5/1

Remember when Korea was winning every "battle" of tourism? Well the winning streak continues. On May first we all had the day off because of Korea's new Labor Day for contract workers. Not wanting to sit around Ulsan on a day off Loree, Meredith, and I decided to take a bus into Busan for another day of site seeing. Chris met up with us because he also had the day off but he got in later so we had an hour or so to kill before meeting up with him. We decided to get on a bus and visit this "moon road" that is suppose to give couples a good future if they walk it during a full moon. We read the directions a few times before getting on the bus but we still missed our stop and ended up riding the bus to the end of the line - a first for all of us. We all got off the bus laughing at ourselves and waited for the next bus to come. The bus driver gave us a discount because I think he knew we were lost. With our very limited Korean skills Loree and Meredith read the bus line and discovered where we were suppose to get off. Once we were off the bus we looked for the sign pointing to the road (according to the website there should have been a sign) but we didn't see one so we decided to do the next best thing - ask jr high students where to go. They laughed and spoke in Korean for about three minutes before one student bravely said: go straight and turn right. Well we did that and still didn't see the road. Finally we gave up on the directions and got into a taxi, which turned around and drove us up a hill into a beautiful treed area with small shops. Chris ended up beating us there! We all laughed and walked around. That hill overlooked the ocean and the wooded trail had a Minnesota cross country feel. If I had been placed in that area, I don't know if I would ever want to leave. It was so peaceful. It was the perfect mix of woods and ocean. 

After that we decided to go to this temple along the ocean and not trusting our skills at directions we got into a taxi and said where we wanted to go. Taxis are always tricky because the slightest difference in pronunciation can be the difference between success and failure. We thought we had said it right and he seemed to understand. But then he kept driving and I felt like we were going in the wrong direction. The view was great and he took us over this beautiful bridge and we all got our cameras out and started to take pictures. It wasn't until we saw Busan Station that we started to question this taxi trip. He was certainly taking the long way. Meredith pulled up on her phone where we wanted to go on google maps and we were most deferentially going the wrong way. He ended up dropping us off at Busan Tower, which in Korean the parks name sounds exactly like the water temples name (well at least it does to me).  We decided to make the most out of it and we walked around and took pictures. 

Not wanting to let Korea kill our plans we got in another taxi (this time we showed on our phone where we wanted to go) and we sat in rush hour. The taxi driver tried to explain to us in Korean about the traffic and we just all nodded and said "naaaee" (yes). After what felt like an hour in traffic we got to the water temple. It was breath-taking to see such an old building by the sea. There were lanterns everywhere in preparation for Buddhas birthday. 

We left Busan very tired and our pocket change distributed to various taxi drivers. 

You win again Korea but it was still a great trip. 

Bless friends.

English Drama

I thought I'd write a little blog about the process of the English Drama.

I was asked the first week of school if I would write the play and then a few days later I was asked if I'd help out with the play. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

After writing and rewriting the play we held auditions. Over 20 students turned up for the auditions and we (my 6th grade Co-Teacher and myself) were able to pick the top 12 (6 girls and 6 boys) for "The Table Fairy Saves the Day".

If the title sounds familiar that's because I decided to create a story about a beloved character that came out of the Crazy Campaign my church hosted when I was in 10th grade. Way up high in James Brown's office one night birthed the Table Fairy and my wonderful and crazy bother brought the character to life one unforgettable night in an Arby's. It was so much fun to work with this character and I think the student we picked for the part was perfect. He was so cute, one day he came to class early and told me he googled "fairy" and only saw girl fairies. I was then able to share with him about where the Table Fairy came from. I think he left thinking my brother and I were crazy. :)

Play practice started 8am sharp every Tuesday-Friday for 40 minutes. Those mornings weren't as rough as I thought they would be because I did enjoy practice (once we got past the reading of the script and actually performing). The students started to develop their characters and started to call each other by their play names. We had two afternoon practices when the performance got closer and I could tell some nerves were developing in some of the students.

The morning of the performance we were in the middle of a run-through when the vice-principle called to say she wanted to watch the play now. So we had to move practice from the English room to the gym. I didn't get to watch their run-through because I had story telling but when I went to the gym after the students were being given advice by the vice-principle. I just stood their watching their faces. I could tell they were all nervous now.

