Author: Joel Freeman

“You have no idea what the future holds so experience it all now. That was the whole point of you going there.” Wise words from a wise friend who reminded me of this as I was pondering to go to Thailand or not (during my post-contract vacay trip). It is so true. I do NOT know what the future holds. I have ideas and options-and that is great-but nothing is set. I might come teach in Asia again, but what if I don’t? I might have some amazing corporate job land in my lap. I might move and teach somewhere else. I might win the lotto 😉 I might…who knows?! So-live it up, right?

Well, the New Year started out with a bang. I woke up and frantically was trying to post my ‘last post of 2014’ before my taxi picked me up for the airport. I wanted the holidays accounted for and then this post could focus on my winter vacay. Now that it is halfway through February I am getting around to it. Wow-where has time gone?! I have been in Asia for a year! A YEAR!! This will be a short blog (I am sure my sister is relieved) because I will be posting another one soon (really!). Just like the last vacay here are the bullet points of the highlights for each day…those of you that want the real quick version can read these and then go to the pics 😉 However you might want to read the first paragraph about me being detained in customs in China for 2 hours…

Day 1: Amazing dinner and speakeasy in Shanghai (& an unforgettable experience in customs!)
Day 2: Eat Pray Love was on-such a coincidence since I wanted to see it again before I headed to Bali! Enjoyed a chill day at Julie’s flat-the couch was AMAZING. It has been a LONG time since I have been on a couch! {I told them I was going to take up real estate on their couch haha} *Oh and for the record-China does beds/mattresses much better than Korea! (meaning it was actually comfortable!)
Day 3: Bus tour of Shanghai-saw so much of this massive city!
Day 4: First day in Bali-fun times at Potato Head Beach Club with new friends (amazing cocktails-the Kookaburra was insanely delish-and the sunsets were amazing!). Also, it was like walking into a pool party in Vegas LOL That night I enjoyed a yummy dinner at Sarong.
Day 5: Potato Head again-I got a bed (lounge) this time! Ended the night with a gorg sunset (round 2) and a delicious dinner at Hotel Mexicola.
Day 6: Peaceful day at the pool at my hotel and then headed to Uluwatu Padang Padang Beach (Eat Pray Love filmed there!)
Day 7: Sicker than a dogggggggg but did force myself to walk to the beach to see the sunset-it wasn’t great at that beach-I did see some very aggressive monkeys though (the first of many I would later find out!).
Day 8: Enjoyed the pool at my hotel & went to the Uluwatu temple for the sunset. I also rode a scooter for the FIRST time (Made was my ‘taxi’ driver coming back…I also did not wear a helmet).
Day 9: Traveled to Ubud and stopped in Taro at the Elephant Safari AMAZING time!!! I got to be in an elephant talent show (I knew I should’ve joined the circus!), rode an elephant around this gorgeous forest, fed my elephant-Boris (& after he showed me a trick!) and then saw a baby elephant! After I went to the rice terraces in Tegalalang which were beautiful (and had 2 adorable girls be my ‘guides’).
Day 10: Spa Day. For 6 hours. Ahhhhmazing!!! & so relaxing 🙂 Flower bath too (first time!) and after met some cool Euros while at (another) yummy dinner!
Day 11: Walked around Ubud Village and checked out shops and just explored (Samantha had some great recs-thanks!). Went to the cutest coffee shop!
Day 12: Relaxed to rest up/prep for hiking the volcano for sunrise the next morning. I also went to the Monkey Forest before dinner. Did a little shopping on the way back to my hotel and found the cutest shops!
Day 13: Saw the sunrise from the top of a volcano (Kintamani Volcano-Mount Batur)! It was one of the hardest hikes I have ever done-but was so worth it! I also loved Bali so much I extended my trip!
Day 14: Traveled to Kuala Lumpur…kinda a bummer b/c flight was delayed so was in airport wayyyyy too long (& just made for a super long day!). I was VERY happy I had extended my Bali stay. Bali is much more my style (lesson learned!).
Day 15: Flew back to South Korea-nice 14 hour travel day door to door 😉
Had SUCH a great trip! I have done a lot of traveling and hands down Bali is one of my favorite places in the world!!!

So, the vacay started out very interesting…me being detained in customs in China to be exact. So yeah…I got to Shanghai (and for those of you that do not now the China visa is super expensive for Americans, but they offer this ‘transit’ visa…well let me tell ya the transit visa rules are shady and not clear. I had checked blogs, called the airline-thought I was good to go. Well, I wasn’t!). So I am at customs and have my info for them-showing that I am not staying in China for more than 72 hours AND showing my flight leaving China to ANOTHER country (you canNOT come back to the country you came from with the 72 hour transit visa). Well, guess what, you also canNOT have a layover IN China when leaving China. This is probably going to be confusing…so you can feel free to email me on the side if you really want to get into the deets here. But, let’s just say, I spent a fabulous 2 hours in China customs…I wasn’t scared-I was getting frustrated. However, I kept my smile and was super friendly b/c one probably shouldn’t pull a ‘tude with the customs dudes (I had 4 on me, don’t worry!)…the thought of China prison was NOT on my winter vacay places to hit up (haha I am joking here-clearly I wouldn’t go to prison for this!). So the long story short was this-I was first sitting for 30 minutes while they all were discussing my situation. 3 of the 4 guys were very nice to me-the 1 was a jerk. He actually was lecturing me about how I came into their country illegally…I was trying to point out that I did have a flight TO another country but since China is so massive that most of the flights do stop IN China (and don’t worry-that was all in my head…I just kept smiling at him forcing myself not to scream). Soooo I finally ventured the 10 feet to the SIM card place and bought one so I could try to contact Rachel’s Aunt Julie who was meeting me at the airport…wellllll for those of you that don’t know China blocks a lot of social media sites and google-I knew this prior to coming in (and it still shocked me-how can you live without google?!) BUT they also had JUST blocked gmail…like that day hahaha sooooo my email to Julie couldn’t be accessed. So, then I started looking for flights (since one of the agents had been gone for like 40 minutes at this point trying to find me a flight that would be approved by customs dude). Another hour goes by-at this point I was starting to slightly panic that Julie would leave me. I did have their address, and her husband works for Disney so figured if I could just get toward that area I would be able to figure it out. I did ask one of the customs dudes if they could somehow let my friend’s aunt know I was ok, just stuck in customs, and he gave a lovely snarky reply that I wasn’t ‘legally in their country so he didn’t have to’ THANKS DUDE. So at this point I am started to get cranky-you all can imagine. I now was heading to their office to purchase a new flight-that also made me cranky. What a way to start the vacay, right? haha I mean first let’s get stuck in customs and then can I please pay $550 for a new flight outta here?! So-this is where it gets even better. The nice agent (customs dude #4) was with me in the office. He and his co-worker were finding me an approved flight and then he showed it to me and directed me to a desk to purchase it. So, I am entering all the necessary info and I asked him before I hit ‘purchase’ if we were good to go. He said yes. I then printed out the flight and hand it to him. As we are walking back to the main customs area (I like to call it headquarters) he looks down at the paper and says ‘oh no, you can’t have this flight.’ I almost screamed. I did look at him and said ‘what do you mean? I just paid for this and you said it was okay!’ I probably was a tad annoyed (and obvious) at that point. The problem was this-the flight he had said ‘ok’ to had a layover IN Korea…and with the 72 hour transit visa you cannot go back to where you came (even for a layover!) LOL sooo back to the customs office we went. I was slightly freaking out thinking I just dropped that much cash on nothing BUT luckily Priceline is amazing and has a policy (maybe?) that when you call back within 5 minutes of purchasing your flight (and I did NOT have the insurance on it) they refund you 100%. Thank heavens! So, I purchased another flight-DIRECT this time. I didn’t even bother with anything else-and went back to the customs HQ. The flight I ended up booking was really only getting me out 12 hours earlier…and got me to warmth/beach/good cocktails a lot quicker since I was direct now!
Okay so I finally get the stamp to get the heck out of customs and be allowed into China. I grab my luggage and then walked to the exit. I was PRAYING Julie was waiting for me still. She was. SWEET. I started to cry-tears of JOY! And then I was like ‘please can we get a cocktail?!’ haha
There was a restaurant right next to the int’l area and we got margarita martinis and some dumplings. Welcome to China 😉
From there things really calmed down haha we both chatted-I had seen her in April when she and Rachel came to visit me in Daegu. Then we got on the Maglev (speed train in Shanghai). It was really nice-we went 301 km/hour and got to the stop for their neighborhood (Pudong). Got into a taxi-which are super shady in China…I wouldn’t have thought that actually. Makes me realize how lucky I am in Korea with the super honest taxi drivers. Just don’t talk loud-that the do NOT like. I got to their flat and was so impressed-I have been to a few Korean homes and this was so different! These buildings from the outside were all different (which in Korea they all look like a big dorm building) and the walls and interior design was just gorgeous! I met Andy, Rachel’s uncle (who works for Disney) oh and Julie pointed out the future location of Disney when we were on the train! So cool 🙂 We chatted for a bit-I talked about Disney of course 🙂 Then we went to an AMAZING dinner. Hands down the best meal I have probably had in Asia. Andy did an AMAZING job ordering off the menu and we all ate family style, so got to try soooo many different dishes. I met some of their friends and we all just had a great time! After dinner we went to a speakeasy-it was a true speakeasy too! From the front you would have had NO idea. You had to have the magic word and then there were 3 levels. We went to 2 of them. Good cocktails and good company! What more could you ask for on the first day of the new year in a new country with new friends?! From there we went to Shanghai Brewery and I had a delish beer-Korea doesn’t specialize in wheat beers so this was a true treat. This bar was definitely expat owned and there were expats everywhere. Good music+good drinks+good bar food=a good time! After that we (finally) went home. I was laughing so hard b/c I was soooo tired and we just kept going-it was great! A great way to start the trip-that is for sure 🙂
The next morning I got to sleep in-and had such a comfortable bed. Such a treat! I got to then lazily wake up and enjoy the ENORMOUS couch. Another treat! It was a super lazy day and I enjoyed every minute of it! That night we ordered pizza and Julie and I watched Eat, Pray, Love. I was in heaven! Also had a delish wine that reminded me of one from home!
The next day I was a hardcore tourist all day-I went on the bus tour with Julie. Shanghai is HUGE for those of you that aren’t aware. It is one of the top 5 largest cities in the WORLD with over 23 million people (yes-23!!!). It also has a ‘Tomorrowland’ feel to it (my Disney touch haha) and they call themselves the Paris of the East. The bus tour was really good-highly recommend it. There were 3 different routes and you got a good lay of the land/city. We went on all the tours, made a stop at the Tianzifang marketplace to wander around and ended the day trying to see the sunset from the top of the Financial Tower. There wasn’t much of a sunset due to the air quality of course haha
I said my goodbyes to the fam, was overwhelmed that they had gotten me a little present filled with fun Disney Imagineers presents (that aren’t available to the general public). Truly amazing people and I am so glad that they made me feel at home!
Julie and I left for the airport and said our goodbyes (I also found subway-sandwich place-and got super excited-haven’t had a ‘real’ sandwich in so long! And for those of you that know me, I wouldn’t usually get this excited over subway…)

