The Nice Bungeu Bang Man

I had an interesting experience today that I thought was worth sharing.



This is a type of street food here in Korea that is called 붕어빵 (bungeo bang), which litterally translates into carp bread. It is basically a pancake type batter with red bean paste in the middle that is grilled in a fish shaped mold. It is one of my favorite snack foods. You buy them on the street for 3 for 1000 won (about a dollar). Since you get three, this will usually end up being my lunch or something. Early this afternoon I was coming home from church and went looking for a 붕어빵 vender. It was 2:00 and I hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch, so I was pretty hungry. I found a guy who was selling these things for 6 for 1000 won! I was pretty excited. He only had one made, so he gave that one to me for free while I was waiting for him to make more. There was a little stool that he made me sit on, and he offered me some coffee. While the water was heating, he finished my 붕어빵, put it in a bag, and gave me another one to eat while I was waiting for the coffee! The whole time he was talking away. I couldn't understand much of what he was saying. He asked if I went to the nearby university. I told him no, and that I was a teacher at 한국 Kent 위국안 학교. He again said something about the university..... So much for my Korean. After I finished the coffee, he asked me if I smoked and if I wanted a cigarette. In the end, I got 8 붕어빵 (many of them saved for dinner) and coffee and a ciegarette if I had wanted one, all for the price of 3 붕어빵.

The coolest thing about this experience is that it happened right after I tried my 5th church here in Seoul. I haven't really felt very welcome at any of them, and was feeling pretty frustrated. It was sad to me that I haven't felt welcomed at any of these churches, but some random ajashi (older man) who didn't even speak my language could make me feel so at home.



School has been keeping me pretty busy. My students seem to find new ways to challenge me every day. I don't get the kind of support at my school that first year teachers would get back at home, so I'm learning from my mistakes.



Good luck Mom on your first 5K!!! I know you'll do great, but I really wish I could be there to run it with you.

Okay, I'm Back

So I finally feel like I have settled in to my new home job. Time to let others know what's going on.

I am teaching a class of ten first graders. It is nice to have a small number, but it feels bigger because there is so much diversity. The difference between my oldest and youngest student is more than 2 years. At least one never went to kindergarten, so has never had to learn how to do things like sit in a chair or respect a teacher before. Some don't know the sounds of the letters, while some can read at a second grade level. Most students know how to add, but I even have one who is asking to learn how to multiply now. The students have all different backrounds. Taking into account the student's country of citizenship and the countries that they have lived in, my 10 students represent at least 11 countries (India, Bangladesh, Japan, Malaysia, New Zeeland, Russia, USA, England, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Korea). So while the numbers are small, the range of teaching that I have to do feels like it is HUGE.

The year started off really hard. There was no type of orientation to the school, and no one really telling us all of the things that had to be turned in (syllabus, breakdown of the yearly plan, grading polocy etc..) Basically I would find out about these things when I heard other teachers talking about them. The first grade teacher before me basically didn't use any teaching materials (posters, manipulatives, games and stuff like that), so I am spending a lot of my time making these things as I go along. Now I am sort of in a good routine, but making all of the materials is really time consuming.

My housing here is kind of a bummer. All of the other teachers are in a real apartment building, but I am in a building that has 6 units above a bar. Mine is maybe 2/3 the size of the others. The mini-refridgerator that came in the apartment is useless. There is a problem with the seal or something, so the back half of the fridge is frozen while the front half is warm, and the freezer builds up a nice thick layer of ice (about an inch in a week) around the edges. I ended up having to get a fridge of my own, and still have this worthless mini-fridge taking up space in the tiny apartment. It took me six weeks to get internet hooked up. This is completely rediculous considering that Korea is the "most wired nation in the world." There were other teachers who had their internet in 4 days. Mostly the delay was due to a guy at my school who was too busy to make the phone call. I ended up having to get help from another friend, but even then there were more rediculous delays. (Oh yeah, and then the guy who didn't help me at my school had the nerve to tell me that "you should have called a different company") I'm not quite sure how I got stuck with this place, but there is a chance that I will be able to move to the other building in March.

