New Home Stay and the hustle and bustle of Seoul

Lets see...

So, I moved to my new home stay's house last Wed. so almost exactly a week ago.  I'm living with a mother and her daughter (30 yrs old). They are extremely nice and friendly! I think it'll be a good living situation. The only slightly inconvenient thing, is they live on the top of this small mountain, and the only two ways to get down are to take a bus, that only comes every 20 minutes, or to take the stairs, all 210 of them. Going down isn't bad, but going up is a trek. whew. I've done it 3 times so far. Nik told me I should check my heart rate now and then again after a few months to see if I've improved. ^^
However, by bus, I can get to the Sinchon subway station in 5 min. flat, and then, all I have is about a 10 minute walk to get to class. So, in the mornings going to class is very easy.

My room is also really small! I mean, I know Korea doesn't have a lot of room to spare, but when I first saw it, I wasn't sure all of my stuff was going to fit.. but it actually turned out just fine, and now I look around it and it doesn't seem that small anymore. I guess I've gotten used to it ^^. I think Americans are just spacey greedy... haha.

With the help of Nik and Fulbright, I also got a volunteer opportunity set up at a deaf school in seoul to teach ASL to interested middle school students. I've had two classes so far, and I'm really enjoying it! I have two male students, and they are so sweet and are so enthusiastic! I think from next week on, I'll split my class into two parts, and continue teaching the boys for the first part, and younger middle school students the second part.

What else... I met up with one of the Tte members, whom I initially made friends with during study abroad. I can't believe that was 3 years ago!!! crazy... It was so great to see her again!
On Friday, two of my students got into a fist fight!!! I've never seen a fistfight before. Not at LdF or anywhere... I was shocked. It started out with name calling and teasing and then all of a sudden, one of them wound up and punched the other in the face. Then all hell broke loose. The main teacher came over and broke it up. But she mostly yelled at the kid who got punched, which I didn't understand why... I felt really bad for him too, because he'd started to cry and then the other kids started making fun of him because he was crying.  Plus, he and his family are North Korean refugees, so the other kids were making fun of him for that too... omg.

Emily came in from Po-hang, where she is teaching English for the weekend. So, after (a very hectic) work on Friday, I met her at KoRoot and we spent the night there. Unfortunately, I came down with a cold... So, we hung low and caught up.  On Saturday we went to Myeongdong and we each bought a fleece jacket at uniqlo. its so warm!  Then, later, I met up with Nathan for dinner, and Em went to have dinner with her boyfriend.  Nathan introduced me to some of his friends, which was fun. One of them is a KSL interpreter on the news, I think MBC and EBS.  She also taught herself ASL! so jealous! She knows Korean, KSL, English, and ASL! wow.
On Sunday, I was supposed to meet Emily to say goodbye, as she was supposed to head back to Po-hang and then up with SupHo people in Gangnam for dinner.  However, Emily got elbowed by an ajuma (middle aged woman) and was knocked down the subway stairs and severly sprained her ankle!!! Em and I concluded that that experience pretty much sums up Korea. Crazy ajuma knocks her down and doesn't even stop to help her or make sure she's okay, but another ajuma stopped and helped her to the station office.
To make a long story short, we spend the day finding ice, a bandage, and then the hospital.  I think everyone thought we were insane too, because we keep laughing like mad. That's what happens when we hangout.. we get loopy have crazy escapades. Luckily, she is okay though. She spend a few more days in Seoul and then went back to Po-hang.

in the office at wangshimni subway station

at Hanyang University Hospital

So, on Monday after work, I went to Apgujung to Youngmi unni's house and met up with some SupHo staff. I was happy to make it to that gathering ^^ Eunji unni painted all of the girls nails! So pretty! Unfortnately, I'm very bad at keeping things pretty. In less than 24 hours, I'd kind of messed them up. I complained to Nik and he said, "haha. You're such a tomboy."