Bali
So I am not a fan of red-eye flights. Never have been (you can ask my father!). The benefit was it was direct to Bali AND I was going to have a full extra day for laying out. The downfall was I got in at like 3 am AND was wearing my peacoat, uggs, layers still from cold China and let’s just say Bali was NOT cold (even at 3 am). I got a taxi and got to my hotel-thanks to Samantha for arranging it! Checking in at 4 am just feels weird LOL but I got to my room and passed out. Sunday I woke up, had brekky and headed straight to the ‘beach’ which wasn’t as easy to find as I thought it would be. I did find 2 Aussies and we went to the Potato Head Beach Club (which like I said above felt like a pool party in Vegas). I got a delicious cocktail and felt like I was truly on vacation. To explain the lay of this land is a little hard-the beach was in the distance, yet close. People were laying on bed/lounges and there were a few pools and then this grassy area. So, I found myself a spot on the grass and called it a day! I met these cool chicks (also from Australia) Chris & Alysha, and we all enjoyed the most delish cocktail ever (or maybe b/c I haven’t had a decent one in nearly a year!) the Kookaburra. We made friends with some Italian guys and just had a great day-it was a super fun first day in Bali that is for sure. The sunset that night was also incredible. I left and headed to dinner at Sarong, another Samantha recommendation, and the food was sooooo good!
So I stayed in Seminyak for 3 days-enjoyed the Beach Club atmosphere for a few days and then enjoyed my private pool at the hotel. I left Seminyak and was originally going to head to Bingin Beach from another friend’s rec but decided to meet up with Chris & Alysha in Uluwatu near Padang Padang Beach (where Eat, Pray, Love was filmed!). I stayed at the cutest villa-Pink Coco Bali. The bathroom was amazing-it had an enclosed garden!!! The bed was HUGE and had the mosquito net over it. I am very glad I had such a great place b/c I got super SUPER sick the next 3 days. The comforts of AC and a comfy bed were definitely appreciated. Oh, and saltine crackers and Pocari Sweat (their version of gatorade). Needless to say I spent most of my time in Uluwatu in my hotel. I did venture out and saw the sunset from the beach down the street (which had the most aggressive monkeys-they were so creepy!) and then also checked out the sunset from the temple about 15 minutes away-which wasn’t as good as the sunsets I had seen in Seminyak. I did take my first scooter ride-that was exciting! I left Uluwatu and had gotten a private driver for the day (again, thanks Samantha!) and headed to Ubud. On the way my driver took me to the Elephant Safari Park in Taro. This was such an awesome experience. Samantha had told me all of these things to do and she definitely didn’t send me in the wrong direction (btw I went to high school with Samantha and she has been living in Jakarta for the last 6 years). I was able to be a part of the elephant talent show (yep, you read that right), went on a ride through the forest there on Boris (my elephant!), fed Boris and then he showed me a magic trick! The incredible thing about this place was it was not croweded! I feel like this would’ve had a million people if we were in the states, or even other places in the world! This could be why the experience was so great too-it was quiet and peaceful. The elephants are here and protected too-which is so great. There are other places that I have heard the elephants aren’t treated as well which makes me sad 🙁 After I hung out with Boris I walked around and saw the baby elephant-soooo cute! The ‘baby’ is 21 months old and is still quite big 😉 Her name was Pagir. I left the elephant rescue park and headed straight to the rice terraces in Tegalalang. These were breathtaking-so green and just so different than anything I have ever seen. I met 2 adorable girls, Kadek & Putu, who were my ‘guides’ for a price. I promised I would buy their postcards from them after. They were so adorable-and I loved hearing them speak English. After teaching here for a year it is crazy how impressive it is to the ear when you hear a foreigner not only trying to speak English, but actually SPEAKING it and you are able to understand! They were both just so much fun and the older one (they were 13 & 11) kept holding out her hand for me to hold as we were climbing down and up the ravine (I felt like I was an old lady the way she put her hand out but it was so sweet!). They also were my photographers LOL and took lots of pics for me. 
Having a driver for the day was the best decision-I was able to not only have someone that I could trust, but able to see so much of the area too! 
My hotel in Ubud was great (again)-I felt at home and didn’t want to leave my room. Amazing what a comfy bed can do for you! While in Ubud I relaxed, strolled around the village, enjoyed a 6 hour spa session (amazing), made friends with some cool Europeans, visited the Monkey Forest (the monkeys are seriously creepy tho!) and did some shopping. 
I had some friends that had hiked the volcano (Kintamani Mount Batur) for sunrise and was hellbent on doing it. I was slightly concerned b/c I was still not feeling ‘great’ and just knew getting up at 2:30 in the morning to go hiking could really NOT be a good thing when under the weather. Well, you know me, I had my mind set on doing this so of course I did it. My last morning in Bali I got up at 2 am for a 2:30 pickup to drive towards the volcano. The drive was about an hour away. It was still dark out of course. We got to the ‘base’ and there were a lot of other people there to do the hike as well. Our group had our guides and we all had a ‘light’ breakfast and then set out. Let me tell you-this hike was rough. We had flashlights but we weren’t on level ground most the time and then we were on lava rock. AND I was so sick. My body was too weak probably to have done this, but I am stubborn LOL (again, ask my father!). So, up we went. It was about 2 hours to the top I think. We started at about 1000 meters and the top was 1717 meters (for those of my friends that don’t use metric LOL we went up about 2,500 feet from where we started to the top). The trip was about 6 miles. The thing is, after an hour we just went UP and it was all of the uneven rock. I remember looking up, because there was slight light at this point, and just being like ‘I can do this’ and just kept going. We got to the ‘top’ and really it wasn’t the ‘top’ haha (of course!), it was an area where most stop but of course we had another 20 minutes to the very top. This was all black sand and so tricky to hike up. The 2 Brits that I had made friends with and had been hiking up with (plus our guide) were so awesome. The girl was like ‘don’t force yourself’ and the guy was like ‘you have to make it to the top now-you are so close.’ I mean, he was right (of course). So, I started slowly making the last trek. At this point at least the sun was starting to peak out for the sunrise so you could kinda see and didn’t need the flashlights! I remember getting about halfway up and thinking ‘okay, I am done’ because really, the view was spectacular. But, I also knew that I would my own arse if I didn’t just suck it up and go the extra 10 minutes UP. So I did it. Obviously. Once I got to the top I was greeted by SUPER aggressive, creepy monkeys. They actually were stealing the breakfast that we were given from your hand! I saw the sunrise-it was so gorgeous! Just thinking that a new day has started and watching that happen is a cool feeling. Took tons of pictures (of course) and then observed some monkeys fighting over a hard boiled egg! The hike down was also intense-but at least we could see now! Our guide was so awesome-I truly could not have done it without him. He told me he learned English so he could be a guide! After this intense exercise I let myself be lazyyyyy at the pool the rest of the day and extended my trip by a day and changed my flights around to leave Bali the next day.
My last day was really long-I left Ubud for the airport and then had my flight delayed a few hours. By the time I got to Kuala Lumpur it was nearly dark and I explored a little around my hotel but have to admit that I wasn’t impressed. I have to say that it would be hard for any place to compete after being in Bali though 🙂 It is truly paradise and I know I will go back-perhaps to write that book I have always wanted to write~

I saw a quote recently and absolutely loved it (there are so many I love, I know!). So, I am leaving you all with this:
What are you going to do? Everything, is my guess. It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications, It will not be anything like what you think it will be like, but surprises are good for you. And don’t be frightened: You can always change your mind.

See ya Korea Winter!

Speakeasy!

John captured this one

Bus selfie

Julie and me

Shanghai skyline-gorgeous!

California is always representing 🙂

Friends at Potato Head Beach Club

Sunset night 1

Sunset night 2

I still can’t believe nobody else wanted to be in the talent show!

Boris getting cooled off 🙂

Boris showing me his tricks after I fed him

Elephant selfie!

Rice Terraces

Putu putting a flower in my hair and my photographer captured the moment 😉

Oh I failed to mention that I had to change hotels and they don’t have taxis in Ubud…so the scooter took me AND my luggage on it hahaha (totally normal there btw!) AND my 2nd scooter ride!

Friends in Ubud

This sign is no joke!

My last morning in Bali watching the sunrise and a new day starting

On the way down

Baby it’s cold outside! Well, we had snow! {and not just the flurries I showed a video on FB!} Full.On.Snow. It was sooooo gorgeous outside! It happened to be on a Monday morning that I walked out of my apartment and walked to school but felt like I was in a Winter Wonderland! Lemme tell you-Monday was that much better 🙂

I have consumed more hot chocolate (hot choco in Korea) here in the last few months than I prob have in the last 5 years at home!

I really can relate with Olaf right now (yes, that is a Frozen reference peeps!) I miss warm hugs-it is so interesting to have been over here in this culture for 10 months and the lack of ‘touch’ is just crazy. I was telling a friend that one of my 3rd graders did the cutest thing the other day that I wanted to hug her BUT it is just not the norm here. {be prepared friends-I will be a hugging machine when I return!}

Fleece leggings have saved my life. End of story. I mean, HOW have I not had these before (yes, I am aware that the extent of ‘cold’ living in my life has been heading to the family cabin…or skiing for a few days!)