I am coaching the high school cross country team, which has been quite an experience. I didn't know anything about cross country when I started. Basically the athletic director knew that I am a runner, so when they were looking for a coach he asked me. There is another coach that I am working with (who is equally clueless about cross country) which makes things a little easier. We are both first year teachers at the school, so neither of us felt like we could commit to coaching 100% of the time. This is the first year that the school is offering cross country. We have 7 boys on the team. At the first practice there were 2 girls, but they didn't come back. So far we have had 3 meets. We certainly don't have the best team (There are other teams with 45 boys and 45 girls) but I'm proud of how they are doing.

I'll try to start updating my blog on a regular basis again. I already miss everyone so much. I've bought my tickets home for Christmas, so I'll be there for sure.

Jin Joo Cow Farm

This week we took our kids on a field trip to a cow farm (I guess the proper name for it in English, as my mom pointed out is a "dairy farm") This was one of the coolest field trips that we have done, and the kids really enjoyed the experience.

The first thing that we did was go on a tractor ride. This started out exactly how I expected it, slow and bumpy. When we turned onto a narrowly paved road, it turned into more of a rollar coaster. We were going pretty fast, the driver was weaving back and forth like crazy. Then he would slam on the breaks and start going backwards! The kids were falling out of their seat and bumping agains the safety bars (which someone very wisely had put padding on).

Next we walked through a pear orchard (they grew all of the food that they fed the cows on the farm) up to the calf nursery.
At the nursery, each child got to bottle feed the calf. There were six calfs, so each child was given a bottle with just a little bit of milk in it. You can't really see, but the girl that I am with in the bottom picture was terrified. She was squirming and trying to run away, but I had her between my arms pretty tightly. For her, the cows were nice to look at from afar, but not something to go anywhere near.

The next thing we did was probably the best part. Each child got the chance to milk cow. The "farmer" kept the cow from kicking them, and helped all of the kids actually get milk out. I did feel pretty bad for the poor cows, who would get tugged on by so many children, but there were a lot of them, and most of the time they were milked by machines. I hope that they rotated the cow every time a new group of 25 children came.
On the way to the last stop, we walked by the grass bales, so they let the kids feed the cows again.

Our last stop was making icecream. It was surprisingly easy. Each group of 3-4 kids got a big bowl of ice, which had a smaller bowl in it. We poured about a cup of milk in, and they took turns mixing it. After about 10 minutes most had turned to icecream (a few were more like milk-shakes) and they added strawberry or chocolate syrup. Yum!

Yesterday I met some friends and went to Children's Grand Park, which is really similar to Como Park. It has a zoo, botanical gardens, a water play area, and a small amusement park. We just went to the zoo and gardens area, but everything we saw made me think of Como. (maybe because everything reminds me of home when I know that I'll be there so soon) We had a great time. The best part about it though was that this park is right next to my new school that I will start at in September. My friends wanted to see my school, so I took them. I thought it would be kind of dumb ("here, look at the building that I will work in"), but there was a security guard there who let us in. My friend told him that I will be a new teacher there in the fall. He asked what grade I would be teaching, and wanted to show me the classroom that I would be teaching in. I had never seen my room before, so it was really exciting. My actual room was filled with extra furniture because they were cleaning, but I got the idea. He showed us another elementary classroom so I could see what they really look like. I am going to have a Smartboard, which I am thrilled about.

Nine days of work left! Eleven days until I leave!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, but of course, especially to my dad!!!!

Summer Heat

Really nothing special has happened in the last few weeks. I am up to my ears in prep work for the month after I leave. All of the lesson plans have to be made, homework and quizes written and copied, classroom decorations (song lyrics, letter sound signs etc...) and flashcards have to be made. This all has to be done at the same time that I do my regular prep work that already fills my time. Plus, the week before I leave we have open classes, so parents come in and watch a class. This is basically like putting on a play, and requires hours of practice and work in making special teaching materials so that the parents think that everything is really fancy. I got kicked out of school at night every day this week by the front desk guy who wanted to go home. In addition, I'm trying to get all my ducks in a row for my next job, my next apartment, and my 5 week vacation. I am exhausted.