After lunch the group met in the entry way and the vice-principle came again to speak. She ended by putting her fist in the air and say "fighting" and all of the students followed. I'm not sure of the history behind "fighting" but it seems to be a common saying. I didn't get to go with the group for reasons that are still confusing (and frustrating) to me. So I sat by my computer watching the clock tick. At exactly two I had all of my stuff together and I was standing by the door. However, my 5th grade Co-Teacher was not ready. I have never been more frustrated by the cultural differences. I stood their trying to calm the fire in my eyes but deep down I was yelling, "hurry up! I can't miss the play! I have worked too hard to miss it!" But we didn't leave right away. We had to go say goodbye to the vice-principle and they chatted for five minutes and then the vice-principle followed us out. Then we went to say goodbye to the principle and then the vice-principle continued to walk with us. I wondered if she was going to take a taxi with us. We ended up continuing to walk until we got to an auto mechanic. Can you feel the heat coming out of my ears? We had to wait until the vice-principle's car was brought out. I did my best to stand far behind and keep a straight face. Once in the car everything seemed to move in slow motion.  For a few minutes I didn't think we'd ever make it their because my CT and the VP kept talking in Korean in a hurried worried tone and the name of the school we were driving to kept popping up.

We finally got there and ran into the school, found school slippers to wear (the things that slow you down in Korea) and followed the signs to the English Drama room. My 6th grade CT was standing by the door and told us that our school was next. I breathed a big sign of relief. We hadn't missed the play. We moved to the front of the room and watched our students.

I personally thought it was the best they had ever done. I was swelling with pride the whole way through. There were a few mistakes but the students covered them up so well. The foreign judges laughed at all the right parts and I even heard one say to the other, "this one is really good". I left the room walking on a cloud. I was so proud of my students. Their English was clear and their actions were in tune with the words. They had made so much progress from the first practice.

My 6th grade CT wasn't so confident. She told me that two other schools were better. She was right. Two days later she told the drama students and I that we got 3rd place (out of 7 schools). They seemed very disappointed and sad that it was over. If we would have gotten 1st we would still be practicing for the final round with all of the other 1st place schools. (40 some schools competed in groups of 7 and the top finishers perform at the end of this month with costumes and props).

That day I was in a funk because I felt so sad about the outcome. I thought they did so well and brought the Table Fairy to life. I had to remind myself that this experience was about learning English and not about winning. This was suppose to be about having fun while using English. In those regards my students succeeded. They always seemed to be having such a good time in practice and on stage. I'm still so proud of my little English Drama Students.

They and this whole experience I will treasure forever.

If you'd like to watch the performance you can find the link here:
http://www.okseo.es.kr/index.jsp?mnu=M001006004&SCODE=S0000000325&frame=&search_field=&search_word=&category1=&category2=&category3=&page=&nPage=&cmd=view&did=27540

Bless friends.

7.

This seven month anniversary slowly crept up on me. I celebrated this morning by making pancakes. This past month I have moved away from Korean food and it feels good to be taking the time (and spending the money) on food I enjoy. I have had so far two lovely lunches at my desk. It is so quiet but its what I need.

These last seven months in Ulsan have been interesting to say the least. I have seen so many new shops, restaurants, and coffee houses pop up and then just as quickly disappear. I swear every weekend when I walk around my neighborhood a new place has opened up. It is great that businesses can open up so fast but on the down side they also seem to leave just as quickly. For example my favorite tea place closed in February and I was just a few stamps away from getting a free cup of tea. It had these great black and white pictures from the owners travels around the world and it was always quiet (that should've been a sign). I have stumbled upon a few amazing coffee houses that I enjoy stopping at, so that makes the departure of the tea place a little less painful.

Some new places that have popped up are: a coffee house that has cubbies like in preschool where you can sit on the floor and enjoy your coffee and friends. A Papa Johns! A new sandwich/panini place! A Dasio in my neighborhood (a great, pretty much dollar store). And a French Fry place. Rumor has it there will be a mexican restaurant opening soon (on that day I will do a happy dance).

The greatest edition to Ulsan is a new "department store" (they call malls that are tall department stores) called Up Square and inside is the first H & M in Ulsan! I am beyond excited. H&M is the only store that I have shopped at in Korea (besides Forever 21 in Seoul) that has clothes that fit me the correct way. I feel so happy over the fact that I can buy shirts with sleeves that fit and pants that are long and big enough. I had one too many depressing days in Korean fitting rooms trying to jump into their biggest size of jeans and still not being able to zipper them. Now I am a quick 30 minute bus ride away from one of my favorite stores. I went there yesterday with Loree and Meredith. We were surprised to see not many foreigners there. We figured it would be packed with them but maybe it was today.