I don’t leave home without earmuffs and my beanie. They are always in my purse. It is like when I lived in Costa Rica-I didn’t leave home without an umbrella and bug spray. Or, when I lived in San Francisco-I pretty much always had a scarf/pashmina/layers b/c we all know that SF can get a bit chilly at the drop of a dime (esp in the summer!). Being prepared makes ALL the difference in the world though! My, the girl that is ‘anti-cold’ is actually doing okay over here 🙂 **I also have on like 5 layers so feel like a snowman!

I have noticed that Korean fashion  (not ALL-but the majority) makes me think they are either going to a club, or hiking Mt. Everest. And, neither of those answers are probably where they are truly going! {although they are VERY serious about their hiking clothes here!}

Have I mentioned the couple matching outfits? Because that is something that I feel I need to-and maybe again if I have already! They wear matching shoes, shirts, jackets, you name it!

First semester I got to do my first ‘voice recording’ LOL for the students listening test. We just did it again for 2nd semester. It was so funny b/c at lunch Mrs. Na said she was walking the hallway during 4th period, when the English test was going on for grades 3-6, and all she heard was my voice in every classroom! LOLOL Then, after my students were cleaning in the classroom and were mocking me (in a loving way though) and repeating some of the sentences to me-it was hilarious! (they also like to mock my morning announcement I do every Weds/Fri…that is pretty comical too! They are like little parrots…or as they say in Korea ‘talking birds’)

Eating Korean food weekly: Dolsot Bibimbap and the noodle place near my house 🙂 Now that I don’t eat it for lunch daily I actually do enjoy eating the good Korean dishes!

Hibernate like a bear-it is cold outside! I didn’t leave my apartment for months (on the weekends) or after I got home from school b/c it is just too cold out! I have come out of hibernation the last few weeks and it really put me in the holiday spirit! 

12 Pubs of Christmas-the event of the season!!! It was a blast-cannot wait to make this a tradition (and yes I made it to all 12 bars!). 

Dream Tree-student activity (survey of what jobs-their dreams-are) we put them all as ornaments on the ‘Dream (Christmas) Tree’ and I would say the funniest job I heard was an Iguana Trainer…I didn’t know there was such a thing! I guess we learn something new every day!

Costco trips-took a new route from downtown (yay-small victory!) & the wine lady recognized me-it was hilarious! *and why don’t we have wine tasting stations at Costco in the US?! Point for Korea!

Decorated for Christmas-my tree! & chain countdown (and advent calendar!)

Amazing Neighbors-BLESSED! So, growing up my family was very lucky to have amazing neighbors-those neighbors are like family to me. We have all grown up together and still are a part of each other’s lives (Isbell’s & Tokheims!). That ‘good’ neighbor luck/feeling followed me after I left Austin Road…I had amazing roommates in the dorms in college-still friends with a lot of them (Jackie & Katie & Leo-you all were next to, or across the hall, from my room-good ole 819!) AND then, I moved to Texas and met Shelley & Annie-who I still keep in touch with today. Then, the San Francisco days-and the good ole Presidio crew (Allison!). In Fresno I was lucky to meet Jess AND she lived in my complex! And finally, the move to Korea, and I was LUCKY to  have expats in my neighborhood-but not only expats-people I LIKE. I have had such a great time and am lucky to have these people in my life here with this experience. Marie-she was my calm during some crazy times here and also loved to cook/bake. Chris-well he fixed my heater the FIRST night I moved here…and recently let me borrow his freezer for all my carbs (haha) and also helped me store some other stuff-just very generous and always there for  ya! And Sonya, the neighbor who gets me out of hibernation in the winter! Or is down to watch some SATC. Also, she is a full believer in wine:thirty 🙂 The other day I got to hang out with all 3 of them in a 24 hour period-and it was great-I realized that though they are all different they have touched my life and time here in Korea. I am not sure where I will head next…but am hoping that good neighbors, who turn into friends, will be there as well! I think the odds are ever in my favor 😉

Prepping for Winter Camp! I had a camp before vacay and have one after vacay-I decided to make it fun for the students and did stuff around winter & Frozen. So far it was a hit at camp 1 🙂

‘Guest’ Teacher…it makes you think. I mean, sure their government pays us to come and teach English BUT at the end of the day we ARE a guest in their country. We are representing whatever ‘western’ country we have left. A very wise man reminded me of this, thanks Zach 😉

The BEST Christmas card I have ever received…so on Thursday December 18th I had a LONG day ahead of me. BUT, I also saw the light at the end of the tunnel so wasn’t trippin’ 😉 In between my 3rd & 4th period my 4-4 class came in with their homeroom teacher (one of my friends here in Korea!) and they had made a Christmas card for me. I almost cried-no joke. It was so sweet. And one of those things you just need, not that I had a bad day or anything at all, but almost what you need to keep going. To keep that Christmas cheer going for 3 more classes. To keep smiling when you haven’t felt your nose all morning b/c it is so cold out (not exaggerating peeps!). I was so happy-and it feels good to know that this class of 4th graders really does enjoy coming to my English class. Their little faces lit up when I said ‘let’s take a picture’ and they ran to the back of the class to our ‘picture spot’ haha {I mean they know the drill-I have taken a bazillion pics this year!}

The lack of heat in the schools. Okay so I can sound like a princess by saying this (esp to those of my friends who live where it is negative ALL the time!) BUT when it is 18 degrees out (Fahrenheit people!) the heater SHOULD be on in the classroom/school. I mean WTF. So, I couldn’t feel my nose one day til after lunch (you laugh but my friends that are here in South Korea know what I mean) and then the next day they said the heater was turned up to make it warmer in our class BUT it was blowing cold air. I was trying to explain that the cold air meant that they prob need to FIX it but it wasn’t being understood. Also, the window draft is crazy-these are def not double pane windows! I put a bulletin board in between my window and the window covering to try to prevent the coldness. It is kinda working. I think the BIGGEST difference when dealing with the cold here compared to, I dunno Minnesota, is that in Minnesota the heat is ON. No questions. Here-nope! I was just laughing with my friend b/c I said that if the classrooms in the states were this cold school would prob be canceled and/or the parents would make the biggest ordeal out of it (and yes, I know I am NOT in the states). Which I guess brings me to my point-in being here for 10 months I have experienced so many things. Some awesome cultural differences and others that you seriously question BUT I really have come to appreciate the ‘comforts’ of living in the USA. Now, can someone please turn on the HEAT 🙂

Working Christmas Eve & the 26th was slight torture!

Christmas with new friends hosted by South Africans! It was such a great holiday-I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas especially being so far away from family and friends! A day full of fun, new traditions, food, friends, wine & laughter 🙂

2014 was a great year! I have gotten to travel, live in a new country, learn a lot about myself and make some great new friends! Next up-a New Year & a new adventure! I am off for vacation-wishing everyone all the best in 2015!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Day weekend to all my {USA} family and friends 🙂 I hope you all had a great time with loved ones! I had a great Thanksgiving here-my friend Marie made an amazing meal and I got to spend the holiday with a few of my friends I have made here in Chilgok. It was neat because we did the whole ‘what are you thankful for’ before we ate and I was able to put a fun puzzle together. If I hadn’t lived in Fresno I wouldn’t have had the ‘Fresno’ connection with Bill when I met him at orientation (although we still would have had the Nor-Cal bond!), and then if Bill hadn’t been placed in Chilgok I wouldn’t have taken Korean class from his teacher-which is where/how we met Marie (who, remember, lived right around the corner from me!). It is crazy to see how all the pieces of the puzzle of ‘life’ really do fit together.
So, this month I wrote down what I was thankful for every day. Sometimes they were funny things-that at that moment I was very thankful for (McDonald French Fries to help with Saturday shenanigans!), but other times there were serious things to be thankful for-like this whole experience in Korea. There have been good times, and frustrating times, but that is all part of the experience! Just knowing I finally got to do this, and teach overseas, makes me thankful. I also have realized that you probably should visit somewhere first before you decide to move there for a year 🙂
I also thought about risks. And how one must take risks to gain rewards. I thought back to 9 years ago, when I quit my job in San Diego and moved back to Nor-Cal. And, by doing that I was able to spend some great, quality time with my amazing grandparents. I am so thankful that I used that time wisely, and made wonderful memories with them. Memories are what matter-those are the things you take with you through life. I also realized that with all the risks I have taken in my life I always land on my feet. This was a good reminder to myself, because once this adventure is done in Korea I get to figure out what it is I want to do next. There are so many things going through my mind-it is overwhelming! But, I guess it is great to know there are options, and that obviously I am open to risks and change.
I just finished my final English Festival at my school this week-I taught my students all about Thanksgiving! It was fun, and put me in the holiday spirit 🙂 I brought pumpkin pie as a treat for my after-school classes and they got to try it for the first time! I have a video of them eating it-so cute! I also got to do lots of fun crafts-I swear I feel like I am an art teacher at times here! My favorite was having my little ‘Pilgrims and Indians’ (pic below!). The kids in my regular classes made Thankful Turkeys and wrote out what they were thankful for (traced their hands and then the handprint was part of the feathers for the turkey-pics below). They were thankful for some of the funniest things BUT I also had a student who wrote she was thankful for me. It made my day. It just felt so nice to have a student say that-I am sure my teacher friends understand! It made me realize that I have made an impact on these kids lives…which I seriously questioned at times because they get a new Native English Teacher (NET) nearly every year.
We got our first snow today!!! It was just flurries…but it was still pretty and made the day magical 🙂

Well…as I write this I am stoked because the Giants just won the World Series-again-3 times in 5 years…which is insane. And, today is Halloween. Which means it is October 31st. Which means it is nearly November. And another year has almost gone by again. I have been in Korea for a little over 8 months now. The last 6 weeks have been interesting. I fractured my toe (good times!), had a friend visit & got deathly sick (which resulted in me being bedridden for 4 days which was crazy). So, with all this ‘me-time’ I have had a LOT of time to think. And a LOT of time to watch stuff on netflix 😉

Let’s start at the beginning…2nd semester after the Chuseok holiday was a rough couple of weeks. And then, one Thursday afternoon, as I was walking home from school I tripped on the uneven cobblestone sidewalk (yes-cobblestone). OUCH! I like to call it ‘California meets Korea’ (b/c of course I was wearing flip flops!). It hurt so bad I wasn’t sure my toe was still attached-you know the kind of hurt I am talking about! I couldn’t even scream b/c I couldn’t get words out-and then limped home to ice my throbbing toe. The funniest part was an ajumma (Korean grandma) that was walking past me saw it, actually stopped and stared at me and very slowly said ouchhhhh. Went to my doc the next day and she sent me to an orthopedic down the street. That was an interesting encounter…he was scared of me at first (this I know after being here this long) but he was relieved when I spoke slowwww and used simple words. Then he felt comfortable and his English was actually not bad. We took x-rays and he gave me the good news. Of course I sent a pic of the x-ray home to my friends dad who is a doctor to get a 2nd opinion (this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows me well!). He confirmed. Awesome.

