I've been in Korea for a month and that means it's time to learn some serious Korean. I've been picking up quite a lot of words here and there... in the taxi, at the bar, in school, all over this beautiful country, but I want to really put some effort into it. I went with my coworker, Jenny, to an English/Korean language exchange and had a great time meeting a lot of different people. Afterwards, we went out and bought textbooks so that we could have somewhere to start and show our progress. Right now I'm drilling the alphabet into my head.

Hannah and Stephen visited me from Changwon a few days ago. It was great seeing some familiar faces. I took the bus downtown (which I've never done before so I felt quite accomplished) and picked them up. We ate KFC, then literally bumped into my friend Ben (a teacher at another school that lives nearby) and we all went to the art museum and a few shops, and finished with an exquisite Itallian meal.

The next night we (all my coworkers, Ben, Hannah and Stephen) went and drank all night on my roof. We had soju, which is like watered-down vodka that costs a buck. I love it on the roof! It changed everything for me. I knew I had a roof that I could go and be all chill, reading my book and drinking my coffee, but I hadn't explored it until now. It's nothing glamorous.. a few ugly, weather-worn chairs, a table and a broken couch, but I love it. I spent most of the day Saturday reading and writing up there because it was such a beautiful day and because I'm obviously a hipster.. you know.. reading, writing, drinkin coffee... I just need to start smoking ciggarettes and I'll be totally angsty writer type. This morning I had breakfast with Julie, Tessa and Heather up there too. It's definitely my spot. I cannot wait until fall. It will be perfect... cold enough to wear a sweatshirt, wrapped in a blanket, reading, but with the warm sun beating down, keeping me from getting too cold.

Since I've been away in Seoul for the holiday (Chuseok) I have not been bloggin'. I'm going to seperate the days as to not overwhelm.

Saturday:

I woke up to a beautiful sunny day to start my trip to Seoul. I was proud of myself in that I was able to take the taxi to the KTX (fast train) station, get myself on the train and get to Seoul without a single problem. I sat outside waiting for Sohee since it was also beautiful in Seoul and she came to get me shortly after. As I mentioned she and I had met a little more than a year ago as volunteers in Portugal. She and her friend Henry took me around the city a bit. We went to a shopping mall and made fun of a lot of the styles for men. We had sushi for dinner. Though I love Korean style sushi (kimbop), Japanese sushi is always going to be my one and only. We ended the night at the Han river. It was thriving with people at night because the new president made it into an area for walking, biking, entertainment and nightly water shows. Henry drove us home and I met Sohee's family. They were so very nice. Her mom, sister and brother were still up when I got there. Sohee's mom gave me some grapes, my very favorite fruit here. Her sister is 17 and her brother is 10. They were a little shy about speaking English, but it was cute. Her dad works like a maniac from 9am to 12am so I didn't meet him until I was about to go to bed.

Sunday:

Sohee's grandmother lives in the apartment next to them and she fixes breakfast and lunch for them. She speaks almost no English and I speak very little Korean, but she was so welcoming and friendly that it didn't matter. Breakfast is something I haven't had here yet because I make that for myself every morning (if making breakfast is boiling water and stirring in instant coffee). Korean breakfast is the same as they would eat for lunch or dinner. So, I had kimchi (spicy cabbage), egg soup, and other typical Korean foods I've been eating at school for lunch. It's no IHOP. Sohee calls IHOP food "very heavy" (she lived in San Francisco and knows the fatty fattiness of American foods). Later, her Dad took a break from work to take us to eat duck as a special occassion. It was barbecue style duck that we heat up on a grill at a table ourselves. It was delicious. Sohee called it Korean IHOP. Cute. Afterwards we had delicious citrus tea. It was very sweet orange flavored with bits of soft orange and lemon at the bottom. Sohee and I went shopping and her family went home. Her little 10-year-old brother had a little date to get back to. He and his girl were off to buy "couple rings". Dressing alike is a very big trend amongst boyfriend/girlfriends. I guess an easy first step is buying the couple ring together. We all made a big deal about it because he was just so cute taking calls from her at the restaurant in anticipation for the big moment!!