Pil, Yunjeong unni, Eunji unni, Minji, and Youngmi unni

Yesterday, after my volunteering, I met up with Jiyoon unni! She was mine and Susie's language partner in MN during the summer/fall. She was studying English at St. Thomas. Her younger sister also was there studying English, so after Jiyoon left to go back to Korea, I hung out with her sister~  It was so crazy seeing her in Korea instead of America! Her mom knit me a beautiful scarf!!! It is so pretty and warm and thick! I can't wait to use it!

Last night, after I got home, I made Jello for my student as a kind of Christmas present.  So, I'll bring that today and then, afterwork, we are having our Holt (work) xmas party. It should be fun~

dialogue madness...

Howdy~ ^___^

Wow, this past week was a bit hectic. The weather got a lot colder... ugh. It's cold in MN, but I have a car there and don't need to walk everywhere.

I met up with one of my co-workers and we studied Korea together, which was nice!  She is from Denmark and is here teaching English on the same program as me. After studying, we met up with Nik for dinner and went to the Italian Plate.  I love that place because the waiter is so hilarious! He loves meeting foreigners and can say thank you in a bunch of different languages.  Here is a picture of Mette, Nik, the waiter, and I~

Mom sent me a mini menorah for Chanukkah. I didn't get it until the 6th night, but it was nice to have. Thanks mom!  Here are pics of Nik and I lighting it on the 8th and final night.

 lighting a match on Nik's stove

Plus, our Korean teacher assigned our class to memorize 6 dialogues and then film them with our partners.
On Friday, I went to a Fulbright forum on modern architecture in Seoul.  Afterwards, Nik and I went to Seoul Station to accompany a friend to the train station.  On the way back, we were studying my dialogues and we completely lost track of where we were.  We missed our transfer stop and ended up way off from where we were heading... So, we got off and turned around. AND missed our transfer stop again... This is what happens when we are together. All the time. It never fails. We do this wherever we are; MN or Korea... ^^
So, we ended up spending about an hour riding the subway back and forth. On the plus side, by the time we parted ways, I had 5 out of 6 dialogues memorized!  

On Saturday, I went to Joo's English class. Her class was an English class for deaf and hard of hearing Koreans. It was pretty cool.  Afterwards, I went to lunch with her and two of her classmates.  We ate budaechigae, which originated from the food the US soldiers used to give out. So, lots of random things end up in the soup, like spam and hotdogs.  I found pepperoni in this version, which just weirded me out because pepperonis are supposed to be on pizza... haha.

Later, I met up with my friend Sarah from SupHo.  She is here teaching English at a university down south.  We hungout and then went to the G.O.A.L Christmas party, where I met up with Nik.  I also ran into Lea and Rae and a few other people I knew. The party was okay, but they ran out of food. I was starving! So, Sarah, Nik, and I ended up leaving the party for a bit and we went to Kraze Burger for burgers and fries. haha. Eating burgers and fries in formal wear.
After the party, Nik and I went to a cafe and ended up watching an entire movie on his computer before heading home at around 3 am...

 Sarah and I at the GOAL party

 Kraze burger

 chili fries

this restaurant has the best hamburgers ever

On Sunday Nik graciously allowed my classmates and I to videotape our dialogues at his apt. So, we met up at noon. It was actually very fun! We have a lot a lot of bloopers... hehe.  I think our teacher might post them on youtube. If he does, I'll post a link.

Nik and my two classmates Hitomi (Japan) and Mika (Germany) eating Chinese delivery

At 4, I met up with this unni I met at the KoRoot Thanksgiving dinner. She is Korean, but her husband is an adoptee and serving in the US military, so they live on the military base. She invited me over. Man, the military base is crazy! It's just like America!!!  I couldn't believe it!
As soon as you enter the gates (only authorized people are allowed in. I had to bring my foreigners reg. card and get my entrance approved) it is no longer Korea, but America. The buildings/structures look American. Even the fastfood joints and strip malls look American! I mean, the burger king looked just like the ones in MN. The BKs in Korea are much nicer and fancier, but this one just looked blah and ordinary. Weird.
Then, I headed back over to Nik's for dinner because his neighbor was having Dr. King over (the Dean of SupHo) and Nik and I got invited as well.