It has been really hot here, which usually I would love. The only time I don't want the heat is when I go for my long runs. I have done a 14 mile run each of the last two weekends. This felt great last weekend. I had originally been registered to participate in a half marathon, but had pulled out when I re-sprained my foot when I was training. As it turns out, my foot was okay by the day of the race, so I just ran the distance on my own. Yesterday when I did my long run, the heat was aweful. I think that I was pretty dehydrated, because by the end of it I was just about dead. I wasn't sweating anymore, could barely breath, and actually was getting the chills and goosebumps.

As I am running along, dying in the heat I look around and this is what I see: All of the people (okay, most of them) around me are wearing long pants, jackets, hats, HUGE visors, and are carrying umbrellas. There are even arm covers that people wear (kind of like arm warmers) to cover any open skin on their arms. They have this intense fear of the sun here. Mostly, they don't want their skin to get darker. I don't know how they can stand it!

Okay, I have 14 work days left at my school, and 18 days until I leave for my vacation. Every time I talk to my mom I get more excited about being in Minnesota where there is fresh air, nice lawns, birds chirping, and lots of family!!!!

Strawberry Farm

This week we got to take the students on a field trip to a strawberry farm. The kids all had to come an hour early, and it was a really long bus ride. It was hard to tell during the trip because everything was so rushed, but I think that the kids really enjoyed it. The bus that my class was on got there really late (we had to wait a long time for a late student, and we got really lost) so we missed a few fun things. There were basically three things that we got to do:

First, we got to pick strawberries. I think that most students found one or two. It was a little frustrating, because all of the other classes had gone through first and picked them all. Even if they didn't find much, they still had fun searching for them.

Next, we got to plant strawberries. The farm didn't really seem to be set up for the number of students that we had, so all the students (I think around 80-90) were squished together between these rows of dirt. Half of them dove in and coated themselves with the dirt, and the other half wouldn't touch it. The dirt divers were more than willing to help the neat freaks. They each got to take one plant home in a pot that was much bigger than it had to be, and we had a great time finding space for all the darn plants on the bus.

The last part was by far the best. We thought that we would make strawberry jam, but the substitute was way better. Each pair of students got a plate of strawberries, one cup of melted chocolate, and one cup of sugary chopped peanuts. I paired most of my students with one girl and one boy, which made it so much cuter when they ate the fondue. While they enjoyed the actual strawberries, what they like most was trying eat melted strawberry with a stick.

I really didn't do much else this week that is worth noting. I am now counting down the days until I leave. There are 23 days of school before I am done. I just keep reminding myself that I am almost done and all of the conflict and stress that I feel will soon be history.

Teacher's Day Dilema

In 1963 the Korean government set aside a "Teacher's Day" to appreciate the work that teacher's do. I was surprised the first time this holiday came around when I was here. I was impressed with how much they value teachers in this country. Last year, most teachers at my school enjoyed generous Teacher's day gifts from parents that ranged from cards or flowers, to expensive skin care products (Lancome, Aveda, Dior and Chanel) or valuable gift cards. Some of the gifts seemed a little over the top, but I didn't hear any complaints.
This year, the school sent home notes to parents explaining that while we appreciate their generosity, we will only be able to accept gifts of cards flowers and food (not quite sure why that last one was included). While admittedly some of us were a little disappointed that we would not be showered with expensive gifts, most of us understood the reasoning. Many parents trying to "buy us off" to give better grades, pay more attention to their child, or simply want to outdo the other parents. I actually found out that these kinds of gifts because such a problem in public schools that in 2008 the government issued a statement saying that accepting these kids of gifts (called chanji) should be banned, and any teacher found to have accepted them should loose their job and be banned from teaching for life. I guess this rule hasn't hit the private education sector yet.
The new policy at my school caused a few problems. There are inevitably going to be some parents who send gifts anyways. Teacher's had to go through an awkward process of writing a note refusing the gift and sending it back home with a confused child. Of course, there are also teachers who decided to keep their gifts ("Ralph Lauren makes chocolate now, really"). I thought I had it lucky when I didn't recieve any gifts, but I ended up getting 2 the day after. Both were small, probably worth less than $5. One of the students that I recieved a gift from sent this same bottle of sunscrean to all three of his teachers. Two of us sent it home with notes, and one teacher kept it. The two of us who sent it home were a little concerned that the other teacher might look bad to the parent, but what could we do. As is turns out, we got a furious phone call from the mother. "How come Erik Teaher accepted my generosity but you two won't?" Wait, so now the two of us who actually followed the policy were in trouble? We'll get in trouble with the school if we don't send gifts back, and in trouble with parents if we do send the gift back. Mom ended up sending the sunscrean back to us the next day. We kept it because administration said it would be rude to refuse again. All over a 40 gram (1.33 ounce) bottle of sunscrean!!! It seemed that the new policy caused more problems than it was worth....

