news and stuff

it has been a while so updates for everyone!
this past weekend hannah celebrated her birthday. we traveled to gangneung a larger city just 40 mins north of us. we met up with some westerners from orientation and went to a couple of bars. the first bar had eightybizzillion beers which was awesome. i got a grolsch pop top and hannah a peach something or other. then we marched over to this amazing little bar and by little i mean the size of extended astro van. it was incredible though the bar owner/tender spoke awesome english and played awesome music. I walked in and the pixies rendition of hear comes your man was playing, so i felt good about the place instantly. we didnt stay too long. we left and went to a bar pretty much for foreigners called the warehouse. it was fun because we got to dance and hangout with some western people, but it was also strange. you just kind of felt like you werent in south korea anymore when you were in the bar. i think that everyone needs sometime with something familiar everyonce and a while. it seems like some people go there every weekend though, which kind of ruins this amazing opportunity you have to explore and be adventurous in a new country. anyway i think in the right doses these western bars are fun.

we stayed friday night in a hotel for pretty cheap. we both might have had a little too much to drink and by might i mean definitely. we were both extra hungover saturday morning when hannah gets a call from one of the mothers of her students at one of her elementary schools. it turns out to be the same mother that invited us to the church day kids celebration thing, but we didnt know who it was at the time. hannah coould kind of make out her broken english and understood that there was a birthday party happening at 12:30 that might or might not be specifically for her. (one of her classes on friday threw her an amazing bday party, but ill let her tell you that story). anyway its around 11:30 and we are 40 mins away so we hustle to the bus terminal and get back to donghae to find the party. we do. it turns out its the birthday of this kind of community center the woman works at haha. but it was cool free food and cake and hanging out with crazy kids. there was this little boy/girl (im not sure which) who was going around throwing ballons and rolling their eyes back in there head when they attacked you. it was pretty much the funniest thing ive ever seen. we have pictures that i promise we will post soon haha. so after we finish that we had planned on going to mureung valley for a picnic. mureung valley is a beautiful valley just south of donghae http://dhtour.go.kr/eng/CMSView.php?pid=450. we mention to the woman that we have to leave because of these plans. she then asks if we can go with her family and someone elses family. part of us wants to go with them but the hungover part just wants to do a short hike and eat sandwiches. well ofcourse we cant say no so we went with them and it was really fun minus the extra long hike. we hung out with some of the kids that came and it was great to make friends with a korean family.
sunday my coteacher got married and we went to the wedding. it was pretty much ass backwards of every american wedding hannah and i have ever been to. first we arrive with amazing number of other guests. i dont have a number but it was a lot. we get inside to go to the ceremony but the room is too small which is kind of strange. so we are escorted by my other helpful donghae commercial high school teachers upstairs to watch the wedding on the tv. yes thats right they have a camera crew recording it for the guests who dont get to watch it in person. we get up stairs only to find that everyone is eating already and some people are even leaving before the ceremony starts. its crazy. basically the ceremoney is broadcast on these giant screens but no one cares because there is tons of food of which you can eat as much as you want. the first ceremony is very western style wedding so nothing to exciting. we eat while watching and then we are told they have a 2nd ceremony which is the traditional korean wedding ceremony. we find where that ceremony is being held in this big building and watch it first hand. it was really great to see a tradition actually being used that has been around longer than america has existed. the traditional wear or hanbook is beautiful and very interesting. basically the ceremony is a lot of bowing and family coming in to great the couple and give them their congratulations and blessings. the family drink a couple of rice wine and eat a piece of food as part of the ceremony. three or four family members go in at a time in order of oldest to youngest. after that we greeted them and left for home. it was the fastest wedding ive ever been to. 1.5 hours haha. sunday night is pretty boring except the stealing of rocks from this construction for the bottom of the pot we are using to plant our vegetable garden. yeah boi tomatoes cucumbers yellow and red peppers.

alright well thats enough oh wait one more thing. my school has installed in the bathrooms a motion sensor activated music device that plays when you walk underneath it. im not sure which is more relaxing peeing or hearing beethoven whilst i pee.

later taters

bali bali bali? i like mpola mpola better.

this weekend was so great. on saturday we went to the pseudo-birthday party/kids day at church. it was so wonderful to get to hang out with my students outside of the classroom and have fun with them. its all about building relationships and thats hard to do when you just see them in class and you are teaching them a language they do not understand. it was nice to slow down for a while and play silly games and laugh with kids that are full of laughter and love.

korea's catch phrase is bali bali bali - hurry hurry hurry. this is so very different from uganda's motto of mpola mpolay - slowly by slowly.

over the last month, i have seen koreans bali bali through life. they are on a mission and live life with distinct purpose. adults and kids a like. because we live in a small city, in an apartment complex, it is hard to get to know people. we have met some great teacher friends but they all live in a city 40 minutes away and commute to work so hanging out after hours is not possible. i am sure we will make friends but i was starting to get the feeling it wouldn't happen the same way it did in uganda - under a mango tree eating jackfruit at 2pm on tuesday. koreans are in too much of a hurry (just like we are in the states). matt said it best: their life and society are very economical. time is money.

but sunday my hope was renewed. we decided to take the afternoon to find the beach. we live so close to the east sea but because of the snow and rain, we hadn't had a chance to go exploring. so we started walking toward the water, we were stoped by railroad tracks and the korean coast guard so we kept walking south. we finally found it. beautiful blue green water, light by the beach, darker as the depth grew. a picture perfect sight with fishman casting their lines and pulling in their nets full of fresh fish. it was breathe-taking. this is why we came to korea.

