Author: Sarah Gourevitch

My time in Korea is winding down. I cannot believe that I’ve been here for over 11 months. I simply can’t believe it. A part of my heart will always remain in Korea.

It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been busy, busy, busy. To give you a rundown of my last few weeks, here’s seven things….

1. Of course this would happen. Right before I leave Korea a new little restaurant opens up in my neighborhood. And it has the best Thai food. I’ve eaten there 3 times already. They know me now and give me a free Sprite when I come in. I mean how many curly-haired blondes are there in my neck of the woods?

2. A few weeks ago, I volunteered at the orphanage one last time. We had a water day…water balloons, bubbles, etc. The kids loved it. Oh how I wish I could adopt one of these precious babies.

This kid is an absolute hoot. Seriously. Climbs on anything he can. Screams. Laughs. Etc. He has such a loud personality.

3. Life with my co-teacher has not been all that pleasant. At all. She told me that I didn’t have to make lesson plans for summer camp, that she would do them. Then 2 days before they due she told me that I had to make them because it was my job. I had to walk away from the conversation so A I wouldn’t cry in front of her and B I wouldn’t say something I would regret. Oh, and that was on top of all the materials she still wanted me to make. Yeah, I was not a happy camper.

On another note, however, our last couple of days of school were good. She wanted to do a cooking class with the kids in our middle school class, and they LOVED it. We had fried eggs, sliced tomatoes, cheese, ham, bread, and ketchup (yeah, I know….gross). One of the boys was shoving it in so quickly that you would have thought he hadn’t eaten in a week!

Then we played Jenga in our high school class. As you can see, they loved it. Grown adults nonetheless!

And we also played with play dough. They loved that too!

We had a ceremony to signify the ending of the school semester. I had no idea what they saying. I just stood when they stood and sat when they sat.

4. I have been hanging out with Katie a lot in Euhaengdong, which is my favorite spot in Daejeon. Katie and I are almost 20 years apart in age, but somehow that doesn’t even affect our friendship. She is a fellow Christian, a great friend, and I just adore her. We always have so much fun together….whether we are shopping, eating, paying Nertz, singing at a norebang, or people watching. I am going to miss her terribly. Here I am in my favorite spot.

Last night, Katie and I went there to hang out, and we had THE absolute best time! We had originally decided to shop in the underground (it’s the best place for Konglish shirts), eat dinner, and then have Oreo bingsu for dessert. It’s THE best dessert in Korea.

After dessert, we decided to keep wandering and ended up finding a “new” spot in Eunhaengdong that we had never found before. It was like the fun nightlife of Eunhaengdong. It was awesome! We decided that we were in the singing mood so found a norebang. This norebang was awesome because it had songs that we hadn’t found at any other norebang like “Marry You”, “What Makes You Beautiful”, and the ever-amazing “Let It Go”. There was a lot of belting out, tambourines, and dancing involved. Then we kept wandering because we weren’t tired yet. Found a great 3-man band that was performing on the street and stayed to listen. They were so good. If they had had a CD for sale, I would have totally bought it. They sang some Korean songs and some English ones. We also people watched of course. Some of our favorites that we were looking for: skinny men with bad mustaches (Korean men do NOT look good with mustaches….I’m just sayin’), Korean men with good butts (not very common actually), bad Konglish shirts, and couples with cute/annoying PDA. We were also hit on by 3 Korean men. We finally decided to go home around 2:00pm.

5. I leave for Bali in less than 2 weeks!!!! I have decided to splurge on my last 2 nights in Bali. Staying at a swanky, luxury, romantic resort. Very popular for honeymoons. Romantic vacation for one…coming right up! Have I mentioned just how much I am looking forward to this? Or can you tell?

6. I am starting to pack up boxes to ship home and sell stuff in my apartment. It’s getting real. Wow. You don’t think that you’ve accumulated that much stuff until it’s time to pack.

7. Summer camp started on Wednesday. In the morning I have two elementary classes, with one of the classes consisting of two young brothers. They are both blind and have severe intellectual disabilities. One doesn’t even talk. They LOVE music, so we sing a lot of BINGO and Old McDonald and songs like that. I tried play dough the other day, but they didn’t like that. They did like building things with the big Legos. I taught them push and pull with the Legos.