Now I will need to practice the important virtue of self-control. I do not need to buy every cute thing that fits me just because I have money. I have to keep in mind the fact that I need to get everything I have BACK home.

I sent my first box home via "surface" which means it will take trucks and boats back to America. I am curious to see how long it will take. For the price of 17,000 Won I don't care if it takes 5 months because that is the best deal ever!

May should be a great and sad month. I will be saying goodbye to two great friends I have made in Korea and my best friend, Samantha, will be visiting me for two weeks. I am beyond excited to show her around Korea and that I will have a friend back home that will really "get" what Korea is like.

Bless friends.

Post Card

Most days I feel like aren't worth writing home about. I don't think: wow, I should write about this on one of my many post cards.

All month I've been getting to school early and not having a chance to really sit down and breath until 1pm. To say my energy has been drained is an understatement. I changed up my diet to see if that will help. I gave up rice and am slowly cutting Korean food out of my diet (no complaints here, I am over it). Starting May first I will be off of my school's lunch plan (praise the Lord).

I haven't had much time to blog because when I do sit down at my desk at 1pm I have to quickly start lesson planning for the next day's class and edit my students essays (which is slightly less painful compared to last semester). I have decided to start calling students out on using translators because it is SO easy to see which ones do it. They are the essays that have huge words in the wrong tense that don't make sense. Oh little kiddies, use the words you know not vivacity or methodical.

After today my life should slow down some because the English play will be finished (or as the Korean's say: finishee). I have enjoyed the experience but I have had many pull-my-hair-out moments that mostly involve the language barrier. I think the students are ready for the performance and hopefully are prepared for the competition aspect of it. I think they are winners but I know there is pressure from the adults to win.

There are two days from this month that I think are "post card worthy".

Two Fridays ago I got to tag long on the 5th grade field trip to some nature reserve near the ocean. There were indoor and outdoor gardens and a reptile building. The students seemed to enjoy the event and I was thankful to be out of school and in the fresh air. Some of the students got to hold a big snake and when the man giving the lecture held it out to me I went to touch it and before I could he put it around my neck. Man, the kids got a real kick out of that. My favorite part of the trip was just having random students come up to me to chat or share their snacks.

Another great day was last Saturday. Ulsan had a whale festival to celebrate their ancestor's whaling history (yes, I said whaling). There were boat races and food and random craft tents. They even had straw tents like they lived in hundreds of years ago. I think that's the most foreigners I've seen in one place since coming to Korea. It was a bit overwhelming. After that we went to this very fancy (very expensive) buffet. I just assumed that this place was going to be Korean food but I was wrong. It was tables upon tables of delicious western food. We all ate ourselves silly and went home in a food coma. Sadly that place isn't in any of our budgets for frequent visits.

 

Bless friends!

This is Korea

I'm not sure what life is like outside of Korea but I am guessing it has the similar tone of the CNN articles that I have stopped reading - worry.

Inside South Korea life moves on as if its any normal day of the week and the more I have talked to Koreans, the more I am discovering that this is any normal day of the week. They have grown up in a country that receives threats of war yearly and they have learned an exceptional way of dealing with it - don't worry.

When the North Korean's launched that rocket in the air back in 2012 I asked one of my co-teachers what they thought about the rocket. She told me that they don't worry about what North Korea does. "If someone worries about them then they should live in another country". I am slowly understanding her statement. If they lived their lives worried about the next thing North Korea was going to do, they'd never have a peaceful moment.

I can't recall all of the threats or strange things that the North has done since I arrived in the South, but it has been enough to fill two hands. Not once have I heard a Korean friend or coworker bring up the topic in a worrisome way. They just shrug it off and say that they don't worry. And you know what, I believe that they are right. They don't have anything to fear.  

With the increasing media attention of North Korea's threats I have received a lot of concerned messages from family and friends. Which is sweet, but honestly, waking up to those has been instilling fear in me. I start to wonder, oh no, what happened while I slept?! I quickly check my email and phone to find no message from the American Embassy. Nothing to concern me. When I got to school the day "war" was suppose to happen the kids were playing soccer and hitting each other and yelling "rock paper scissors" in Korean. The teachers were quickly moving from room to room doing who knows what. All the while the world worried.