after basking in the beauty for a while we thought we would try to reach the cliffs in the distance that looked like the perfect place to climb and watch the day go by. we found an underpass and thought we found the path, but no. instead we found friends dining together on makeshift tables of overturned milk cartoons with newspaper as table clothes, drinking soju and eating raw just caught fish. quickly we motioned we were sorry to intrude and began to turn. but they said "come, come" so as your read in matt's post we sat and were welcomed as dear friends. while our conversation was limited, their kindness was not. these koreans were not bali bali-ing through life. they were enjoying the journey, under the train tracks with the sunshine warming them. it was beautiful.

while i am not in uganda, i am in south korea, i still want to move through life mpola mpola so i can take it all in. i am so thankful to have found some koreans feel the same way.

it was a beautiful weekend.

the beach

yesterday (sunday) hannah and i went to the beach thats about 10 minute walk from our apt. the view is amazing and sea is beautiful and blue. we walked down the shore and noticed some guys fishing. it was cool we said hello and kept walking. there were more people fishing with nets a little further down. we walked past them and they waved us over. a group of friends/family had come out to the sea for a day of fishing and eating. it was awesome they demanded that we sit down and eat the raw fish they just caught with them. some of the men were a little drunk from soju so it was very funny. i was eating with a couple of men close to the shore and hannah walked over to the another group that gave her like three shots of soju and lots of fish. i eventually made my way over there. it was probably the coolest thing thats happened to me so far in korea. that was what hannah and i had been hoping would happen in korea. im at school now but we will post some pictures later. anyway for anyone coming to visit the beaches are super awesome.

settling in

hey everyone, so we started this blog so everyone could see what was going on whenever they wanted. we have been in south korea one month now. crazy. lots has happened. lots has changed. and we are just now getting settled. we have lived in one dorm and three apartments in four weeks.

orientation was great. we met a lot of nice people, learned a lot and felt semi-prepared to teach some kids a little english. we were told we would have a co-teacher each who would help us get settled and other team teachers who knew english that would be in the classroom with us while we were teaching. so that all sounds great.

our last day of training we get on a bus bound for our new home, the city of donghae. once we reached we would meet our co-teachers and be taken to our schools for a meet and greet with the school administrators. matt and i were placed in the same city limits but at different schools, totally fantastic. because we are at different schools we went with our individual co-teachers to our schools.

on the drive to my school, after initial greetings my co-teacher bluntly says "i just want you to know we didn't ask for you. our school doesn't need you. we have another native teacher. the board of education just gave you to us." what a welcome.

because there is already a native english speaking teacher (a woman from canada) at my main school, which is a middle school, my time is split between three different schools. i teach six hours a week (all day monday and tuesday morning) at mukho girls middle school, six hours (tuesday afternoon and wednesday) at mangsang elementary school, and eight hours (all day thursday and friday) at changho elementary school. this is pretty crazy because i am teaching 2nd-6th graders and 9th graders, which means i have 9 different lesson plans to write each week. this news was a lot to take in because we were under the impression that we would only be at one school.

then she said that they didn't have a place for me to live. oh man. it was quite a drive. i held it together and said that i was okay with staying at matt's place until they got everything figured out. long story, short. we spent the first few days at matt's place, then moved into this incredible penthouse in the sky ---- they gave me the principal’s old apartment which was literally a penthouse on the 19th floor overlooking the entire city and the east sea. we moved in on tuesday night. on wednesday afternoon, they told us we had to move out as soon as possible - the principal wanted it back. oh, it was such a mess. but now we are in a beautiful apartment that feels like home.

we have been in this final apartment for one week now. we'll post pictures soon. it’s great. we have a balcony with a gorgeous view of the east sea and live in a super fun neighborhood that doesn't see many foreigners so we are an anomaly – things are good!!

matt has an awesome school situation. i'm sure he will tell you more about it, but he is at donghae sango high school. its a technical school for kids that aren't going to college. the kids are a lot more relaxed but a lot of fun. the girls looooooove matt. he has a great co-teacher and two team teachers. he write one lesson plan a week for his students and then has conversation classes with teachers who want to improve their english. so fun! a perfect set up.

my teaching situation is a lot different. its a lot of work. i have to write 9 lesson plans a week all based on the national english curriculum and i have no co-teachers. for my middle school classes, i get to teach what i want which is fun. i am going to do a lot about team building and self esteem and just tie english into those themes.

my elementary schools are super little. each school has about 75 kids total. the kids are amazing!! my classes are between 10-21 students each. they are both in rural areas. mangsang elementary is across the street from this beautiful and famous beach and changho elementary is on the top of this mountain peninsula where you can see the east sea from any direction. the teachers are all super nice but of ten teachers only one knows english. it was a surprise. i am the only exposure to english they get. so there's a lot of pressure to teach them the national curriculum so they pass the end of the year english test. but i think i am getting the hang of it and soon i will fall into a routine for teaching and writing lesson plans for all these different grades.

again the kids are incredible. sooooo much fun! yesterday, i was invited to what i thought was a birthday party. last night, matt and i went out and bought a birthday present. we were so excited. all the day of friday, the kids were so excited that i was coming to this party. they kept telling me that there was going to pizza AND spaghetti!!

so today we show up, its not a birthday party. hahahaa. its kids day at a church but there was pizza and spaghetti. so many of my students were there and for two hours we played ridiculous games with these kids. it was a blast.

things are going well. the food is so spicy. i die a little more each day as i have to eat the food given to me. matt is in heaven. he could eat this food forever. we have eaten some crazy stuff - raw octopus (with brains intact), big fried insect larva, and lots of raw fish.

im blogging NEERRDDDSSS

first blog entry. i feel like donkey waste. food poisoning perhaps.