Monday:

Sohee and I took off on the subway and she showed me some more touristy areas. We walked through a traditonal Korean area of town. Even the Starbucks sign was written out in Korean letters. We also went to the business district which has a stream running through it, a palace looking over it and a big golden statue of King Sejong in the middle. I must say it was quite the scenery for anyone stuck in one of those massively tall office buildings. After a bit of touring she took me to Book Cafe. It is a chain, but every one has a different theme. The one we went to was beautiful! I couldn't stop raving about how cute it was... fairytale, secret garden style. We talked for awhile, reminissing about our camp experience in Portugal, which suprisingly we hadn't done too much of until then. We did a bit of shopping after and bought some shoes. Fake Toms are all the rage in Korea. I'm ashamed to say I bought a pair for 15$. Where are my morals/ethics/all the above??? I know that's going against the message of the original Toms designer. I did have a good laugh at the knock off name of one pair: Tops. Very clever eh? Afer getting a bit lost, we made our way up to the Seoul Tower. It's maybe the highest point... even if it's not, the view of the city lights at night is beautiful. There is a bit of entertainment at the top as well. What really tickled my fancy were all the thousands of love locks locked to the tower gate. Couples buy locks, attach a message of their love to the lock, lock the lock and throw away the key, leaving their love at the top of Seoul forever. That's some serious romance. We took the very long subway ride back to her house, ate some fried chicken (very popular here) with her family and watched a Korean drama (soap opera) that I've been keeping up with at the gym.

Tuesday:

I said goodbye to Sohee and her family, thanked them, and went on my way to meet up with my coworkers for another day of sightseeing or so we thought. We toured one palace/museum and an hour later, monsoon season came back with a vengance and prohibitted us from doing anything outside, so we had no other option but to get an earlier train and come back to Cheonan. I didn't miss much because I'd been in Seoul for quite awhile, but I felt bad for my friends. Soaking wet, we took the train back home and decided since we couldn't celebrate our vacation in Seoul that night, we would treat ourselves to Outback. Yes, we have an Outback here. It is very popular in Korea. There was one on every corner in Seoul. Cheonan has one and it is amazing. I haven't eaten any American food or really cared to, but that was one of the most amazing meals I've ever had.

And today is Wednesday:

It is officially Chuseok day. I've been reading, cleaning and watcing online TV/movies excessively. I haven't had much time to do nothing lately and it feels good. I'm really appreciating my alone time in Korea. I'm noticing that I need my space and time to read/write/think a lot more than I needed it back home. It might have something to do with living alone. Whatever it is, I like it.

Today is the first day of Chuseok break. Chuseok is like a harvest celebration... similar to Thanksgiving. For vacation, I am going to visit my good friend Sohee; she lives in Seoul. We met in Portugal a year ago when we were both there as volunteers. Small world.

Yesterday (Friday), to celebrate Chuseok, SLP had an all-day-long festival. It was such a great time. Before the kids got there, we all dressed in hanboks (traditional Korean dress for big days) and were taught proper etiquete (for example, holding your hanbok to the right means you're a geisha.. so I had to be careful to not give my students the wrong impression). The hanboks are beautiful... very vibrant colors and patterns. They are very intricate and sometimes have accessories. (Pics on facebook). The kids loved that we were wearing hanboks ( I think they found it funny)! I loved seeing them file in with their wildly colorful wardrobe too. I couldn't stop snapping pictures of them.

I prepared a craft for them... they made a fan. Then, we went to the gym and Frank teacher (principal) taught them how to bow. Afterwards, we made songpyeun, which are rice cakes with sesame seeds and other nuts inside. They are very sticky and sweet. To end the day, we played tradtitional games and danced in the gym. The one I fancied the most was the stick game (called yuk) where you throw sticks into a trashcan-like bin.