Then I got this cool boot-my friend Anne made a typical ‘Anne’ comment and said ‘not sure what is more tragic, that boot or socks with Toms?!’ haha (pic below) WELL the answer was I was trying to wear tennies and my foot couldn’t get into them…but the socks were already on and I was over it. I was NOT trying to be a fashion statement that day-let me tell you. My sister laughed at me when I told her this story-she thought it was exceptionally funny that I rode my bike to the doctor. BUT, the way I look at it, it was less walking on my throbbing foot/toe! I have been lucky, in my 33 years I have never had to wear a boot/cast, etc. AND for that I am grateful! And, don’t ever want to have this ‘experience’ again-talk about a pain in the arse! I think the boot was overkill-but I also wanted to prevent any further injuries (or any of my 500 students running into me while running around like crazy monkeys which is the usual!).

A week later my friend came to visit…the timing wasn’t the best because I wasn’t ‘100%’ but we made the most of it and had a great time-she had a list of things she wanted to do in Korea and we made it happen! It was so fun to have a visitor here-having someone from home see my life here, and after being here this long I finally felt like I could show her around and knew where I was going. I also FINALLY found the norebong I went to back in March for a friends bday that I loved-the place smelled like a candy store (and let me tell you-Korea doesn’t smell like a candy store ever soooo this is an amazing thing!). We had so much fun singing for over an hour in our ‘singing room’ 😉 It was a whirlwind trip-she was here for 72 hours! The week after she left I got a sinus infection and strep throat. At the same time. And then, 5 days later, bronchitis. I know. I know. What the heck, right?! That is what I was thinking…but clearly the universe (i.e. God) was telling me something. And I listened 🙂 I slowed down…really I did. And then I got bronchitis again hahaha

With all this ‘me-time’ though I was able to do a lot of thinking. I feel like I had a clarity/eye-opening month and realizations about a few things. I also re-evaluated how I spend my time and who I spend it with. That might sound harsh but why surround yourself with people that don’t add to your life? I also finally bought an oven here (imagine large toaster oven-pic below!). I know that baking will be nice to do…especially since Winter is coming! I have baked brownies twice and peanut butter cookies once. Not sure what is next on the list…

I just ended my Halloween English Festival-it was a ton of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. I only taught 3rd and 4th graders for this festival and I had them for 2 periods back-to-back/block schedule. At first I was a tad concerned…it is hard enough to keep them focused for 40 minutes in English class, how was I going to do 80?! Well, I am a rockstar-or maybe an arts & craft star?, and made it happen. It was great to see the kids have time to just be creative-they were decorating their own pumpkin ‘mask’ (the school wouldn’t let me carve for obvious reasons AND they don’t really have pumpkins to carve here-they do-but not easy to find. Plus my co-t said no way to that idea). I also taught them the history of Halloween and what other countries do for Halloween. AND, we watched Scared Shrekless…I saw it over 10 times this week…I think I memorized it! The most important thing they learned though was this, when you say trick-or-treat you get candy. They REALLY understood this concept 😉

I realized just the other day that this semester will truly be over before I know it. I have 3 weeks until I teach about Thanksgiving for our final English Festival for the school year. Then I have 3 weeks until the last week of school before winter break. Then, when we get back from winter break (which I will have camps to teach for 2 weeks and then vacay for 2 weeks), we have 3 weeks and then the second semester of teaching is DONE. Wow. Crazy.

So…with the exception of injuring my toe, a friend visiting, being sick & my English Halloween Festival it has been a quiet month. Well, a quiet month for Erin Kennedy 😉

After 8 months in Korea…

• I will never find sitting on the floor to eat dinner comfortable.
• I don’t understand squatting (unless camping or at an orchard party when I was in high school!)
• Motorcycles have the right of way. Always.
• Be aggressive and show those motorcycles who’s boss! 
• You can change your mind about a place. Daily. 
• Gyms here suck. End of conversation.
• Teaching overseas is a job. 
• Slurping & smacking…why????
• I miss hot water to wash my hands at school-thank gosh for hand sani!
• I miss ground turkey meat.
• I love living somewhere that has seasons (I say this before the cold winter hits mind you!) but experiencing Spring, Summer (HUMID!!!) and Fall has been really cool-the leaves are just gorgeous right now!
• Someone speaking to me in Korean-and still going on even when I have the confused ‘what the …?’ look on my face.
• The locals recognizing me-it feels nice. Like, clearly I stick out like Where’s Waldo BUT when I bike to school and see the same moms walking their kids to school, or the shop owners, or even the ajummas that are selling the fruit on the sidewalk and they say hi/acknowledge me I smile and the world is okay again.
• If I EVER see someone (specifically foreigner) struggling in the USA again-looking lost, etc. I will do whatever I can to help them. I know all too well how it feels and want to make a difference to someone else! Pay it forward people. 
• But most of all, I have learned MORE about myself over the past 8 months than I thought possible. I have learned stuff that I didn’t even think I would learn. And for that I am grateful to have this crazy adventure experience!

My ball and chain for 30 days!

Welcome to Asia 🙂

Jackie and me in Seoul!

Game night at Marie’s-got to play my favorite 5 crowns!!! (and of course we had delish food as always-thanks Marie!!)

Flat Stanley project with my Art Class-thanks to Jennifer Santos for making this happen!

Teeny tiny ‘oven’ 😉

View from my school-love the Fall colors!

Cute little 3rd graders posing!

Trick-or-treat!!!

Happy class=happy teacher!

That’s a wrap-Happy Halloween from Bukbu Elementary School!!!

I teach my 3rd graders more than the ABCs…representin’ the best state!

Well…I’ve been a bit busy…shocking?! Cannot believe it has been 3 months since I left everything behind in CA and flew to South Korea. Sometimes it seems like it was yesterday, and other times I feel like I have been here a LOT longer! It is also weird to think that *if* I only stay here for a year the ‘adventure’ is 1/4 of the way done…crazy! 
I don’t know why it is so hard to blog-of course I want to capture everything to paint a picture for all of you at home (we all know I love details!) BUT there is just never enough time…so I put it off and then am mad at myself that another month has gone by! Thanks to those of you that send emails/fb messages/etc. I love to hear from all of you!!! Here is what I have been up to this last month:

• FINALLY got over being sick (thank you God!)
• Hiking in my backyard
• Went to a Korean ‘Music’ Festival LOL-it was an experience!
• Had a ‘taste’ of Seoul (literally-went to this DELISH Mexican restaurant before we flew out for Tokyo)
• Went out of the country-Japan (Tokyo)-and got my first stamp in the passport since I got here!
• Went to Tokyo Disneyland & Tokyo Sea-both were super awesome
• Taught English Festival to all my classes-the topic was Masks from Around the World and the kids got to create their own mask. It was a TON of fun and the best part was seeing the kids enjoy themselves and get to be creative (they are sooooo stinking creative it amazes me!) The bad part was I taught the same lesson 22 times straight LOL 
• Had another friend meet up in Tokyo (and went to Disney for her first time-woohoo!) She also brought me an AMAZING suitcase full of goodies. Love her!!!
• So y’all know from the last post that I have taught about dung (twice) to all my 5th graders. Well, you can add saying cowshit to them and having them repeat (teachers orders). The topic was ‘funny street names in the USA’ and I was like ‘you really want me to say this AND have them repeat it?!?…’ Two words-cultural differences 🙂 **and yes I told the teacher what it meant in case she wasn’t aware
• Also, along the “teaching things that might not be as ‘common’ to teach/encourage at home” was belching-no I didn’t ‘teach’ them this BUT it was in one of the videos that go along with the book. The first time I saw it I was like ‘whattttt’ and then after 5 times seeing it I just ignored it. The kids enjoyed it (obviously). It is funny to see that kids are kids everywhere, regardless of what continent you are on!
• I finally saw Frozen-they threatened to deport me…KIDDING (but really I had to see it living here-otherwise major crime) I liked it-I mean I knew all the songs prior thanks to all my kids who sing them in the hall 🙂
• Speaking of singing…I feel like a choir teacher half the time. Really. A few weeks ago I was thinking there is no way I could have a bad day/week that week because I sang every song from Frozen with my classes, then my Theater class was performing songs from Sound of Music (one of my faves!), my 3rd graders were learning about birthdays so Birthday song got sung a lot, always singing the ABC song AND my 5th graders were learning Months of the Year (and yes, there is a song for that too). I feel like I just sing my sentences these days hahaha
• After Tokyo I was in need of some R&R in a major way so a few of us girls headed south to Busan (the beach town that I went to a few months back). It was AMAZING and everything I needed. We left Friday after work and had a fabulous night-sushi dinner, IV bag cocktails (see pics below but yes-they make cocktails in these plastic ‘IV looking’ bags and you can walk around with them-I feel like I am in Vegas!), fireworks on the beach-yep that is legal, and ended the night with champagne at a fun Irish pub with great music. Saturday a few other friends joined us and we enjoyed the warmth of the sun (that we hadn’t felt in months-which was obvious since my shins got burned-not pretty!) and layed out…laying out here is interesting b/c the beach attire isn’t what you would think it would be like (or what you are used to at a beach). The Koreans don’t really show a lot of skin…soooo we stood out more than we typically do. Luckily it is Busan and there are lots of foreigners (again WE are the foreigners!). That night we went to a Busan Lotte Giants baseball game which was a TON of fun. Great stadium, great seats & great fans! Sunday was a chill day-we found the Gap though which was exciting so OF COURSE had to do some shopping 🙂 -and then took the KTX train home. 

