD). We talked them down to 300,000 Won for the 6 month membership which is $250 USD. The place I worked at this summer was a little over $100/month for the cheapest membership. I got an AWESOME deal. My co-worker helped translate because he knows a little Korean and the two workers were saying how they really want a "white" man to work out at their gym. The funny thing about this gym is besides the regular weightlifting/tredmills/yoga room there is an area to practice golf. Korea loves golf and on any street you could probably find at least 3 driving range type places, whether it's inside or outside on top of a building.

After one week in quarentine I finally started work on Monday. Needless to say, Monday was one of the longest days of my life. I woke up and it was raining. When I left my apartment I saw that it was pouring. My little umbrella didn't work well. I got to work wet all over the place. It took forever to dry off! I met so many little kids that all loved me because i'm the tall, white, "new teachaaaaah". The first day, I had a little girl come up and tell me that I looked like a rabbit because I apparently have big front teeth. Koreans don't hold back anything. If they think you're funny looking the will tell you that. The whole first day and part of the second day I observed classes. Its a weird time for me to start teaching because starting tomorrow and Friday the kids have monthly tests. I really had no clue what was going on because every class was in the middle of something. I know that next Monday will be good because everyone will be starting new material. The schedule is a little weird, it takes time to understand and memorize. Basically this is what happens......The Pre-K and kindergarteners come Monday through Friday. They have class from 9:40 until around 2 (with lunch break in the middle and such). Now with the afternoon classes. Some elementary classes come Monday through Friday. Some are just Monday/Wednesday/Friday. And some are just Tuesday/Thursday. It was confusing at first but I know I'll get used to it soon. My homeroom class for the kindergarteners is named the "Hummingbirds". I start off with them in the morning and teach a few classes to them and then switch to another class to teach 1 period. I took pictures of some of the hummingbirds today which I'm posting too. My co-workers have been very helpful these first few days which has helped a lot because I've asked a lot of questions. My favorite class is a "returnee" class. These students lived abroad at some point in their lives. Most of them lived in the U.S., a few in London, Hongkong, Australia, and one in Honduras. As for the kindergarteners, they are VERY smart! We had a spelling bee in class today and it took about 30 minutes to eliminate all but 3 students. Kindergarteners were spelling words such as "Ambulance, Restaurant, Conclusion, Consequence". It was crazy to see them spell these words without any hesitation. Even the kids who mess around in class and don't ever pay attention rattled off the words so fast.

On another note, I've almost figured out my washing machine? I bought a clothes bag that you can fill and put in the washer. It really helps especially with T-shirts. It doesnt stretch the collars anymore like the washer did when I didnt use a washing bag. Other than teaching, I have not done much this week. This Friday we are going to dinner after work to welcome the new teachers. There are also 2 new KT's (Korean Teachers). Each homeroom has a KT that works with the students in english while we are on lunch break. It's nice to see the Hawkeyes winning some games unlike the Cubs. That's the best thing about football season this year! I can finally watch a team that will win. Alright, well I'm about to leave my apartment to meet Emily and Elyse for some dinner. Another post will probably come next week!

First Few Days

2009-09-15T16:50:00.000+09:00

Very first breakfast. A carmel and banana waffle. Yummy!

Scary washing machine that I have no clue how to work

Notice the hole in the ground? Yeah, that's my shower.

Door to my apartment

It's weird to imagine that I'm finally here! For awhile I thought I was never going to make it. With the long delay from des moines to chicago because of fog (over 3 hours) I got off the plane about 20 minutes before the plane to Korea was supposed to leave. Having to run across the terminal and hop on the train to the international terminal was very stressful. When I got to the terminal I had to check-in and go through security once again. Waiting in line for security, a few Korean Air workers spotted me and helped me through security much faster than everyone else. That was very nice of them. I was relieved once I finally got on the plane.