My favorite quote from the week doesn't actually come from a student, but from a parent. I have two kindergarteners who have developed a crush on eachother. I had to sit down and explain to them that kisses are for family. Hugs are good for friends, but kisses are not for friends. (How else do I explain this to a 5 year old who doesn't speak English?) I wrote notes home to both parents, more because I thought it was extremely cute than that I was concerned about it. I got a response from one mom that began with "OMG, I am so embarassed!" I actually laughed out loud that a parent would write OMG to her child's teacher

Congratulations Lieutenant Leeann! I am so proud of you. I wish I could have been there to celebrate the amazing accoplishment that you have achieved. You have grown into such an amazing young woman. 15 years ago I would have never thought that you would grow up to graduate from West Point, but your day has finally come!

I got company!

I had Thursday and Friday off of work this week. This gave me a chance to host my friend Brianne for a few days. Bri got here Wednesday night, and left Sunday morning. We got a chance to hit all of the main parts of Korea tourism!

One of my favorite activities of the whole few days was bungee jumping. Since I had gone once before, I was allowed to go with the cord attached to my feet instead of my back. Actully getting off the platform was a lot scarier than it was last time. I didn't get any pictures of me, but I have one picture from the top. I also had my camera hangin from my wrist when I went, so I got this crazy video shaking all over the place.

After bungee jumping, we went into Seoul. Our first day we hit the folk village, and North Seoul Tower. At the folk village, there was a group that was giving free "traditional Korean medicine" screaning. I'm not very good at saying no to people who are waving you over and handing you tea, so I let us get roped into it. I'm not sure the blood preasure machine and scale that measures body fat was really "traditional," but looking at our toungues and telling us we had muscle soreness was interesting... It was kind of rainy and dreary that day, so there wasn't a great view from the top of seoul tower, but it was still worth it.

The next thing we did was go to the Korea War Memorial. I had been there once before, but it was worth seeing again. We ended up getting half-way through before the guard came and kicked us out because the museum was closing. Bummer.... We ended up going back the next morning to finish the rest of it.

The other highlight for me was a lanturn festival that they had in Seoul for Buddah's birthday. We went to the temple, which was all decked out with thousands of lanturns. The monks were playing drums, and there were displays of fancy animal shaped lanturns and all that fun stuff. At night, there was a huge parade. It lasted an hour and a half, but we only stayed for about half of it. We stood along the side with our spiffy new lanturns lit, and watched thousands of people march by. There were big fancy lanturns shaped like animals, trees, lotus flowers, and buddah etc..... Most of the time thought, it was groups of people from all the local temples, universities, hospitals, or any other place that people generally meet together. After a while, all of them were kind of looking the same. It seemed like the point was to get as many lanturns walking down a street as possible.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I speak for all (okay, most) children when I say we appreciate all that you have done for us, and all that you have sacraficed for us. I hope that those who participate in the Race for the Cure have great weather!!!