Some have talked about being homesick. I am not. Not sure why since obviously I am super close to my family and saw them a LOT the last few years BUT I am not. Which is prob a good thing-makes this so much easier. Technology also makes this easy. I can call my parents in the morning and say hi and chat with my mom for a few minutes (which ALWAYS turns into 30 :)) I think we all know I am not living close-clearly I haven’t been to a family BBQ, birthday party, missing nephew’s wedding and graduation BUT knowing that you can just call each other gives a sense of peace. I also feel like this isn’t real. Almost like I am on vacation (although it isn’t vacation haha since I still have to go to work everyday :)) Sometimes I want to pinch myself and see if I am just dreaming. Maybe that is b/c life is easy (at times), or maybe b/c I dreamt about doing this for so long it is a trip it finally happened? Who knows. What I do know is that I am living in the moment while I am here. There are days that I want to pull my hair out-but who doesn’t have days like that? I mean, it doesn’t matter if you are living here, or living back at home, those things just happen. It is life. There are times that I know I just need to let it go. Or let it roll off my back. B/c things are different here-and that is only making me grow in a different way.

This older man walks past me everyday on my way to school-and it is so funny b/c he ALWAYS smiles and says hi to me. It seriously makes my day that much better! The interesting part is this-I don’t think I have touched much on how nobody really speaks English to us b/c they are intimidated to try. The funny thing is that their English is SO good (I make sure to tell that to ANYONE who even attempts to speak to me outside of school-don’t get me wrong I encourage the kids too!). I want to tell them that I know how to say apple, umbrella, bag, water, milk and directions in a cab (straight, right & left)…that is seriously NOT knowing Korean! And doesn’t help me much for the most part LOL The 5 sentences I learned at orientation won’t save me either-they do impress people sometimes-but still! So it is hilarious when they say their English isn’t good b/c I just sit there and think IF my Korean was even a quarter as good as your English I would be that much better off! Anyway it is interesting b/c you feel ignored a lot (or stared at) and just by saying hello to the people you pass by (annyeonghaseyo in Korean) you usually get this smile from the person and a look of happiness that you are trying. Because at the end of the day that is all we can do, right? I tell my kids in the classroom ‘Just TRY’ so if I didn’t do that as well I would be a hypocrite. I feel like with the older people (the grandpas and grandmas) when I pass them and say hello they change their view of me-I am not the foreigner anymore (well of course I am!), but rather I am someone that might be worth a smile 😉 

In addition to the older man I walk by nearly every morning here are some other things that make me smile:

• Park, who is the security guard at one of the high rise buildings near my school, who stopped me on my way to school one day to introduce himself. He was so excited to practice his English with me!
• The little kids that say teacher and then smile and wave (in the halls, on the way to school in the mornings and even when I see them outside of school hours-which they always look at me in shock like ‘you really exist outside of school?!’ haha)

Korean class. Boy is it hard! I feel soooo dumb and there are just 5 of us thank goodness. Some people just learn it so much quicker and then you have me and I am like ‘can we go over the alphabet again?!’ We did learn numbers though (and how to give your phone number out-holla!) and that I was really good at. That, and giving directions to the cabbies 🙂 Being in this class has given me a total different perspective for my poor students who are lower level though. I now get it-I understand when they have the look of death in their eyes/glazed over-because they do not understand. I can relate to that now. I feel like it has made me a better teacher, because since I am aware of that I try even harder with them-or pull them to the side-OR just praise them for saying ANYTHING. 

Size of Korea-have I mentioned this? Some of you have asked so here you go…there are a few different ways to ‘paint the picture’ for you but this one is close to my heart 😉 If you took the state of CA South Korea would fit in the area between San Francisco & Los Angeles…yes you read that correctly. South Korea is 1/5 the size of California! It is PACKED with people though-505 people/sq. km compared to 34 people/sq. km in the USA!

This week has been great! My classes have been going super and I did really well on my Korean test in my Korean class-YAY!!! Wednesday night some of us went to the local college and attended their ‘International Party’ which was actually interesting. I had my first Big Mac (yes you read that correct-and as a friend pointed out HILARIOUS that at an Int’l Party a Big Mac was served) and the topic was Dining Etiquette across cultures (they compared Korea, Japan & the USA). There was a quiz at the end and I got one of the Qs right and got a prize…which was Lindor chocolates (and this is VERY exciting b/c chocolate is EXPENSIVE out here!!). It was fun to find another cute area super close to my neighborhood-I know I will for sure be exploring that area again soon 🙂 Last night was a GORGEOUS night and I biked to my gym. On the way home the cool breeze felt so good and the streets were so quiet-it was such a peaceful moment. I have heard the summer weather is beyond horrible-the humidity plus heat AND the amount of people here BUT if the evenings can cool down like that I will be just fine 🙂 Here is to hoping~

I’d like to end with this-one of the college professors at the event on Wednesday shared some of the differences he has noticed between the USA and South Korean cultures (he is American). One of the things he said stood out-instead of focusing on the differences let’s try to bridge the gap and learn from how the other does something. Of course I have witnessed a LOT of differences being here-but some of them have been incredibly awesome!!!

Tokyo Bound!!!  Tokyo Disneyland  
    Tokyo Sea (we met Ariel!!) 

Minnie’s House!!!

The castle was AMAZING!

Churro love for my sis! While waiting in line for Pirates 🙂

Best photo bombers EVER!!!

Book Club! These 2 girls are adorable & SMART!

Same cute 3rd graders reading all about Frozen!

Art Club on Earth Day!

You can get anything delivered anywhere (& pretty much anytime-one of the amazing differences). This was my first delivery…we got smoothies delivered to school! I think he was shocked I wanted a picture LOL

My Theater Club boys

Ferry Candlelight Vigil

Celebrating Marie’s bday in the smallest norebong ever!!!

Super creative kid in my art class!

On our way to Busan!

Fireworks on the beach!

I <3 the beach!!!

Relaxing time 🙂

What can I say, clearly I like to make signs here! Gooooo Giants 🙂

Girls weekend wouldn’t be complete without shopping!!!

Korean class-I only missed 2!!!

Don’t even get me started on the parking situation here-literally ANYTHING goes!!! This is in front of my apartment.

First Big Mac with my Chilgok crew 🙂 These guys always make me laugh! (Bill clearly didn’t get the memo to take a bite!)

Wow-where has the time gone?! I cannot believe I have been here for 2 months…I also cannot believe it is Easter and already April 20th. Time just continues to fly by-I am glad that I am taking advantage of this opportunity and living in the minute (hence why the blog lagged the last few weeks!).
As I was thinking back on the last month I realized that so much happened…

• Celebrated friends birthdays-Busan one weekend & a Samsung Lions baseball game another
• Went to the Jindo Sea Festival-small island on the Southwestern side of South Korea-and got to bring Flat Stanley with me (thanks Korb & Team Palmer!)
• Saw Phantom of the Opera (in English) and Swan Lake-both were amazing!!!
• Got sick and went to the doctor twice (she spoke English) & the school nurse twice!
• Started going to Korean class & made a new friend there (Marie rocks!)
• Had a few friends book their flights to visit me/meet up on vacays-woohoo
• Had a crazy wonderful surprise and had my first visitor last week-so fun!
• Booked my first trip out of the country-Tokyo in May
• Taught about dung (yes you read that correct) TWICE to my fifth grade classes
• Had a teacher outing where I got to bike on a 2 person bike with my co-teacher who doesn’t know how to ride a bike-while I was sick with bronchitis (it was rough!)

So, where do I begin…I gave approximately 200 Korean kids (my 3rd and 4th graders) English names. That was STRESSFUL. Seriously, I have a whole new respect for parents giving their kids a name when they are born. I mean, this was just the English name I was giving these kids and I felt a ton of pressure LOL. I had this ‘list of names’ that I read to them and they selected what name they liked (or liked the way it looked). It was hilarious-my one young co-teacher (Soyoung) had asked me the week before ‘Do you know a lot of English names’ and I was like ‘duh’ and then…wow! I seriously just started writing down every name that came to me b/c you blank when the child is just staring at you…so yeah-it was quite funny! I went through my friends names, my niece and nephews names, you name it-you might be a part of that list 🙂 There were some fun names too-like the kids wanted to be named Olaf (yes from Frozen!) and then I had a SpongeBob request. Super cute. So yeah, the teaching thing is going…every day is a new day and a new obstacle can come up, or a new adventure. Last week I had 2 crying kids. It was hilarious. The one girl, 3rd grade, was crying b/c we were playing Simon Says and some boy said something to her  (in Korean) and yep-niagra falls happened. And she was a LOUD crier. Then, the next day, when the kids come in to clean the rooms after their lunch this boy had to take out the trash. I mean, first off all 5 of the kids played rock, paper, scissors to figure out who was going to be ‘stuck’ with the job of taking out trash so he won/lost fair and square BUT for some reason he was soooo pissed about it. Obviously I can’t understand anything that the kids are saying so I asked my one student (Anna) and she told me. I bit my tongue so I wouldn’t laugh in front of them. 

I went to the beach town Busan for my friend Erin’s birthday and went to Spaland (yes ladies-it is amazing!) and enjoyed the beach and warm weather. I cannot wait to spend many weekends in Busan. We took the KTX there (the high speed train) and it was close, fast & easy to get around! We found yummy sushi, drank sake from a wooden box-that was a first-and found a great hostel that was in the fabulous area of Haeundae Beach. I already have another trip planned in mid-May and will be cheering on the Lotte Giants baseball team (yes I find baseball wherever I go AND Giants to cheer on!).