In my afternoon classes (I have them for 2 classes in a row), I have 3 men, including my male co-teacher, and 2 middle school boys. One of the boys is extremely low, so my lessons have to reflect that. We play games, practice speaking limited English, and are learning “A Whole New World”.

Some friends and I were talking yesterday about my school. It’s not really a blind school. It’s more like a special education school. The students may be blind or visually impaired, but they have special needs that drive my teaching. For example, in a class of 8 students, I might have 2 higher students who are not on grade level but can follow along pretty well and speak/read English. However, I also have students in that same class who can’t read English at all. And another student who can barely speak at all. So my lessons have to be low enough for everyone to be able to participate which is sad because the higher students get bored and are left behind instead of being pushed on. I have some students that would benefit more by being in a regular school where they could be pushed, but they go to the blind school because they are blind or visually impaired. And they are in the same grade and classes with students who can’t read. 

However, the regular public school in Korea has its own problems. They push the students so hard that students don’t get to be kids. To explain what I mean, check out this article where they let Korean middle school students get their feelings down on paper.

http://iamkoream.com/what-south-korean-students-really-think-about-their-education-system/

It’s been a challenging year teaching wise, but I do feel like I have learned a lot in how to teach students with special needs. I feel like I will definitely be more prepared in having students with special needs in my classroom and be able to differentiate lessons for them.

My flight to Bali is booked. My tour in Bali is booked. My flight home is booked. My suitcases are getting packed. Boxes are being packed and shipped home. 

In less than one month, I will say good-bye to Korea. I will come back to Texas and see all my friends and family (including my dogs) again. 

And I will be looking for a job. I know several of you have asked if I have found a job yet back home. The answer is no. I haven’t even had any interviews. I am not coming home until Tuesday, August 26th, which is the day AFTER school starts. That makes it difficult to find a job. Schools always reevaluate their numbers the 2nd or 3rd week of school, so I’ll probably get a job then. That will give me time to decompress and ease back into living in the states. I have heard that reverse culture shock is a lot harder than most people think. We shall see!

Can’t wait to touch Texas soil!

Yeah. I know. It’s been over 2 weeks since I’ve updated the blog. At school I am constantly making materials for my co-teacher. It seems never-ending.

A couple of weekends ago, we had a long weekend, so some friends and I went up to Seoul. This trip to Seoul was absolutely magnificent. Seriously. It almost made me want to move to Seoul. Great food. A lot more diversity than in Daejeon. Great places to visit.

We stayed at this great hostel that the other girls had found. The best part about this hostel was the restaurant right near it. It was SO good. Like SO good. Better than IHOP and Denney’s. The owner had all of his employees actually spent a couple of weeks in America to learn how to make American breakfasts. Well it worked.

I got the same thing every morning. I ordered it the first morning, and it was so good that I just continued to get it. Eggs, bacon, hash browns, and a Belgian waffle.

Check out everyone on their cell phones. Except the old dude in the middle who is asleep.

I was trying to be nonchalant while taking a picture of this girl in her bandages who had just plastic surgery. She’s the one in the hat reading the paper.

But it didn’t work. So I just took a regular picture. We saw several people with bandages such as these. Plastic surgery is very common in South Korea, particularly in Seoul. One person told me it was as much as 50% of all people get plastic surgery, with getting more Western eyelids being the most popular.

Selfies on the subway. You just have to when you’re in Korea!

 Awesome. Socks with sandals.

Check out this boy’s hair. He got a perm. Boys and men get perms here. And to me it just looks funny.

We went to the Seoul Arts Center museum to see this famous artist’s collection.

You don’t need to get a stroller for your kid. Just get a Mini Cooper!

We started to wait in this line to go inside one of the big bubbles.

And met these adorable girls who spoke perfect English.

We enjoyed talking to them. Aren’t they adorable?

I LOVED these dogs!

While taking pictures, I met this little guy and his parents. I love meeting little kids here. I love to see them wave and smile at me.

These are two typical Koreans. Doesn’t get any better than this.

Heading into the dot room. We had to take off our shoes to enter.

These are my 3 dots that I get to place in the room.

Check out the dot rooms. SO. MANY. DOTS. They had it set up like an apartment with a dining room table, a desk, a couch, and a TV.

The black light room.

The bathroom signs. I thought they were quite cute.

A really cool bridge near the museum.