Seriously the kids were so adorible. They are precious everyday, but little kids fidgitting in their hanboks was even cuter. There isn't enough I can write or photograph to really introduce you to my students. I wish you could just hear Danny (Gemini class) when he says, "Teacher, very not good" when talking about his workbook question he got wrong. Danny is very concerned with his schoolwork, but he's also Aidan's (troublemaker) best friend so it's an interesting combo. Or in Aries class, Jeff talks in third person and likes to call himself Jeffuh ( they add extra emphasis to the words .. usually an extra "uh" sound at the end). Sometimes he calls himself Jeffuh Monster. He likes monsters and killing. If you could just be there when I serve them lunch and they say "Teacher, many" (when they want a lot of something). It still cracks me up. "Not many, you want more". It's these little things that can only be seen from experience, but I so badly want to share.

My first outing with the children (both Gemini and Aries class) was today. We visited Bear Tree park. This place is very true to the name for there are both plenty of trees as well as bears. It was quite an amazing park from what I got to see when I wasn't counting the kids (that statement makes me laugh... I'm officially a teacher.. doing head counts!), giving them water and pushing them back in line. The park had a beautiful botanical garden, a lot of different trees and forested areas, a few different caged animals and a huge cage of bears. The cage of bears was a little sad and inhumane in this heat... tons of bears were basically crammed together in a box with some circus looking equipment to play with. We were all tired, sweat dripping down our faces; I can only imagine the bears suffered the same.

I rode the bus to Bear Tree Park with one of my classes (Aries) but I still got to spend time with Gemini class as well. I had snack with Gemini class. They brought snack from home because it was a special field trip. Man, did they bring a lot. It was so sweet seeing how well they shared snack. They even gave me a little bit of everything ( I ended up with an orange, a few pieces of candy, a chocolate from China, a few little cookies and chips). Each kid passed out one cookie or candy or chip to everyone in the class. It was so nice. The concept of sharing with these students is well understood, appreciated and practiced. Then, I personally lead Aries class through the park, but since I am also coteacher for Gemini, we basically lumped the two classes as one and went around the park. They were all very well behaved. The only issue was at the end they got a little burned out and grumpy because of the heat (towards the end they got so grumpy they would still throw up a peace sign but with such disdain that the peace sign turned out looking like limp little bunny ears instead). I didn't lose any children and no one was hurt so big success. I very much enjoyed being able to be their buddy that took them to the park instead of their teacher that yells at them about doing the Treasures workbook and sitting down and being quiet and ... the endless list. I know they enjoyed that aspect of today. Then we ventured back to SLP by bus. On the bus, a few of the little boys in Aries (Denny (the only boy in Aries that has a little soft spot for me), Jeff and Tom) took my phone and wrote something in Korean (which is a big deal at SLP... NO KOREAN! ) on it and were giggly the rest of the day... I still don't know what those mischevious little dudes wrote.  Speaking of Aries boys, Daniel, the one I think has it out for me, didnt want to wear his hat today and let me wear it all day. That small gesture made me feel like I had a tiny break through with him. I'll hold my tounge... he has plenty of other headbands and accessories of mine he can break.

I'm reading "Life of Pi" at the moment. It's by Yann Martel. The setting is in India for the most part... an Indian family travelling to Canada when their boat sinks and only one 16 year old Indian boy still alive, out on the ocean, fending for himself. It's beautifully written and an easy read. I suggest it to anyone looking for a good book.

The sun has finally come out in Korea. I don't know what took it so long. That being said, it doesn't necesarilly mean it's getting warmer. I think it's getting cooler and less humid. Thank god. The humidity was worse than Virginia! Mysteriously, though it's cooling down, my apartment had been warmer than usual last night and this morning. Turns out, I am forgetful and left my floors on. Yes, I left my floors on (the floors are heated (if I turn them on) and the heat rises to warm the whole apartment). The heating for the water and the floors are on the same control so if I don't want the heat on, I always have to remember to turn it off right after showering. I have only been showering with cold water since I arrived, but yesterday I decided to get a little wild and heat things up and unfortunately heat them up too much.