The weekend after Busan I experienced a miracle…no really-the Jindo Sea Miracle. It was quite an adventure, let me tell you! One of my friends here had mentioned it to me-it sounded amazing. I mentioned it to my friend Andrew. Poor thing-he then got stuck planning it (well his co-teacher did a LOT of calling for us to figure out how to ‘skin this cat’ as Andrew would say!). It wasn’t an easy trek-that is for dang sure-but it was well worth the 4 buses and train it took to get there 🙂 There was an international food festival and music the night before the sea parting (which we got up at 3:45 am for…and you all know how I love those early mornings!). Basically there is one time of the year that the tide is so low that you can walk from the mainland to the island of Jindo. It happens twice a day (when the tides go out) for about 4 days. It was such an awesome experience-we didn’t have a place to stay because you are off the grid where this takes place (thank goodness Hayley let us sleep on her bus for a few hours!) and then it was still dark out at that hour so you had torches to walk across the ‘water’ AND don’t forget the super awesome rain boots we got-the best purchase I have done since being here. The boots kept you warm & dry! The water wasn’t as ‘low’ as I had thought it would be…at one point we were walking in water up to our knees. You can see in the pics below all the people that were also in the water walking toward Jindo. The morning group didn’t get all the way across…at one point the people ahead of us stopped. None of us knew what was going on, it was pitch black out and super windy. We heard the faint sound from the shore saying ‘please exit the sea road the tide is coming back in’ soooo after some chit chat amongst all the ex-pats in the water we walked back toward the shore. 

I also started Korean classes this month! My friend Bill’s co-teacher offered to give us free classes. It is soooo hard-I feel like a little kid and have a whole new level of respect for anyone learning a foreign language! I really just want to be able to communicate with the cab drivers and be able to order food. Let me tell you, I have a long way to go! I do fairly well with the cabbies-I can say straight, right, left, u-turn and stop/here. Whew! There are 5 of us in the ‘class’ and it is held at her home. We have a lot of fun and I even made a new friend-Marie! She is great, lives around the corner from me, loves to bake AND has an oven. It was friendship at first sight 🙂 She actually baked brownies for class last week-they were bomb!

We heard that Phantom of the Opera was playing in Daegu AND was in English so a group of us decided to go. It was so good! I hadn’t seen it in years and forgot how much I loved it. The crazy ‘small world’ part is my friend Sheyna’s cousin is in the show and was also staying in Daegu! She had told me that when I found out I was placed in Daegu but there was so much going on at the time I didn’t put two and two together until later. 

After all this fun my body decided it needed a break…and I got bronchitis. Good times. Being sick sucks when you have the ‘comforts’ of the things you want/need when you are sick but being sick here is a whole other level of sucking! I finally went to the doctor since after 5 days I was just getting worse (after going to the school nurse) and she gave me a ton of medicine (see pic below!). She also told me to come back 3 days later to see how I was doing. Her name is Dr. Kim and she is AWESOME. Zachary told me about her (again, Zachary saving the day!) and I am so happy to have a great doctor right down the street. So I was sick for 2 weeks…they don’t believe in sick days over here and let me tell you (my teacher friends at home will appreciate this) being sick and TEACHING is also a whole other level of not fun! I would go teach all day and be ‘on’ and by the end of the day be soooo done for it wasn’t even funny. I would come home and just go straight to bed. You can only imagine how annoyed I was by this since I don’t like to not be able to have fun 🙂 The funniest story from me being sick (or according to Hayley and Elaine at least) is my teacher outing last Friday. So, I was told the Monday before (when I was getting sicker by the day) that we had a teacher outing on Friday from 2:30-9:30 (after classes were over for the day). I was partially dreading it b/c I am usually done for by Friday and also wasn’t feeling good. Well, let’s just fast forward to the funny story…my one co-teacher can’t ride a bike. She asked me mid-week if I liked riding a bike and I said yes. Well then she mentions that we are going to be riding bikes on Friday and that maybe she can sit on the 2 person bike behind me and I can bike/cycle/drive her around. Well, I was mid-fever at this point and was only partially listening so just ignored this. Fast forward to Thursday and she tells me that I probably shouldn’t bike at all on Friday since I was so sick. This kinda annoyed me (we all know how much I love being told what to do) but again, didn’t feel good so just let it go. Friday rolls around and since everyone else was biking she was embarrassed she wasn’t so insists that I bike with her and basically ‘drive’ her around. It was like Driving Miss Daisy. No joke. Have you ever been on a bike with someone who doesn’t know how to ride a bike? Not fun or easy. AND have I mentioned that cars do NOT stop for you here. So, we were trying to cross this busy road to get to the bike lanes and she was pedaling when we needed to STOP so we didn’t become roadkill. Aye yiyi. After about an hour (yes an hour) I was done. She wanted to go uphill (and we weren’t on a mountain bike-it was like a beach cruiser!) and I said I couldn’t bike anymore. She of course thought it was because she was too heavy and I said no, it is because I am tired. The outing ended with us having a yummy Korean meal and then taking a walk.

Elsa’s birthday was last weekend and since she likes baseball I figured let’s all go to a baseball game! We had a big group go and cheer on the Samsung Lions. Going to a game here was so fun and I cannot wait to go to more-I already put their schedule on my calendar (of course I did!). We brought in good ole Costco wine (woohoo Costco rocks!) and there were tons of vendors selling food outside the stadium to bring in! We got some fried chicken and it was the BEST fried chicken I have had here yet. After the game our group decided to check out the ex-pat bars (my first time to both of them) and then of course ended the night out at the norebong (karaoke rooms). It was a super fun night and I was glad that I was able to celebrate Elsa’s bday with her 🙂

In the midst of being sick I had some downtime to research where I was going to travel during my holidays. I booked my first trip and am so excited to be going to Tokyo in just a few weeks (we have a 4 day wkend b/c of Children’s Day and Buddha’s bday). There are 5 of us going-my friend Anna is flying out from Texas to join us at the happiest place in Tokyo-Disneyland-and I am thrilled! Speaking of friends coming out to good ole South Korea…I was super excited to have a surprise guest last week-Rachel was visiting her aunt in Shanghai and they decided to come out to see me in Daegu. I mean, it is just a hop and a skip over the sea 🙂 I had tickets to Swan Lake with some of the girls here and was soooo excited that Rachel and her aunt Julie could join us. It was an amazing show and we had killer seats! We had a great time during their visit-full of laughs and trying to figure out things in a foreign land. Starting with finding each other on Thursday night in the midst of rain and bad directions and ending with almost getting stuck in an ATM Saturday night after going to yummy Korean BBQ. You can only laugh when these things happen-they make for great stories to share with others!

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page” -St. Augustine

Busan!

Cherry Blossoms took over Daegu!

Sake from wooden box-first time for everything!

Marie made brownies for Korean class snack 🙂 

Co-teachers

Medicine from my doctor!

Andrew & me at Jindo Sea Festival

Erin & Erin-celebrating birthdays!

Elsa’s bday

First KTX ride!

Hayley with me at the Sea Festival in Jindo

All the people getting ready to enter the sea

The view from in the water crossing the sea-lots of people!!

My Korean class teacher-she is the sweetest!

Korean BBQ when Rachel was in town

The list of names!

Norebong with Erin! We sang Beauty and the Beast:)

Phantom of the Opera

Rachel and me downtown

Subway fun!

Sunset near the Opera House

Swan Lake

My Theater class singing Tomorrow from Annie

4th graders

My Easter brunch!

I have now been in Korea for a month…wow! Time flies-the crazy thing is *if* I only stay for the one year time is a ticking…good thing I got my ARC (Alien Registration Card) the other day b/c now I can finally start to travel-and that is what I have been waiting for!!! Exploring Asia starts now 🙂
Last week was a big week-I finally taught my first classes! I did my introduction PPT for the classroom (so they could find out ALL about Erin Teacher!) and it was pretty fun. A lot of you would’ve laughed at some of the pictures used…or the references I used in pictures to explain something the kids would enjoy/like/faces would light up. I think the funniest is I used my friend Allison’s dog Gunner as a picture for my dog (and yeah, I don’t have a dog, you are all correct! but didn’t even have a pic of my parents dog) because I figured they would like to see a dog AND I had a pic with Gunner. Gunner is famous over here at Bukbu Elementary 🙂 Then, the other picture that they LOVED was the picture I have with Dana Vollmer and me wearing her Olympic gold medal. Their eyes got really big-I think they might’ve gotten confused and thought I had won the gold medal…there was definitely some translating from my co-teacher on that one! The kids were allowed to ask me questions after and some of the questions I got were: how old are you (remember it isn’t rude here-it is all about hierarchy), do I have a boyfriend, and how tall are you. I realized that I needed to learn the metric system b/c when I told the little boy I was 5’7″ he just looked at me so confused. The funniest question I got was towards the end of the week-this boy raised his hand and asked me if this was my real hair color. My sister in law told me they would love my blue eyes, and I know my hair color is not a ‘typical’ color BUT it was so cute to hear him ask. They are so used to everyone having the same color hair (again like when we went to Costco-easy to spot us b/c we have lighter hair!).
Last week I also figured out the subway all on my own (I had to meet up with friends to watch my guilty pleasure the Bachelor). The subway is super nice, easy to use and clean! I have become very comfortable catching a cab back from downtown as well…since the bus stops at 11 and I didn’t make it by that time. Ooops 😉

So let’s see…last week also consisted of sleepless nights. Definitely not fun. It is all part of the adjustment I am assuming…could also be the night owl in me. I get to that point where I am like ‘I will just stay up b/c now people at home are awake…’ yeah, that needs to stop! It is pretty amazing to be overseas this time b/c in the last 10 years since I lived overseas technology has advanced SO much! I mean, before we had email and international calling cards. Now we have Skype, Facebook, Instagram, good ole iMessage/Facetime with the iPhone/mac AND Kakao. For my friends that haven’t downloaded this from home you need to. Pretty freaking cool. AND it is the THING in Korea 🙂 I especially liked it when I sent my sister a text and she sends me one back that says ‘my phone just talked to me’ yep…it does…it says kakao hahaha

I will say that I forget how much I love the traveling family you acquire when you are traveling/living overseas. Just the bonds you make with people who are also going through what you are going through is amazing! And, let’s not forget about the people back home that introduce you to someone they know that is here. I had this happen to me last weekend. I worked at Chevy’s in Sacramento in between coming back from Dallas and starting at the AHA. While working there I met Charlotte. Charlotte was cool and she went off to teach in Thailand 4 years ago…well we were friends on FB (of course) and last year when I was thinking of coming overseas I got in touch, and then this year I did again when I knew I was really (finally!) going to do it. She introduced me to her friend and his gf who have been out here for 4 years between Thailand and South Korea. They had me over for dinner Saturday night (amazing meal too-yum!) and we got to just talk about living overseas and they shared their experiences with me. It was wonderful! I also hiked in my backyard over the weekend. I mean, you think I am joking but I am not! I can walk out of my building and go about 10 minutes and be at the foot of Mt. Hamji. I love hiking and feel so blessed that I can hike whenever I want without having to go far. There are SO many other mountains and I will definitely be exploring those too. My friend Jen came over and we set out for Hamji…we took a wrong turn and hiked up the other mountain-Hamji’s neighbor 🙂 and when I say we went up, I mean we went UP and right away. It was a great workout-Jen & I both had a blast and the weather was perfect! I was a little worried about wearing a tank top (since it is not appropriate in this culture to show your shoulders or your chest/cleavage) but it was so warm that I didn’t care. And, I didn’t get too many stares-not any more than usual 🙂

The things I have noticed in the last month are interesting. I don’t know if you could really say they are ‘culture shocks’ but they are different. But, many differences are just that-different. They aren’t good, or bad. This is why I’ve come here-to experience the differences.