I am learning what the South Korean's have learned long ago. That bully up north, who is family, is going to be there so let him blow off steam and continue living your life. I think their mentality has been working so far and hopefully they can be left to they own version of "keep calm and carry on" and not be convinced that something bad is going to happen any second of the day.

I do realize that this time could be different, and I have taken the proper precautions that the American Embassy has advised all expats to do, but until my Korean friends start running for cover - I'm not going to worry either.  

6.

Today feels like a big deal and I guess in a way it is. Today marks my sixth month anniversary of living in Ulsan, South Korea. I am amazed by how much I have done and also by how much I haven't done. Thankfully now with the nicer weather and a few four or five day weekends coming in these next six month I should be able to see more of Korea besides my own city. 

As I have constantly been saying in my blog, I have been very busy and some days I seem to add to my own work load. Just today I finished a self given project of a poster board called "excellent works". My goal is to update it once a month with the work the students do in my class. I felt bad throwing away creative charade papers so instead I decided to make a way to save those creative, make me laugh but in a proud way, works. Now the piece of paper that reads, "I will learn how to train dinosaurs" can live on outside of a garbage can.  

Have you ever experienced something that was a big deal but felt anticlimactic? I'm not talking about a birthday that was a let down. I'm talking about something you worked so hard towards but in the end it was like, "oh cool". That's how I felt when I got my degree in the mail. I felt like confetti should have been popping out and a choirs of angels singing. Instead I ripped open the big envelope and the only paper inside was my degree. After all my hard work it would have been nice to get a little note tucked in saying, "good job. Treasure this degree and all of the experiences that you received while working towards your degree." I do realize no one has time to do that, but still, it would've been nice. 

I got the same "oh cool" feeling last night when I checked my bank account and noticed the funds I paid towards my loan was gone. Two days before I had clicked the lovely button in my loan account that said "pay off account" and I knew that in a few days time I'd be finished with one of my student loans. I was expecting some form of acknowledgement from my loan company. A simple email saying "your account is paid off" would've been enough. Instead I quickly signed into my loan account and saw two magical things. My balance was at $0.00 and my status said: Paid In Full. My loan is now paid in full! I think it is still sinking in and hopefully soon I will be jumping up and down and dancing, but for right now it feels anticlimactic. All I can think is "really? Not even an email?" 

I have been able to see a lot of cherry blossoms the last few weeks. A first I was super excited to see them. But after the second time I wasn't experiencing the same aw I had before. It is crazy to see so many cherry blossoms throughout the city. I've seen so many that they have stopped making an impact to my day. But I will be very sad when they are gone. They really have brightened up the city. Soon the trees will be green and I cannot wait to see some grass. It's funny how much I miss grass. 

Here are two of my favorite pictures. Bless friends. 

Who let the comedian out?

My students are funny! I'm not sure why they never made me laugh last semester, maybe I am able to see their humor now that I am able to give them creative freedom during my lessons. That is certainly a motivation for me when planning lessons. I want to give them an opportunity to enjoy English!

I'll share a few instances of their humor.

In 4th grade the students were suppose to be preparing a conversation based on two pictures in their text book but these two boys took it to a whole new level.

Student 1: Here is your coffee.
Student 2 looks at his fake cup: Americano? (tosses the fake cup aside) I want a caramel maciatoto.
Student 1 makes a new cup: Here you go.

In 6th grade we are practicing the future tense and when I asked where I will be in 10 years.

Student 1: You will be a grandma.

Also in 6th grade during a future tense lesson I told them the world will end in two years and asked how it will end.

Student 1: Dinosaurs will come back.

In 5th grade we were talking about countries and I gave each group a different country and they had to answer 4 questions: we are from... here we have... we eat... our sports are....

Student Group 1: We are from Canada. Here we have Santa.

Student Group 2: We are from America. Here we have Obama. We eat Americanos. Our sports are football.

Both 3rd and 4th grade have really gotten into the role plays that are inside the book (I wish we would have used them last semester!) and they have started to do voices for the characters. That is bound to give my coteacher and myself 20 minutes of laugher in the class.

The kids really seem to be warming up the concept that they can be creative in English and even some kids who don't have the ability to construct a sentence try.

Student 1: Teacher! Ah... it goes (lots of hand motions) and then BOOM (exploding hand motions).

At least they are trying!

Bless friends.