I hope that everyone had a great Easter last week. It was pretty low key here. While Christians celebrate, it's not celebrated as a holiday by the rest of the country. It is impossible to find things like easter eggs, baskets, or candy in any stores. Most of my students had never even heard of the holiday.

We had an Easter Celebration day at our school. It was the first time that the school had ever celebrated Easter. We all made bunny ears to wear, and went out to the park. They got to do an egg hunt. We had plastic eggs shipped from America. Each child got to find two eggs, and surprisingly, they all stopped hunting after finding two. Then we got to use the eggs to do a spoon and egg race. This is an extremely hard task for 3-5 year olds, and we shortened the length of the race several times.

While the kids were waiting their turn to do the egg race, the supervisors decided to blow bubbles all around the kids. They then proceeded to yell at the students for jumping up and trying to catch bubbles instead of sitting nicely. Poor kids. How in the world to you expect kids to just sit there while you're blowing bubbles all around them? With some prodding from the teachers, the supervisors finally allowed the kids to chase bubbles while they were waiting to do the race.

On Easter, we had our annual church barbeque. Oddly enough, it didn't feel funny this year having a barbeque potluck. Last year it seemed really strange to me, but I guess I'm used to the strangeness now. Our pastor's baby was born on Easter morning, 2 weeks early. The only other pastors in the church are the grandparents of the baby. Needless to say, it was quite an exciting day for everyone.

This week I had a student's birthday. (I think that 6 of my ten student have had their birthday in the two months that I have had them.) This birthday was an extreme example of how crazy the parents go for their child's ten minute birthday party in school. When I got to the classroom in the morning, there were two cake boxes in the closet, each one about 18 inches wide/deep/tall. One contained the cake with a full size Barbie in the middle of it, and the other was full of gourmet cupcakes. We had to call home to find out what the parents wanted us to do with all of it. (Are the kids supposed to eat the cake and the cupcakes?)

I am pretty excited for the coming week. We have a six-day weekend that starts on Thursday. It will be for Children's Day (a national holiday in Korea) and Budha's birthday. My friend Bri will be visiting from Japan from Wednesday night to Sunday. Tell you all about it next week!

Cherry Blossom Festival

Yesterday I went to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Seoul. I guess the park was supposed to have lots of Cherry Blossoms. As it turns out, there are actually more of those trees in a park that is only a mile from my house. We took an hour and a half bus ride, packed in like sardines, standing up, the windows didn't open, and there was no air conditioner. At first I was a little frustrated that we had traveled for so long to get there, but it was such a beautiful day to be outside that the frustration soon melted into pure contentment of just being outside.

This was an extremely random photo op set up. I'm not sure what it was supposed to be advertising, but my friend Chloe sure makes a good angel! The funniest was when a little boy (maybe three years old) was standing there, but his head only went about 1/3 of the way up the wings.

You could also see the Blue House (first picture of me) from the park. This was the first time that I had ever seen the Blue House, which is where the president works. (I thought he lived there too, but as it turns out, I thought wrong.) The second picture of me is in front of a statue of King SaeJong. I guess he is the one who invented Hangeul (the Korean alphabet) 600 years ago.

After we walked through the park, we went for a stroll by the Han River. I had never been to this area before, and had also never seen an amphtheater that was built on a river. I thought it was interesting. We also saw a little boy who was playing right on the edge of the concrete. He was probably only 4 years old, and was playing and dancing within inches of the dropoff to the river. (Never mind that there aren't railins there in the first place, where the heck were his parents?) I was terrified that he was going to plop right into the water. When he sat down by himself, looking so cute, I couldn't resist taking a picture of the adorable scene. (And no, he never fell into the water.

This morning I ran a 5k with some friends of mine. It was their first time running a 5k, and they were pretty proud that they finished. I jogged with them, and encouraged them when they were exhausted. It would be fun to enter a race to actually be able to run for myself. Maybe I'll do that half marathon soon....

Radioactive Rain...

Not much exciting happening here this week.