Here are some of the ways that South Korea is different than good ole California:
1. Toilet paper…it is like BYOTP here. No joke. So, the bathrooms have toilet paper as you walk into the restroom. Not in the individual stalls. You grab what you think you will need and continue on. Sometimes there isn’t TP. That is just part of the journey. I have learned to ALWAYS have kleenex with me 🙂 andddd since we are on the subject of the restroom you don’t flush the TP here. There is a wastebasket next to the toilet for that. Okay moving on!
2. Kleenex are napkins. No really! When you go into the lunchroom (at my school) there are kleenex boxes that they use as the napkin. And, even the ‘paper towels’ I have bought at Home Plus (our Target) are not the Bounty you would get at home 🙂 they are thin, small and little. I feel like I use a lot of paper in general haha
3. Soap on a stick-some of you saw the picture on facebook and instagram. For those of you that missed it please see below. This reminds me of the bathrooms back at home in the nasty gas stations that have the towel that is in the towel holder that you pull down and wipe your hands dry with. Do you know what I am talking about?! So, this is just like it sounds. Soap on a stick and you use that as your ‘soap’ to wash your hands. Now there aren’t towels or dryers-they all just shake them dry. I have a towel at work that I use, and again I always have kleenex with me too. I mean, let’s be serious, I don’t even like using hand soap that people I know have touched (it is one of my things I dunno).
4. Cold classrooms, hallways & bathrooms. So, people told me that the classrooms weren’t heated before I came over. I freaked out. I remember emailing Andrew (another one of those ‘friends’ that became my friend since he is over here and we have a mutual friend at home-he is amazing, answers all my questions & I pretty much owe him a year of beer!) and asking the Q. Especially since I was already concerned with the cold that I was going to encounter. I remember being at orientation, in the lobby of the dorm, and being SO cold. I could see my breath it was so cold. I was having a conversation with one of my new friends over here, she is from cold Minnesota, and she said that even for her it was an adjustment. Because, let’s face it, at home it is cold OUTSIDE not inside. So…yeah the cold hallways (and bathrooms!) are quite a shock when you walk out of the warm (sometimes) classroom. The classroom temp varies as well-because even though we turn the heater on the office really has all control. And, I wasn’t here for the dead of winter so can only imagine. Thank goodness Zach had a heater at his (now my) desk. There is a reason that Koreans keep those puffy jackets on all day!
5. Okay so back to the bathroom for just a second (I feel like a middle school boy discussing the bathroom so much!). They do have toilet seat warmers. We were at orientation and the one stall had this crazy looking toilet-I seriously should’ve taken a picture! There were all these buttons on the side. Anyway someone decided to check it out and we realized it was a seat warmer. Soooo that was nice. But, I haven’t seen one of those since the dorm at the university!
6. Korean age. I have shared this knowledge with some of you. It baffled me. So there is international age, and Korean age. International age is what we are all used to. Korean age is different b/c they consider the term that while they are in their mother’s womb so when they are born they are 1. Then, they all age during the New Year on January 1, not their birthday. So-they are between 1-2 years ‘younger’ than what they say. It just depends on when their birthday falls. So-my 3rd graders that I teach are really 1st grade ages. Yes, they are babies! 🙂 There are a few ways to figure out your Korean age but the easiest is to take the current year and subtract the year you were born and then add a year. And yes, I am 34 Korean age…no thanks! haha
7. Hagwon. A hagwon is where students go after school for more school. It amazes me how many hours they study here. During our orientation one of the other EPIK teachers gave a lecture about classroom management. She was talking about different things that would come up in the classroom and ways she has handled them, etc. She did bring up sleeping in the classroom. I initially reacted by thinking ‘that is so rude if they sleep during the class’ but then, after hearing her say a few things my thoughts changed. She was telling us that the kids/students will go to school from roughly 8-4. Then they will take a bus to a hagwon (private school/academy/tutoring) and have school from 5ish-10 or even later (especially high school since they have so many tests that they study for). So, not only do they go to school for that many hours in ONE day they then go home, eat dinner with their family (Koreans eat super late) and then do homework! People told me how important education was here but it didn’t really sink in until I heard that (and now witness it). If you want to see a funny video about a day in the life of a Korean student check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bniwLF4hYHQ&list=PLYg_KcjCjrMhK30ROZ2JFIep5ABdHk-fU&index=7

At the end of the day this is all part of the adventure. The little things are what truly set it apart from life at home. And, this is what makes living in a foreign land so appealing 🙂

The English Zone-my classroom

My school-Bukbu Elementary

Friday night dinner with Irish neighbor (Chris), Siu & Jason

Door & fridge

Hiking with Jen

4th graders making their English name cards

5th grade-super cute class

My bathroom

Good ole shower!

My closet for the year…it is twice the size of the closet I had in London!

Playing 4 corners with 4th graders!

Gift from my co-teacher! Pencil holder 🙂

School lunch…let’s talk about how hard it is to eat spaghetti with chopsticks! 

Thank goodness for Costco-made myself some Mexican!

My kitchen!

My Korean name

My one bedroom house (as they call it!)

View from the door-complete with drying rack!

The washing machine (or as my family likes to call it my jacuzzi!)

Can you figure this out…yeah me either. Thank goodness for Zach!

Walking home from school and noticed the shoes…

My wine cellar 🙂

Grocery shopping…spam anyone?!

Subway ride!

Blossoms are everywhere-so pretty (and not nice for allergies!) This is right in front of my school.

Where do I even begin? First off, I will be better with the blogging-promise! It has been a BIT crazy since I left SFO 3 weeks ago! The journey started with me attempting to repack my suitcase about 3 times to get it under the amount of kilos that were allowed. I told the guy I would just pay the overage and somehow that wasn’t an option. Singapore Airlines was legit though…they fed you constantly! Every time I would look up there was another ‘snack’ or meal heading my way. I had the window seat and sat next to a very nice father & son. I watched a few movies (Captain Phillips was SO good & then watched We’re the Millers), drank some wine & took a cat nap (I wanted to be nice & tired so I could sleep that night when I arrived). So…here is where things start to get a bit funny. We all know that I didn’t even know I was going on the early round until 10 days before…so the whole time I thought my orientation was in Seoul (b/c that was where we were flying into-makes sense, right?). Well…I get my luggage & pile it onto the cart…and make my way toward the EPIK desk. I made an instant friend (Jen) who told me to grab a paper from the desk and wait for my number to be called. Then I made friends with some girls from the UK…and then I overheard the shocking news. That we were getting on a bus for 3 hours. Um, what? So apparently my orientation was NOT in Seoul 🙂 The good news was I stayed in my yoga pants. There was no way I was going to get changed to get ‘ready’ for a 3 hour bus ride that was going to consist of sleeping! AND arriving close to midnight.
We stepped outside and I was actually surprised b/c it wasn’t too cold-yay!!! We got to Jeonju University around 11:30 pm and checked in-got my nametag, nurse took my temp, got my roomie and hauled my luggage to the 7th floor. My roommate was Tarah, from Florida, so we both bonded on being ‘cold’ haha
Okay so the thing that Korea has that is AMAZING (I know there will be more but this was the first thing I noticed and fell in love) is heated floors (Ondol). No joke, it is amazing! I mean-the whole ‘don’t want to get out of bed b/c your feet might get cold’ yeah, that doesn’t happen here 😉 Nice & toasty-our dorm room was a heater! So when we checked in we got our orientation packet in a cute little canvas tote with some snacks too! I will say that the EPIK program was very organized & took GREAT care of us. Since I planned events for so long I know how much goes into making something like this flow and was very impressed.
Orientation was great-long ass days-but great. Met some cool people and actually had some GREAT lectures taught mainly by other EPIK teachers. So, they were able to give you some hints as to what you could encounter in the year ahead. The university dorm provided us with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Perhaps NOW is the time to tell you that after my plane food over I have only used a fork 3 times since…yes you read that correctly. So, breakfast Wednesday morning (first day of orientation) I got the ‘surprise’ reminder that ‘oh yeah, you are in Korea, home of the chopsticks 🙂 Luckily they always have a spoon with every meal (b/c they have soup breakfast, lunch & dinner with their meal). The first few days I felt like a toddler-using my spoon to {help} eat everything (mind you this was after using the chopsticks first but there comes a time when you just want that last ‘spoonful’). Do you know how hard it is to eat eggs with chopsticks? Let me tell you…we got creative. Like the piece of toast we got with the eggs-yeah that meal became an egg sandwich 🙂
Orientation consisted of an awesome welcoming ceremony that had a kick-ass Taekwondo performance & a great professor that gave us a Welcome to Korea lecture. Seriously, this guy was funny. Not only was he dealing with people that were on serious jet lag, it was also an oven in that lecture hall so you wanted to fall asleep, but he was FUNNY! Good think he was, otherwise we might’ve all fallen asleep. Saturday of orientation ‘week’ was a field trip to see the local sights. It was a great day-gorgeous weather (I was worried b/c so far we had been inside so of course I was warm enough due to heating!). We explored Hanok Village in Jeonju. Our classes split up and saw the sights. We saw one of the first Christian style chapels that was built (and it was a tad awk b/c here come about 100 of us and there was a funeral taking place…boy did we stick out!). After that we went to a paper making company and saw the process that goes in to making paper. Lunch was next and boy was it yummy!! We had bibimbap-some of you saw me post it on fb & insta. After lunch was free time and then we all met up and had a crafty afternoon-made pencil boxes & then played the drums…good times! The last part of orientation consisted of us working in groups to co-teach and demonstrate the lesson to our class. We also had lectures going on so the days were even longer. Tuesday night we had our closing ceremony and then an amazing FEAST of a dinner (they also gave us forks that night lol). Wednesday was the big day-we got to leave orientation, say goodbye to the friends we had made, and finally be on our way to our ‘home’ for the next year. When we got to Daegu they called us up in groups based on the area where your school was. I had found out I was teaching elementary (Zach, who I took over for, had emailed me and we skyped-he was/is a lifesaver and gave me a LOT of guidance…shoot he still is-he helped me with my laundry today via FB when I couldn’t figure out how to work the machine!). I met one of my co-teachers and we were on our way. Okay…so that day was BUSY. You all know me-I enjoy busy-but holy shiza that day wore me out…I think I could still be catching up! So from there Mrs. Na brought me and all my bags to my new home-pics to come. The place is great-Zach hooked it up BIG time and left me a TON. I am soooo lucky-you all have no idea. I could go on and on but I won’t right now-let’s just say that some of my friends walked into nothing-literally some had/have no beds still-and I walked in to a clean studio (stocked with food!), post-it notes giving me directions/explanations for different things AND internet-yes he kept it on for me. Lifesaver!!!
So after I saw my place we left to get lunch, then went by the school, then went to get my ARC card (alien registration card)-which was an EPIK reunion! There were a TON of people from orientation at the immigration office so it was fun to run into a friendly face. After that we went to Home Plus (imagine 5 story Target) and then, finally, back to my ‘house’ where we unloaded all the stuff we bought shopping. That first day here was the most tired I have been in a long time-I can’t describe it, but all the other EPIK teachers agreed. It was almost like we were on this adrenaline high and then came down from it.
In addition to Zach being helpful with everything to make my transition as easy as possible he also did something else. He introduced me via FB to his awesome Irish neighbor Chris. Chris came over my first night when I was freezing and the heater wasn’t working to help me out. Since then he has been my tour guide, introduced me to some yummy cuisine in our neighborhood & given me great directions when I ask where something is. He is super social (more social than me!) and invites me out and about with him and has introduced me to some of his friends. I am so lucky to have him right next door!