The next evening, I went back to Niks for dinner. We were going to do something simple and study Korean. Nik decided to make homemade fried chicken! I've never had homemade friend chicken and I was so impressed!!! But the chicken was done before some of the other stuff, so we stuck it in the oven to keep it warm. However, some of the oil dripped to the bottom of the oven and started to smoke like mad... We opened up all the windows, got out the fan, and wrapped the fire alarm with a cloth. whew. that was close.  Even so, dinner was awesome. Although Nik's apartment reeked of fried chicken for a few days after the fact~ ^^

Mosquitoes... in December?!

First off, I've seen two mosquitoes in the past week here!  I saw the first one in the elevator of the Holt building, and I was positive I was imagining things. I was sure it was some other kind of bug that just looked like a mosquito because its December!!! But, when I told Nik he told me he had killed one just the other day at his apt. Then, while I was at his apt. studying, I saw another one. And it was HUGE! so I killed it.

Anyhow, this weekend was really fun.  On Friday, after class I worked from 2-7 and then met up with Supho people for dinner.  It was really fun ~ got to see a lot of people I haven't seen since camp! which ended in August.  Plus, there were a few people who I hadn't seen in two years!  I arrived late because I had work until 7. We ate shabu shabu (hot pot) for dinner and then went to Minto, a tea and coffee cafe.  We got a huge room for our group and had drinks and cookies and ice cream.  I actually didn't eat much of dinner; it goes in courses and since I got there late and the last course is rice with eggs...  So, I ate ramen at the coffee shop ^^

On Saturday, I went with my friend Joo to a deaf musical.  What is that, you may ask? I asked myself the very same question.  It was a play all in KSL (Korean sign language) with voice interpretation. I don't know KSL (no, it isn't the same as ASL) and my Korean isn't great, but I got the gist.  I mean, the story line wasn't too hard to follow, and after the show, Joo, her friend and I concluded it was basically the same storyline as "Step Up", the movie.  haha!  If you've not seen "Step Up," the story takes place in a high school in the 'bad kids' class.  They don't care about school and just mess around all day and are on their 7th teacher of the year.  This teacher comes in really wanting to connect with the kids, but fails, initially.  However, after finding out about his students backgrounds and home life, he comes up with a plan to have them put on a musical and do a dance to build their confidence, and he succeeds.  The last scene of the play was of the students and the teacher doing a choreographed dance to the song Champion, by Psy.

*photos courtesy of HyunJoo Chu

 actors, director (woman) and some other important people... ^^

more important, not worthy people and the actors

Joo unni, her co-worker who played the teacher, and me~

Prof. from KSL interpreting program and ...?

at a cafe after the show

"Step Up" plot line or not, it was really good and I really enjoyed it.  And afterwards, Joo introduced me to some of the people.  The person who played the teacher is her coworker and I also met a professor at Nazarene University and works in the Korean Sign Language Interpretation Department.  He knew ASL because he attended Gallaudet University in Wash. DC!

Later on, I met up with Nathan for dinner and after dinner we met up with Nik~ We went to some bar near Jamsil, which was surrounded by strip clubs... odd.  The bar was really nice though.

Speaking of which, I was walking home from the subway station yesterday and there were all of these business cards with scantily clad women with phone numbers scattered on the ground.  They've actually been there for a few days and initially I thought someone just accidentally dropped them, but I realized yesterday that they must have done it on purpose.  Because it wasn't just in one concentrated area, but all down the sidewalk... I guess the person was too embarrassed to hand them out to people, so perhaps they thought if they just dropped them on the ground, interested people would pick one up?... Odd advertising tactic.

Then on Sunday, Nik and I met up to study... We ended up cooking a huge meal! I made latkes and he made spaghetti~ We also had green beans and salad and fruit. Yum!!!
And we totally procrastinated from studying for a good 6 hours... After preparing, cooking, eating, digesting, and going for a walk, we finally cracked down and studied some~ It was a good end to a fun weekend ^__^

*didn't have an actual camera, so we took these photos using photobooth on Nik's computer...