On Thursday, we had rain that was supposedly going to be radioactive because of the nuclear plant in Japan. I was really confused at first, because in the spring we get our winds from China in the West. I guess what happened was the storm system looped around to the south, and came back up to China and over. We started being warned about it on Monday. By Wednesday, National Minestry of Meteorology (or some organization like that) was saying that there was no danger, and that if there was any radioactivity, the levels would be "ignorable." The principals of schools have the authority to cancel classes at their descression. As it turns out, they had so much pressure from parents that over 150 schools closed down in my province. From what I can tell, there wasn't really any danger, just a load of paranoia.

Yesterday, for the first time, my school had one of their bus drivers take the teachers on a trip to Costco. This was really appreciated, because the hardest part of going there is trying to lug your load of western-style groceries home on the bus. Many of the teachers who went were going for the first time. The most exciting products included cheese, ravioli, oatmeal, granola bars, and deli meat. None of these things are available at local grocery stores.

The funniet thing about going to costco in Korea is the food court. They are known for their cheap pizza, hotdogs.....and thier free onions. They have the shredded onion dispensers with the condiments to put on your hotdogs. However, many Koreans use this as a full meal. They fill a whole plate (seriously, a 10 inch plate piled at least 2 inches high in the center) with these onions, and smother them with mustard and ketsup. I'm not sure what this is all about, but I don't even want to know what it tastes like.

First Field Trip

This weeks my new students went on their first field trip ever. I was terrified. I had no idea how I was going to keep ten students who don't know any English under control in a completely uncontrolled environment. It turned out being okay. It was exciting for the students to get out of the school, but the actual museum was kind of boring for them. We went to the Green Energy Museum. There were a lot of interactive things for kids to run around and do, but we ended up being put with a guide who would let one or two students do each thing while everyone else watched. My poor 4 and 5 year olds ended up sitting most of the time.

The bus ride there should have been really short. In the past, we have gone places that were an hour to an hour and a half away. This museum was probably only about 10 miles, but most of it we ended up just sitting in traffic. The kids were antsy, and really loud. I started singing "The Wheels on the Bus" really quietly. All the students magically stopped talking. The bus was almost silent, but one student stuck her fingers in her ears and yelled "Be quiet Teacher!"

The student in the first picture is Alex, and the second picture is Mark. They probably my favorite students, just because they don't have a defiant, or violent side to them, and they don't completely space out during class. The picture of the boy and girl on the bus are Kevin and Alice. Kevin is really nice, but still has a lot of growing up to do. He has trouble concentrating long enought to write 1 letter on a paper. This is extremely frustrating because I don't have the time to sit and walk him through the work when I have to get the rest of the class to do it too. Alice is adorable most of the time. She is soooo smart, and knows a lot of English, but is really stubborn, and really mean to the other students. (Something I didn't know for a long time because I didn't understand when she was telling her classmates "I hate you" and "I don't want to play with you" in Korean.)

Okay, I won't bore you with telling you about each of my students. (At least until next time.)

The truth is, even if it is completely exhausting... and the parents are crazy... and I have students with violent streaks... I love each of my students. While I am looking forward to being done with my school in 3 months, I will miss my kids a lot.

They say cute things like "Home Time time" for the end of the day, or "Kenny bear" instead of

"teddy bear." One of the few words they know is "yummy," and they use it ALL the time. They say "Stacie Teacher yummy!" or "Teacher, lunch an-yummy" (an- is the korean prefix for "not," but it is only used with verbs)

So yesterday I finally went and got a haircut. I haven't done this in a year, and I'm not sure that I posted about it last time. It is SO scary to go in and let someone cut your hair without really being able to tell them much more than how long I want it. One thing that I forgot about was how they always thin out your hair. I guess Korean hair is thick, and everyone wants it to be thin. They have this scissors that they use to thin out the bottom half of it. I didn't notice what she was doing until after she already cut out a chunk. My hair is so thin already that I really didn't need someone coming and cutting half of it out. AAAAHHHHH!!!! So my hair is now shorter than I wanted, and REALLY REALLY fine. Oh well.... I guess it will always grow back...