Hey look! A Texas Rangers hat! Koreans love the Texas Rangers because there is a South Korean playing for the team, Shin-Soo Choo. A lot of times when I say I’m from Texas, they say, “Oh, Texas Rangers!”

Check out the swanky Plastic Surgery Center. Many of them looked like fancy hotels.

Walking around town and going shopping.

An ad for plastic surgery

Couple shirts. Actually couple outfits.

So, there haven’t been many Korean men that I have found attractive. Just being honest. So when I see a Korean man that I find attractive, I take note. I saw this guy on the subway and immediately took note. I told the girls to check him out, and we were all oogling. Yep. Oogling. So I just ha to take a picture. Btw…it’s the guy at the far end in the gray t-shirt, black shorts, and a black backpack. He’s also tall, which is not very common here.

There was this cafe near our hostel. If you were there by yourself, you could have a teddy bear eat with you so you wouldn’t have to be alone. Is that cute or what?

Now off to the princess cafe. We had read about it on a blog and just had to go.

The princess cafe is a little cafe where you can rent and wear a traditional Korean hanbok or a wedding dress for an hour and take pictures. These girls are from Singapore.

The bookstore of accessories.

 Look at those fancy wedding dresses.

While choosing what to wear, we drank our awesome shakes. The oreo cookie one was so good.

Rachel and Amber chose to wear hanboks.

While we were there, there were 2 other Korean couples that were dressed up in their wedding attire. What a fun date that would be!

Since I had already gotten dressed up in a hanbok, I chose a wedding dress like Saree.

Saree had to be corseted in this dress and was almost not able to breathe.

Yeah, I think she loved it.

We even had the throwing of the bouquet. We practiced it several times to get some good pictures.

Forget the veil. Just wear a Minnie Mouse headband!

 This is the second couple. Aren’t they adorable?

The girls who work there. One of them admitted to me that she loved her job. Who wouldn’t?

Walking around the Hongdae area at night

At the Travel Maker restaurant at breakfast the next day, we met this sweet couple from Oregon who have lived in Seoul for 6 years. She told us about this secret place to buy purses wholesale. Um, yes please!

I bought a purse from a lady and look what she was playing on her phone….Candy Crush!

She was so sweet. She even gave me a Mango juice box.

Rachel and Amber left us to go get tickets for their big K-Pop concert that night, so Saree and I explored Seoul on our own.

We found this unexpected beautiful chandelier in the underground.

We went to this outdoor shopping area to chill and relax for the afternoon.

For dinner, we called our Oregon friends and asked for a recommendation for dinner. They ended up meeting us and going out with us. We had THE best time with them!

I saw this and just knew it was the norebang that they went to on the Bachelor last season.

Praha (Prague) Castle

People was freaking out because apparently there was a famous Korean celebrity eating dinner there.

The big white dog (his dad is the owner of a shop nearby) meets a new little friend. They were so cute!

Our Oregon friends…

In Korea, you find older men and women collecting recycling and either carrying it, putting it on their bicycle, or putting it on their cart. I think they turn it in for money, but I’m not sure.

Saree and I were on the subway sitting down. I looked up to see this. Now what do YOU notice in this picture?

Notice the outside glass doors? Our Oregon friends told us that there used to be a great number of student suicides in Korea. The pressure on students is tremendous here. Students would jump on the tracks in front of the trains. So so sad.

 Now let’s see….would you like to use a Western toilet or a squat toilet? So not a hard question.

The “vending” machine outside the toilets in the subway

Saree and I go to the OEM church in Daejeon. So when in Seoul, we decided to visit the main OEM service in Seoul. Wow. What a big difference.

So many more people. MUCH better music. Like phenomenal music actually. A great sermon (who just happened to be a visiting pastor from Indiana who was here to lead their retreat). And diversity of people.

We definitely don’t see tall buildings like this in Daejeon.

I just love the look of this subway station.

 Like seriously love it. I don’t know why but I do.

Forgive me for all the pictures, but you know me. You know that I take a lot of pictures. Hope you enjoyed my awesome weekend in Seoul!

A couple of weekends ago, I visited Bridget in the Daegu area. And I got to meet the adorable Philopena for the first time. When Bridget goes back home this summer, guess who gets to dog sit? ME! I am so excited! Philopena is the sweetest, most laid back dog. We will get along fabulously.