먹자!!!

teaching English, studying Korean etc.

Hi~

This past week has been busy! Since I last wrote, I moved from Marks to the Holt guest house.  I will move again (soon) to my home stay, which is apparently in Hongdae.

So, on Monday, Brownie, Sarang's former English student came and picked me up with his car and helped me move my things from Mark's place in Sinchon to Holt which is in Hapjeong.
Afterwards, we went to the World Cup stadium for lunch and then he took me to my work place.  It was my first day!!!! but we were a bit early, so we just hung around and explored the area a bit.  He let me drive his car which was fun! I never thought I'd drive in Korea, but the after school program where I teach (I actually have three different sites, but they are all near each other) is kind of a suburb of Korea, so it's much less crowded.

My first day of teaching was okay... Not the best, but not terrible.  It was just really chaotic... The center is only one room, literally called a study room (공부방) so while I was trying to teach there were other kids and teachers doing other things. Plus, there was a large disparity between kids' English levels.  Also age.  I am supposed to teach the elementary kids first for an hour and then the middle school kids second. But some of the middle schoolers decided to join in the first hour and were rather disruptive until one boy actually made another boy cry and they were removed.
I had a lesson plan, but wasn't sure of their levels...
I didn't really have any resources/materials either.  So, after I finished I went to Nik's (thanks Nik!) and he printed out phonics flash cards I had made last year. Whew. I spent a long while cutting and gluing but had them ready in time for class the next day.

My experience the next day was much better, partly because I had the flash cards etc. and also it was more of a classroom setting with just me and the kids I was teaching.  There was some sort of national exam for all middle school students, so I only taught the elementary kids and then we took them out to play at the park for an hour~ nice.

I met up with Nik and Bill Drucker, a writer for KQ who is visiting Korea and we had dinner and ice cream together.

Yesterday, wednesday, is my "day off" when I don't teach.  Class hadn't started yet, so I went to the immigration office and picked up my foreigner's registration card and passport.  Yay! I finally have it.
Afterwards I met Bill at 11:30 and we went to go see the comfort women's demonstration in front of the Japanese embassy.  This demonstration is held every Wednesday and if I understood correctly, I think the weekly demonstration has been going on for 20 years!  The woman along with their supporters are there protesting the Japanese governments denial of what happened.  They want recognition, an apology, and compensation.  And they come rain or shine.

women lined up with supporters behind them~

guards standing across the street in front of the Japanese embassy

I had wanted to go during study abroad, but always had class at that time, so when Bill said he was going, I jumped at the opportunity.  It was definitely a memorable experience.  The former comfort woman were lined up in chairs hold a banner and behind them stood supporters.  There were also speakers who took turns leading cheers or giving small speeches.
Unfortunately, my Korean is not good enough to catch everything, but it was very powerful.

Later, I met YunJeong unni at Ewha Univ. and she helped me reactivate my phone. Finally!!! yay!

Then, for dinner I met up with Nik's friend Nathan and his friend HyunJeong.  Unfortunately, Nik was busy and couldn't come. Nathan is a deaf korean adoptee from the states (They met at a GOAL event) working in Korea for google!  It was really fun to practice my ASL and his friend, HyunJeong, is a KSL interpreter, so I learned a bit of Korean sign language as well, which was really fun, but is completely different from ASL.

Today was my first day of Korean class. I think it will be good, but pretty intense.  I was really surprised that my speaking and reading/listening teachers are male! I have never had a male teacher in Korea and I've heard its pretty uncommon.  I definitely need to get into the habit of studying everyday again... Our speaking teacher seems a bit strict, but also really nice. He said if we speak even one word of English during class, he'll make us buy everyone coffee. Funny, but he means it. He also said we are not allowed to use our dictionaries in class! The entire class gasped, including myself... haha! and this one girl's mouth dropped open and stayed that way for a good 30 seconds or so. It was really funny.

Anyhow, I'm off to go teach English.  This is my first day at the third site, so after today, I will have taught at all of my sites once.
Til later~