So I haven't posted in a pretty long time. I think it has been about 5 weeks. (Yeah, I'm ashamed of it, just give me a chance to get back on track.) A lot has happened in that time. My kindergarteners have graduated on to first grade, and I have gotten a new set of students. (More about my new students later.)

As much as I love my students, I was really ready for them to move on. 12 months is a long time to spend listening to the same whining and dealing with the same behavioral issues. Of course, all of the other things happening in my school compounded with the tiredness of the kids to bring my patience to an end. We prepared for our graduation ceremony for at least a month. Each child wrote and memorized (for the most part) a speach. Each class prepared a song to perform. My class did "We're All in this Together" from High School Musical. The kids had so much fun, and the dances that we did for it were ADORABLE! I was so proud of how great they did, and my old Korean partner teacher even heard from the parents about it.

A few weekends ago I sang in a friend of mine's wedding. (I know what your thinking, "why in the world want Stacie to sing at the most important event in their life") There were a group of five of us. Three of us singing were American, and two were Korean. It is a huge status symbol to have foreigners at your wedding. There are even agencies that you can use to hire westerners to attend your big day. I like to pretend that my friend (Jun, who I know from my church) asked us to sing because he wanted his friends to be a part of his wedding, but the truth is that he (or more likely his parents) just wanted to look better.

This wedding was a little different from the last one that I went to about a year ago. Instead of a wedding hall, where most weddings take place, this one was actually in a church. There were four weddings that day in the chapel, so it was still kind of a "get in, get out" kind of afair. There is no wedding party. The bride has an attendant that comes with the purchased wedding package. (which, by the way incudes the rental of the wedding dress. Because of this, the dresses are always absolutely gorgeous.) She is always fussing around the bride to make sure that everything looks perfect. The second picture that I have is of a part of every Korean wedding. The parents of the bride and groom sit in chairs in the front. During the ceremony, the couple goes to each set of parents to bow to them. I love this part of the wedding. Don't ask me why, but it is really moving to me.

Okay... my new class. I wish I had pictures to show you, but they are all on my camera, which is at school. You will get to see some next time. The students are four years old, and this is there first ever English class. This makes for an extremely exhausting day. They have no idea what I am saying most of the time, and I have no idea what they are trying to say to me most of the time. I can deal with this during the actual teaching time. The hardest part of my day is the 10 minutes of play time. When a child comes to me to try to tell me that someone won't share, hit, kicked etc... I do my best to help them, but it is basically one student rambling on in Korean, and another saying "NO, NO, NO." I can't ever figure out what happened, so it is really hard for me to help them resolve their dispute.

I also am dealing with parents who are sending their children to school for the first time. Most of the moms are stay-at-home, so it is often harder for them to part with their children than it is for the child to part with them. We are getting notes and phone calls every day giving us extremely specific instructions to do something, not do something, or otherwise change something that we are doing in the classroom. I'm sure that as times goes on, things will get easier, but for now I am pretty tired when I finish with them every day (not to mention that many days I have four hours of teaching left when I finish my five hours with them).

The last big thing that I want to mention is my future job situation. By the beginning of February, the options here in Korea had dried up. I had either been told no or hadn't heard anything from all of the international schools here. I started applying to and interviewing for schools around Asia and Africa. After a while, I realized that it didn't really appeal to me to start all over in a new culture. At that point, I started preparing myself to come back home. I got really excited about it, and had even applied at one school district that somehow had posted openings for next year already. Then, out of the blue, I got an offer to teach in a first grade classroom at an international school in Seoul. It caught me really off guard. I was excited about coming home and didn't think I wanted to stay here anymore. But in all honesty, the chance of me getting a job back at home is pretty slim. I ended up accepting the contract. I went in to sign it this last week, so I guess I am offially staying another 2 years. It will start in the beginning of August, so I will have about 5 weeks off between contracts. I will be home for 3-4 of these weeks, which I am super excited about.

Sorry for rambling on so much. My next post won't be as long, I promise.