Bridget first took me to Tumuli Park, which have hills or mounds of earth that are tombs of the important people of a dynasty from a long time ago. The bigger the mound, the more important you were.

We even got to go inside one of the tombs, believed to have been for a 6th or 7th century king. Cool but a little creepy.

It was really pretty.

Bridget just HAD to do her famous “come hither lizard” pose…on the top of the mound of some dead person.

And we had to be sneaky because of this little sign…

We went shopping afterwards and brought Philopena.

She was a huge hit. Like a little ambassador for people young and old.

This is my favorite picture! I just loved standing back with my camera capturing it all.

Do you see the little girl in the middle? Yeah, I want to bring her home. With me. Forever.

I don’t know if Philopena is saying, “Auntie Angela, help me!” or “Look how popular I am!”

Is she not adorable?

Texas Rangers!

Meeting another fan… She blew kisses to Philopena.

Anytime we were in the car, Philopena had to ride in Mommy’s lap.

When we went to the museum, this was her spot.

So…let me explain. We were in the town of Gyeongju, and we saw the signs for this place.

In Korea, it is very popular to go to the sex museum. Many couples go there on their honeymoons. I’ve even heard of teachers going there together on a big teachers trip. Can you imagine?

Most of the pictures are a tad inappropriate, and I don’t feel comfortable sharing them on Facebook. Some of them, like this one, I’ll let you figure it out.

The gardens were beautiful.

Hehe

This one is my favorite.

I will share one and only one “inappropriate” picture.

If you would like to know more about the museum, you can check out this guy’s blog. http://johnnyvagabond.com/love-castle/

Afterwards, we went to Bridget’s favorite dinner spot.

They had Disney dolls, so of course I was happy!

So Philopena had a bad ear infection from being at the shelter, so she had to get ear drops. So that she didn’t mess with her ears after the drops going in, she had to wear a cone for about 10 minutes.

Yeah, that face…

And then got to chill in Mommy’s lap.

This is the next round of putting in drops. She just sits there and doesn’t make a peep.

And just look at her! She’ll stay like that for a good 10 minutes!

Um yeah….can you tell that I missed taking pictures of my dogs?

Our little photo session while going for a walk in the neighborhood

When it was time to pose for the camera, Philopena just laid down on her back.

I had a fantastic time with Bridget! As I always do…

So I apologize for not blogging as much lately. When you have lived in a foreign country for 9 months, things don’t strike you as new and exciting as much anymore. I teach basically the same thing at school (ABC’s, phonics) and sing the same songs every day (Old McDonald, BINGO, ABC’s, Let It Go, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, etc). My friends and I get together and hang out often, and it’s comfortable but not “new” per say. So I guess that’s a good thing.

I feel really at home here. I love living here.
I’m not phased by being the only non-Korean on a subway train.
I’m not phased at seeing body parts floating in my soup at school (although I still don’t like it).
I’m not phased with using chopsticks to eat spaghetti.
I enjoy walking places.
I really enjoy the subway (I totally plan on riding the train more at home when I come home).
I feel like I have made some good friends here. I will really miss them.

Although I will be perfectly OK with not singing any of those above songs for a long time. Like really OK. Like please don’t make me sing them.

So moving on to our “regularly scheduled post”….

A couple of Saturdays ago, Saree, Caroline, and I went to the flea market in downtown Daejeon.

I got a pair of really cute royal blue high heels.

It was a really pretty little park.

Check out the adorable remote control car! Yep. The dad, in the navy striped shirt, has the remote control while the little boy just rides around in his car.

So cute!

Here is the booth for the orphanage. Of course I had to buy some sweet treats!

They even had a children’s area.

And an international food market

Whoa. Check out THIS dress!

Caroline saw this booth where you could dress up in the traditional Korean hanbok. I was totally down with that! So here we are in our hanboks…

They are beautiful, yes, but they do NOT do anything for the figure!

After shopping, we found a spot and relaxed in the park area. In the shade of course. It was getting hot.

A lot of other people had the same idea. They were smart and brought mats or blankets.

Annyeong Haseyo!

Afterwards, we went to a coffee shop and got smoothies and sat out on the patio. It was absolutely wonderful. It’s days like this that make me KNOW that I’m really going to miss living in Daejeon.

Oops! I got my posts out of order.