I only had to go into the classroom on that Thursday with my one co-teachers and we stayed until lunch and then went to set up a bank account for me and get me a cell phone (oh yeah, you know it, I can’t go too long without one!). I did eat lunch with the Principal, VP & office staff that were working that week. They commented on how good I was with chopsticks. I think they were just being polite LOL

That first weekend was fun-I went out for my birthday and there was a welcome party for all of us ‘newbies.’ Celebrating my bday on a new continent was a first for me and I am glad I got to do it! We all went out to some bars and then norebang after (which is karaoke and amazing and you all know how much I love to sing-I am in heaven!). The next day (my actual bday) was a lot of fun too! Some of the girls I met at orientation came to my neighborhood and we went and got Korean BBQ and then got some treats to eat at my apartment. Cheers to 33 and me feeling ‘free’ 🙂

So…the teaching part. I am sure many of you are thinking-okay so what is going on, is she actually teaching over there or not!? Well I met my one co-teacher (like I mentioned-she picked me up and took me all around on day 1 here). I have 2 other co-teachers as well. They are all very nice & two of them actually lived in the states before! I am teaching 3rd-6th grade and have my time split up between the three of them. Co-teaching is interesting and I am still getting introduced to it. The first week of school was last week and I actually did not teach. The teachers wanted the first week with their classes and I totally understand why. I teach 20 classes per week so only see the kids once. I have about 500 students total…memorizing names is going to take me til summer I am sure! So like I said last week there were no classes for me to ‘teach.’ I got to do what we NETs (Native English Teachers or Guest English Teachers) call deskwarming. OMG I haven’t facebooked that much in forever. Seriously. I wanted to just fall asleep in my chair. I did do some research for lessons, etc. but still…8 hours times 5 days is a lot of time to lesson plan…especially when you aren’t even sure what you are supposed to cover 🙂 Friday night was the teacher welcome dinner-this is a BIG deal b/c the school takes everyone out to dinner (& lots of drinking!) and it is all about first impressions. Soooo yeah…let’s just say I was told I was a ‘strong’ drinker & got to take shots with my principal & VP and then the VP showed me how to soju bomb. It was a lot of fun-the staff laughed at me attempting to speak Korean and had fun teaching me how to say different words/expressions. It is going to be an amazing year!

Saturday was a big day…I went to Costco. Yes-there is a Costco and it was AMAZING. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the food here is good. But, it is also so awesome that I can go to Costco and get avocados…or salsa…or…the list can go on and on! There was a group of us girls that went-it is 25 minutes away by bus for me and was a super easy (and pretty) ride. The funniest part of the trip was this-it was packed…I mean, yes Costco usually is but WOW you thought you were at Disneyland! So, one of the girls had to use the restroom and we were telling her where to find us/the general area where we would be. Well, she got back to us and said we were easy to spot. We were the only ‘foreigners’ around…we stood out like where’s waldo style 🙂 There were even some little kids that just stared at us-because a lot of them haven’t seen Westerners before. They might’ve seen ‘us’ on a movie but not in real life.

There is soooo much more to say but I am going to wrap this novel up! I want to share about some of the culture shocks but that will have to come in the next update-and that will be soon-PROMISE 🙂 And I will also have pics of my apartment too (I have had some requests!).

Yesterday I taught my first classes FINALLY (4 total classes and 100 students total). Some of you saw the picture of my last 5th grade class on FB & Instagram. Anyway, it went great! I think after deskwarming all last week I wasn’t nervous anymore-you get past that, where you just want to do something! My co-teacher was super great to work with. The kids LOVED the PPT intro I had put together-it included pics of ‘my life’ in America-lots of family pics, friend pics, WEDDING pics (lol b/c we know I have enough of those to share pics) and one of the students favorites was me wearing the Olympic gold medal. It was a lot of fun putting it together for them as well-just looking at some of the things I/we take for granted! The kids are so cute, and seem so excited to meet Erin Teacher. I know not everyday will be perfect, and there will be challenges, but that is okay. That is all part of this adventure. Thank goodness for the friends we made at orientation. Since we are all going through this crazy journey together-and even though EVERY school is different, and every co-T is different, we at least can laugh and share how the day went with each other.

The beautiful thing is that tomorrow is always a new day, and if you are lucky it will teach you something new while you are teaching others. You just have to open your eyes (& maybe even your mind) to see it!

Hope you all have a great day! Love you~

Milkshakes-yum!!!

School lunch…squid soup 🙂

Costco ‘field trip’ fun!

EPIK orientation field trip to Hanok Village-Jeonju

My Classroom!

Gorgeous cathedral!

The Waiting Game turned into the Whirlwind Game

Wow…where did the last 6 weeks go? I remember a month ago when I had my last day at the AHA and I was thinking the first two weeks in January were crazy. Then came lovely module 5 that made me miss my San Diego trip (which relief I passed that thing! but sad that I didn’t get to see all my SD peeps). Well then, as a lot of you probably remember, you all asked me the same question that was on my very own mind as well ‘When do you leave?’ and I would respond with ‘no clue!’
I started to get anxious…but then knew that if I didn’t leave on the first round (Feb. 17th) that I would leave probably in March…and so of course I started thinking of all the things I could STILL do! Does this sound like typical Erin behavior?! I would email my contact and she was super sweet and reminded me that she would tell me as soon as she had ANY info. So, I waited. I waited, and waited, and waited. And, I had a good time and took advantage of NOT working. I got to see one of my childhood friends and have some great quality time with her and her kiddos, I got to run in a 5k with my mom for her bday (and her first 5k!), I got to just have the gift of TIME. And then, last week, Thursday February 6th to be exact, I came to a realization. I was CONVINCED I wasn’t leaving on the first round b/c really, as I said to my friend Steph when I was at her house, ‘I would have to find out tomorrow (which was Friday, Feb. 7th) if I am going the first round b/c otherwise there isn’t enough time to get my Visa. Well, as you all know, I woke up on Friday, Feb. 7th and checked my email and voila there it was. The golden ticket/email. I was leaving on a jet plane on Monday Feb. 17th. Holy crap!?! So…the last 8 days has been a blurrrrrr I was able to still go to the family cabin with my mom and sister. We had a great time, saw some snow (finally! This CA winter is ridiculous-sorry East Coast & mid West friends!), played some cards, and slept. When I got back to my parents on Monday I was waiting for my contract, b/c i couldn’t get my visa without the contract. Tuesday was the day-I drove to SF, went to the Korean embassy to apply for my Visa and had quite an experience with that. The good news is I did get my Visa-I just had to drive back to SF on Friday to pick it up. This last week has been a whirlwind-shopping for warmer clothing, items that they don’t have in South Korea (clothing & toiletries, OTC medicines, etc.), saying goodbye to friends & family, mentally preparing myself that I am going FAR and will be gone for a year. Trying not to overpack (yet still packing…it has been a week of saying I need to pack, yet everything else comes first), going through the stuff I brought to my parents (and although I swear I downsized I still have too much!). I am beyond excited, and I know when I get on that plane I will probably fall asleep from the exhaustion of this week. Because the truth of the matter is, this dream of mine has FINALLY become a reality! And that is both amazing and overwhelming. There have been so many emotions this week, but I will say that I embrace this next chapter that I have been thinking about for 5 years. Thank you to all of you that have supported this decision! Next stop Seoul for my orientation!