Getting into my apartment was nice. From what I've seen from Emily's apartment, mine is 2-3 times bigger. It's hard to imagine but there are so many apartment buildings here each one is completely different from the next. Also, the girl who just left POLY from my school left a bunch of helpful things in the apartment. I was also told that people leave stuff for whoever moves in next which is really cool. The girl left me a ton of books about korea, maps of the subway, a few chick flick movies which I'm sure I'll watch because what else am I going to do sometimes?? A few minutes after I moved in the man who showed me into the apartment (Joon- he is one of the academic coordinators at my school) took me down to the subway station that is closest to my apartment to meet Emily and her co-worker. With Emily having been in Korea for over 2 months now it has made things much easier for me. I haven't met any of my co-workers yet because I'm not allowed in the school for 1 week just to make sure I don't have the H1N1 flu, so I can only imagine how much harder it would be to not know a single person right when you get there. I have been familiarzied with the subway already. It's very easy to learn the system because the subway maps on the subway are also in English and each stop is said in English over the intercom when the next one approaches.

So after meeting up with Emily and her friend the first night they took me out to a Korean BBQ restaurant. I have a feeling I'll be eating at these types of restaurants because they are very good! Each table has its own grill so you cook your meat, kimchi, garlic, onions, or whatever else you prefer right in front of you. When you eat it you take a piece of lettuce and first put rice on it, then add the meat and whatever else you want onto it, then wrap it up and eat it. Apparently you're supposed to eat the wrap in 1 bite since thats what EVERYONE does, but sometimes I don't know how its humanly possible.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. It was my first full day. When I got up I unpacked everything and set up my apartment how I wanted it. Next I wanted to find the school on my own (very close to the subway) so I walked around the area for a little bit just to see how it would be easiest to get there. Since I had not eaten breakfast yet I thought about getting starbucks and maybe a muffin or something. After I left the school I notice a coffee shop called Caffe Bene that is very close to the school. I had a frappucinno, strawberry gelato and the best waffle in the world! I have a feeling that will be my favorite coffee shop for the next year. It was also fun to try and practice my korean when I was in the coffee shop. The two guys working were around my age and they were very nice. Last night I had a meeting with the Director and Vice Director of the school (obviously after all the kids were gone since I'm not allowed around them yet. The school is on the 4th floor of a building that has over 10 floors. It's very nice inside, although I didn't really walk around I just sat in one of their offices while we talked for a few minutes. After leaving I met emily again and she invited me to go out to dinner with a bunch of her co-workers because it was someones birthday. The guy who had the birthday was from Chicago and he was wearing a Cubs shirt which was awesome to see. He has been teaching here for 3 years! Another guy in the group was from northwestern Iowa. He went to school at Bethel in Minnesota. I never imagined meeting someone from Iowa this soon into my trip. We went out to another Koean BBQ. It was just as good as the one the night before. By the time we left the restaurant it was around 11. Next, we went out to a bar that emily and her co-workers love to go to. We ended up staying until 3:30! That seems very late to people in the United States, but there was still a TON of people out and about. At this bar we went to, the bartenders do a fire show. This is where they light both ends of a special bottle and twirl it around doing crazy stuff like spitting out alcohol onto the fire making a huge flame.

Today I had my health check up at the hospital. It was really weird compared to the hopsitals in the states. What I got was prettymuch a regular physical with a few random things. I had blood taken, eyes checked, height and weight measured, blood pressure, x-ray, etc. Unlike having the same nurse do all of this for you, we went to a different person/part of the hospital for every task.

Tomorrow I have training at the POLY headquarters somewhere in Seoul. I get to start teaching Monday which I cannot wait for! As fun as it is not having to work this week, I do get very bored during the day because I can only do so much walking around before I get tired. And there really isnt much to do in my apartment besides read or play on the computer. I think people in the U.S. definately take for granted all the things we have because people in Korea seem to live very simple lives!

Hopefully this hasn't been too long, but I wanted to let everyone know about what has gone on so far! More updates will come whenever more fun/or not so fun things happen. Feel free to email (mjdempsey09@gmail.com) or facebook me whenever. Also, go Hawkeyes!!