On our long holiday weekend, I hosted a slumber party at my house. Saree, Rachel, and Amber came over to my apartment. I took them to a great BBQ buffet restaurant near my house, and then we came back to my place.

Out came the fun hairstyles and Backstreet Boys on the iPod speakers.

There was dancing.
There was crack dip.
There was nail painting.
There was Bride and Prejudice, one of my favorite movies….a Bollywood movie.
There was fun.
There was laughter.

This is their “Korean” picture. Do you get it? They are all wearing Konglish T-shirts and doing Korean things…..talking on the phone or taking selfies.

Yeah…..we are SOOOOOO cool!

The next morning we made a big stack of pancakes for breakfast along with fruit and juice. It was a fabulous slumber party. And there were no prank calls made to boys.

One thing I LOVE about living in Korea is this….I am old enough to technically be these girls’ mom. But I don’t ever feel like that around them. I don’t ever feel old when I’m with them. (They swear to me that I don’t look or act my age either which is a good thing.) I just feel like one of the girls. We’re all single, and we’re all enjoying life. I’m going to REALLY REALLY miss this part about Korea. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE all my married with kids friends at home. I truly do. But it’s just nice to hang out with other singles who are living life to the fullest, experiencing this big adventure of living in another country together. I may not be doing a good job of explaining this, but I was really nervous moving over here that I would feel like the “old fart” in a sea of young’uns. I don’t feel like that at all. I sure don’t feel like my age even though I’ve been through quite a lot.

I want to continue feeling young at heart and adventurous when I move home. I’ve got a couple of ideas rolling around in my head as to how to do this. If you’ve got any ideas, I’d love to hear them!

We had a long holiday a couple of weekends ago. Instead of going somewhere (we actually tried but everything was booked), so we decided to do some fun things in Daejeon instead.

Amber found out about this cool historical park in Daejeon, so we went there. I took the subway to Eunhaengdong and then took a taxi from there since I could not figure out how else to get there. I just showed the name of the park in Hangul to the taxi driver. No problem at all!

I arrived there a while before Amber and Rachel, so I just walked around on my own taking pictures (I love to do that anyway, so I was quite happy).

If you are going for any kind of walk or hike (no matter how small) in Korea, you put on your hiking gear.

He was waving hello to me.

Isn’t this park gorgeous? Makes you want to move to South Korea, doesn’t it? I’ve got an extra bed…

Here are some instagram pics I took of the park…

By this time, Amber and Rachel arrived. We enjoyed walking around and just relaxing.

I was teaching Amber how to use her camera and frame her subject. Rachel got her picture taken a lot!

Remember what I said about wearing your hiking gear? Then even have the poles!

I look like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in this one!

Another hiker

As we were walking down, these kids wanted me to take their picture.

Then the REAL posing came out!

Afterwards, we went to Eunhaengdong, our favorite spot in Daejeon. You can see how crowded it gets with the cars being allowed to drive down the streets. Crazy!

The 80’s have officially come to Korea. Cute matching couple overall outfits.

We have a new Toms store in Daejeon! We went there, but the shoes are all 80,000 won or $80. Uh, no thanks.

Shopping and eating snacks in the underground. Have you ever had pizza in a cup? Saree said it was good. She met us at the underground for just a bit. Days like this make me realize that I’m going to miss Daejeon. Terribly.

You can get your fortune read!

When you go inside a restaurant and eat, just leave your kid parked outside in their stroller while they sleep. I’m telling you, this is ONE SAFE country. Seriously.

A close-up. So sweet.

Weird Korean mannequin.

And his friends.

At the middle….the tree…of the underground

You see this carts rolling through and you’d better watch out for them because they will run you down. You can get tea from them, and carts like this are often carrying food to the shop owners in the underground. Some of them ride bikes or have little wheely carts. They go fast!

Realizing that I have only 3 months left in this glorious country. Boy, I’m going to miss it. I’m going to miss days like this. And I’m really going to miss my friends.

Sorry I haven’t blogged recently. I didn’t realize it before I started blogging, but it takes up more time than I thought it would. And I wonder if anybody really reads my blog. Have I mentioned that I LOVE comments? Hint hint…

Anyway….a couple of weeks ago, we had a holiday on a Thursday. Korean teachers had to go to school, but the guest English teachers didn’t have to go. So….a couple of friends and I decided to go to O World amusement park here in Daejeon. O World has 3 main parts: amusement park, zoo, and flower world. We went to all three.