Turns out for the Snow White poduction in my Gemini class, I get the honor of being their choreographer. I did not realize I had been granted such the privelage until just recently. I think I'm a little late in the game for coming up with sillly Snow White dances for the kids, but I have to do it either way. It's a twist on Snow White to make it a little sillier and less serious. Here is one verse I had to choreograph : "I am Dwarf Two. Dwarf Two is OK. I am the mimicking rapper, repeating what you say. I am Dwarf Two." Basically they bop around a bit, throw up an OK hand sign and then do a bunch of little rapper hand motions, which is incredible. Can you imagine little 5 year old Korean kids throwing around rapper hands?? Well, imagine it, because it's happening.

It's night of the living dead here in my neighborhood sometimes. There is a hospital on the corner by my school and patients will stroll out in town, fully dressed in hospital gowns, dragging their IV drips alongside them to GS, the local convenience store, grab some coffee, take a smoke break, whatever. It's bizzare... especially with the fog of the early morning or the darkness of night.. straight out of a zombie film.

Mountain Dew exists here and it's not terribly hard to find. I'm "DOing THE DEW" at the moment. It is my favorite soda in the world of carbonated beverages, so I am in luck. When I lived in Spain, Carrefur, the local supermarket, sold Mt Dew for seriously 2 weeks and then it just vanished and never made a come back ever again... in the entire country. This is a much better situation for me.

At Technogym, I've taken a keen interest in this one bro dude. He looks like the bad guy that Jackie Chan pulverizes in every asian action movie. His eyes are dark and angry. He hardly ever smiles and if he does it's sly. On his neck are the dumbest looking stars, but still having a tattoo in Korea is rough enough. His tan makes me assume he is from Cambodia, Taiwan, Thailand, anywhere but Korea. I also think he is a drug lord, but that's my immagination getting the best of me. He is probably the most ripped bro in the gym, but he knows it and he knows everyone else knows he knows it. His body is immaculate, just like the asian olympic gymnasts that do the pommel horse insanity. Where is this story going? No where really. But, today, king of the gym ripped his skin tight tank top off (so much for any last attempt at modisty) for the last 5 minutes of his work out, revealing another huge tattoo on his perfectly sculpted... side. I think he could've kept his shirt on for 5 more minutes, but who am I to critique the gym king?

Shopping here is phenomenal. I've never seen so many cute headbands. Good thing too, because Daniel broke mine in class the other day. There was more than just headbands of course, but that's what caught my eye more than anything else because there were so many more than in the US and for a mere 2 or 3 bucks. And I'm not talking little thin plastic headbands, but the real nice ones with beautiful bows and patterns. The jewelry was just the same. There is quite the surplus of glitzy, gaudy accessories! Clothing on the other hand, though I fit into most of it, I still find to be a little on the small and short side. I love the clothing though. I bought a few things. Unfortunately, we live about 20 or 30 minutes from the downtown with all the shopping.

Before shopping, we went to eat at an Indian restaurant, the only Indian place in Cheonan. It's routine to go there about every weekend, but I can only handle the kick of Indian spices but so often. This has been my second Saturday at  the Indian place. It might not necessarily become my routine. It was delicious, though spicy. There is an Outback Steakhouse downtown... that's what I've really been eyeing as a special occasion kind of thing.

Last night, I finally met up with Jody. We met at the Korean consulate in Washington DC a few days before we both moved to Korea. As she was walking out of the consulate, she told me that our interviewer had told her we were both in the same town in Korea, Cheonan. It's quite a small world. Cheonan isn't really a foreigner hub. There are plenty of us roaming the streets, attractring a lot of attention, but meeting someone before even arriving in Cheonan is not typical. After about three weeks of being here, we finally met up, and it turns out we aren't terribly far from each other either. We met at a bar/restuarant, Adonis, that is a nice halfway spot  about 10 minutes between where we both live.