On my way to the subway to meet the girls (before our bus ride), I was waiting at a stop light and saw this little girl. She waved and posed for me. How precious!

Finally got to O World….along with the rest of Daejeon. There were SO many families with young children!

Waiting for tickets.

At the entrance

 

We headed right for the roller coaster.  The line was so short (there were so many kids) that we rode it twice.

Check. Out. His. Uniform.

 Is that fun or what?

Riding the big ship. Now let me just say that I LOVE riding rides. The faster, the better. Rides never make me sick. That is…until Korea.

At Lotte World, we rode the Drunken Baskets (the tea cups ride), and I felt so sick afterwards. I wasn’t the only one.

We sat at the top of the ship, and about halfway through the ride, I started to feel sick. Seriously? Yup. Seriously. I felt so nauseous.

So nauseous that I couldn’t ride the next ride. So I was the designated photographer which was fine with me.

Every time they came around, they had a different facial expression.

Bad ship. Bad, bad ship.

 Can I take her home? Please? I will absolutely positively adopt a little Asian girl. I know this.

Walking through the area with the statues.

The picnic area.

Check her out! Love her outfit!

I had to get in a couple of jumping pics.

Oh no! Where did Saree go?

Now in the zoo part of O World. Meet Mr. Polar Bear.

This zoo was in par with other Asian zoos. They have no regulations in zoos here. This one reminded me of the zoo in Vietnam. Most of the animals and their habitats just made me extremely sad. My heart ached for these animals. Some of the habitats were awful. You will see some of them.

This is through glass. I had to “work” for this picture.

I got a new boyfriend at O World….a baboon. He was very attracted to me. He showed off for me and put his hand up with mine. I should mention that he is a baboon. I was crouched down to his level with my hand up on the glass. He would run around his area and then come up and put his hand right on mine. And do it again and again. We ended up attracting a small crowd. He was a character!

This is one of those habitats that almost made me cry. The tiger’s area.

Korea has the coolest strollers! They are a pretty penny though.

I’ll take her home too. Korean children are taught at a very early age how to pose for the camera. Can you tell?

Families are everywhere having picnics. I started taking their picture, and they posed for me.

The petting zoo.

You could buy vegetables and feed the animals.

One of the bird cages. You can see that it’s not that big.

Lunch…or as Koreans say “lunchee”

The eagle’s cage. Do you see how small it is? Made me so sad.

Someone is molting.

They loved each other and were playing with each other.

You could buy food for the animals and feed them. This animal sure knew what he was doing!

Look how the three of them are all laying the same! And there is one that is not like the others…

The hyenas cage. It’s a bad picture with the glass, but their enclosure was so small. And you know the only thing I thought of were the hyenas in The Lion King. Remember them?

The jaguar. There were cages up above where they could walk over us. This one seemed to love it!

“What you looking at, Willis?”

Flower Land. We just missed all the tulips. However, it was still really pretty.

Do you see her pantyhose and high heels? At O World?

Here’s another one. Tiny little dress. Pantyhose. High heels. Must be on a date. Ahhhhh….

Alicia staring off in the distance

Saree showing off her duck lips

Back to the amusement park to ride the roller coaster again.

Check out the Texas Rangers shirts!

OK. OK. I know I took a picture of this guy’s buttocks. But….check out his heart keychain and the fact that he’s carrying his girlfriend’s purse. That’s what they do here in Korea. Carry their girlfriend’s purse. Ahhh….

On the bus back to the subway….

We stopped off at Eunhaengdong for shopping and found these lovely gems. Whitening point pads. In Korea, white skin is revered. So people wear face masks and long sleeves, carry umbrellas to block the sun, and wear white make-up.  So do not get a tan here!

Two Saturdays ago, I went with my friend, Alicia, to volunteer at the orphanage again. Kevin, the guy who is normally in charge, wasn’t able to be there for the whole time, so Alicia stepped up to the plate and volunteered to be in charge. You go girl!

Our theme this time was Easter. I love volunteering here, but it also makes me somewhat sad too because as a single woman, I would LOVE to adopt one of them, but Korea says no. In Korea, I cannot adopt as a single woman. Only married couples can adopt. AND you have to be married for at least 5 years. AND you can’t be older than 45 years old. So….even if I was to get married tomorrow, I still couldn’t adopt in Korea. I just turned 41 years old, and I’m still young dang it. I just don’t get it. Daejeon alone has 38 orphanages. 38 of them.

So I will continue to volunteer here, and then go home and start the proceedings to become a foster mom. God does know what he’s doing. He’s definitely prepared my heart for this.

Alicia and the translator are explaining how to make the Easter baskets out of paper plates. They turned out really cute!

Here they are making the Easter baskets.

This little one is the smallest one at the orphanage, and everyone adores him. You can easily see why, right? This lady is one of his caretakers (I think), and she is usually the one holding him when we are there. We had ribbons for the baskets, but she made his like a messenger bag.

Is he NOT adorable? After a few minutes, the ribbon fell around his middle so he was walking around, dragging the basket behind him. It was so cute.

And here is the little ham of the orphanage. He has SO much personality. He is the one who hit and kicked the last time we were there. He didn’t do that this time thank goodness. This kid has SO much energy. SO much energy.

“Check out my basket.”

Posing for the camera. Remember the beads from last month? They sure LOVE wearing those beads! We put some of the beads from last time in our supplies tub, so the kids found them again this time. The beads were a HUGE hit! Thank you so much Kelly for sending them!

“How many beads can I fit in my basket?”

Easter egg hunt!

Little Ham is blowing kisses. I know. Too cute. Like I said….such a big personality.

In line, ready to race.

Bunny hop races!

Relay races!

Leap frog races! The little ones needed help from the adults,and they were SO adorable.

Kevin showing off how high he can jump. Go Kevin!

After playing outside, we went back inside and sang songs. I led everyone in “Singin’ in the Rain”, which a FUN song with FUN motions that I learned back in my summer missionary days. The kids and the adults all loved it (several even came and told me personally that they loved it).

The activities didn’t take as long as we had thought, so we had time to create Easter eggs out of paper for the kids to decorate.

Someone’s tired…

Hope you enjoyed my pictures! Remember….I LOVE reading your comments!!! Hint hint…

This week was a good one.

I’m doing something a little bit different with this post. What do you think? I’m calling it Seven for Saturday. I’ll tell you 7 things about my week….on a Saturday. Just in case you didn’t get that. LOL!

ONE

On Wednesday, I had not one but two pleasant surprises. 

First surprise, my co-teacher and I sat down and had a wonderful conversation about our teaching together. We collaborated and came up with some ideas and solutions for our students (they are not on grade level, yet we must use the grade level textbook). It was so good. I will admit that my heart started pounding a bit with excitement. This is HUGE people!

Second surprise, while walking home from school, a random Korean woman approached me and asked me if I spoke Korean to which I responded very little. She then tells me that my Korean is very good (I don’t speak a lot…trust me), asks some more questions (where is my family and am I religious). Afterwards, she gives me this big hug (hugs, especially from people you’ve just met are simply not done). Korea, you surprise me sometimes. I sure do like surprises. 


TWO

I saw this picture on my friend’s Facebook wall and realized that actually I do know how this feels.

How exciting is that? 

Up until several months ago, this was totally me! I would sleep 9 hours and then STILL wake up exhausted. And I would wake up often in the middle of the night with restless legs. If you don’t have restless legs, you’re lucky. They are a pain in the butt.

However, it’s not me anymore! Now, I go to sleep easily, stay asleep, AND wake up refreshed…often after only 6-7 hours of sleep.

I never knew how great it could be.

I started taking Plexus in November, and it has totally changed my sleep. Woo-hoo!! I LOVE it!

THREE

I finished The Office last week and had asked for suggestions for the next TV show to watch.

I normally LOVE crime, murder, and mystery shows, but I was in the comedy mood.

My cousin’s husband suggested Parks and Recreation.

 

FOUR

I am now 2/3 done with my year. That’s just crazy! Can you believe it? I sure can’t. I want to seize every day that I can while I’m here. Now that spring is here, I am loving it. Absolutely loving it.

FIVE

I’m not sure if you have had the chance to check out my teacher blog, but I have been working hard on it. I have started a Pinterest page…JUST for all my teaching and education boards. They were taking over my personal Pinterest page, and I sure do like having separate, detailed boards. Please check it out. And if you’re a teacher, be sure and follow me!

http://www.pinterest.com/southernteachin/boards/

I also have just started instagram with my “teacher personality”. I just got started, so I don’t have many pictures yet. But I will. Don’t you worry. I’d love you to follow me!

http://instagram.com/southernfriedteachin

SIX

On Tuesday night, I was walking home from the subway at 11:00 pm. I was joined by a big group of middle and high school students walking home from their hagwons. 

Many students go to their hagwon (private schools) after a long day at public school. No football. No band. No drill team. Nothing like that. It’s all about studying for the big exam. 

I cannot imagine growing up like that. I simply can’t imagine it. Would you have wanted to study from 8:30 am until 11:00 pm or even midnight every night?

Since my students are blind or visually impaired and most have learning disabilities, they do not go to hagwons, so I don’t know the ins and outs of them.

Also, unfortunately only the rich can send their students to hagwons. They are expensive and run like a business. If you’re poor, you’re just out of luck. That’s why many schools have now started to have after school programs, but they still just cannot compare to hagwons. Some of the classes at hagwons are English, music, art, etc. If you learn to play an instrument, you’d probably learn it at a hagwon.

My friend, Ashlee, says it the best…
As soon as kids hit middle school, any form of a LIFE goes out the window. I believe this is a reason the standards for males and females when searching for a significant other is so ludicrously high – their sense of reality when it comes to the real world and real world people is severely warped. There’s a reason most Koreans go to Jeju Island on a honeymoon (many of them know NOTHING of sexuality before seeing the sex museums on the island). It’s somewhat bizarre, but moreover sad.
Students RARELY made their own choices in response to their futures not that long ago, but that DOES seem to be slowly changing.
What’s even more bizarre, though, is that most individuals here choose to dress, act, and live in the exact same way as their fellows (it’s a VERY communal society), so the vicious cycle of high suicide and low college entry rates continues to fester.
This country truly is marvelous, but there are some things that just seem incredibly and unnecessarily unfair for these kids.

SEVEN

The last thing I want to mention is the ferry accident here in Korea. I’m sure you have heard all about it and watched the news. The country is in mourning. School trips, school events, city events, etc have been postponed. This country is a very collective society…they are all about community. By canceling or postponing events, it shows that you support the community.

My friend posted this on Facebook, and it had me in tears.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/boy-and-girl-on-korean-ferry-drowned-with-life-jackets-tied-together/article18182140/

Please read this article. You will definitely have some questions. Possibly some questions that don’t even make sense to you. Why in the world would those kids stay in their cabins if the ship was going down? That doesn’t make any sense at all. You would want to get OFF the ship, right?

You have to understand how it’s done in Korea. Remember when I said that it’s all about community, and they do things together?

If someone tells you to do something, you do it. You don’t question it. It’s hard to explain, and I’m not doing a good job of explaining it. There is no going against the flow here. It’s all about the status quo. So maybe that helps you understand why most of the children stayed in their cabins. The people in charge (granted they had NO safety training) told them to stay in their cabins. So they did.

Please join me in praying for these families. 

I’m curious to know who all is reading my blog. I would LOVE to get some comments! I LOVE comments! 

I have even met some friends here who found my blog on the internet and then sought me out on Facebook. How cool is that? 

One girl from Rowlett, Texas found me on Google. She and her husband (and 2-year old son) were going to move to Daejeon, Korea because her husband was being transferred. She friended me on Facebook, and we met up for dinner on Tuesday night. She had seen my pictures of the awesome House Grill burgers and wanted to go there. I think it’s pretty darn awesome that people other than friends and family are reading my little blog.

So….hellloooooooooooo! Stop by and say hi! Or howdy! Or annyeong haseyo! Or hola! I’m not picky!

A couple of Sundays ago, I went to this Clothing Exchange just for women. It was on the other side of Daejeon, so it was a trek. I took several bags of clothes, shoes, and books.

You just laid your stuff out and then walked around the room, taking whatever you wanted. I thought it would be a lot bigger, but I did find a couple of shirts and books.

Since it’s sometimes hard to find clothes that fit in Korea (we’re not all size 2’s and 4’s), these clothing exchanges are wonderful. I wish we had them more often, but this was the first one I’d been to and unfortunately it will be my only one since they won’t have another one for 6 more months. Bummer.