The End

Hi there,

Sorry for the hiatus.  I am now back in the States, as of a little more than a month ago.

Sadly, my grandfather (my number one follower), passed away a few days before I left Korea for the States.
I was mostly keeping this blog for him, so I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue posting after that.
But I figure I may as well finish it up.

Just to make a brief summary, my last few weeks in Korea were great, but hectic as usual.  I finished up my teaching position at the three 공부방.  I stayed up till 3 am or later making copies of the movies my students had created to give to them. (Thanks Nik for all the help!!!)
As much as my English teaching was stressful and frustrating, I feel that it was a good experience for me and I really do miss my students.

 YulRin Church students

 SamDong - This pic was taken moments before all the boys got in a HUGE fight. Can't even manage to take a picture without someone getting injured... 

My two students at Aewha deaf school - so cute!

The one regret I had was that I wasn't able to take drumming lessons because I had Korean class and English teaching.  However, through a stroke of luck, I ended up connecting with Noreum Machi, a professional Korean drumming troupe and got to take  lessons from Oh HyunJu, the most awesome instructor ever.  She is sooo extremely talented; I still can't believe I got to study under her.  I feel I learned a lot from her in a short amount of time, and everyone in the troupe was super friendly.

my teacher and me

a bunch of fulbrighters came to the concert

I was mostly busy with saying goodbye to everyone.  This time it was a lot harder, because I don't know when I'll be back.  Last year, I knew I was coming back in a few months, so it was only temporary.  This time, it seemed much more permanent, as I will be starting a 2 year graduate program this fall in the States.

last meeting with HyunJoo unni

final farewell to my former host family - I miss them!!!

Mugong and I visiting Changhyun at his military base

Sogang's Sign Language Club - they were all so sweet! 

best night ever - playing frisbee with my 3급 classmates in dongdaemun park

As a thank you, I made dinner for my host family at Nik's house.  Our friend, Hyunjeong also came over.  Man his apt. really heated up from using the stove and the oven, but I pulled it off. ^^

Since Nik, Emily and I are splitting ways and spreading all over the US, we decided we needed an epic "final hurrah" - a trip to Busan.  Timing wise, we were rather crunched, but it was totally worth it.  We got back to Seoul the day before I flew out and the day I moved out of my host family's house to spend the night at Eunji unni's.  Whew. But sooo worth it.

in Pohang with Dewi for a final farewell before heading down to Busan

our freaking sweet hotel!

at the International Sandcastle competition in Haeundae, Busan

sooo sweet! Em and Nik got my a BR ice cream cake for an early bday celebration!!

Diet coke and mentos experiment anyone?...

Mentos and Diet Coke = fail. BUT lots of funnnnn!

I got back to Seoul and ran around like a chicken with its head cut off. I had to cancel my phone, withdraw my money, buy last minute presents, get back to my host fam's to finish up last min. packing, eat dinner with them, and be ready to leave when Eunji and her mom arrived.

withdrawing all my money - CA$H 

final meal with the host fam. - chinese delivery 

My host sister, mother, and brother~

Well, its been good. Thanks for reading my blog.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Til next time Korea!

-Lia

Final Exams... whew.

Hiya~

Sorry for the long lapse in posts... The past few weeks have been pretty busy.  I had my final exams for Korean last week and I have my final interview tomorrow morning. Wish me luck... If I don't pass my exam, I can't go on to the next level...

I know that I didn't ace my tests, but I think I passed~ We shall see. There was an entire page on my reading exam that I had no idea what to write. lol~ ugh.
I can't wait until this is all over!

Then I can focus on the rest of my graduate school applications and get ready to take the ASLPI (american sign language proficiency interview) test. ugh. test after test. But once that is out of the way, I think things will ease up a bit. Or so I hope~ ^^

Some of my students are making movies in English, which I am hoping will turn out well.  The first class I decided to try this with made their own story.  I did this a few summers ago at work and had the students create their own story to film.  However, I didn't take into account that these student's English proficiency isn't the greatest... They wrote a zombie story~ and got really into it, which is great, but that means that after I left work, they wrote an entire story (2 pages long) in Korean.  So, of course it needed to be translated, as I teach English  class...  Well, my Korean is definitely not good enough to do that, so Nik, being super nice translated it for me ^^ Thanks Nik!!!

So, when I decided to do it at another school, I decided to have them do Korean folktales because they all know them and it does not need explaining.  This has gone much much smoother so far.  The older kids, there are only 2 of them, are making a music video to the song Sorry Sorry by Super Junior.  I showed these kids a few videos from Sup Ho, which they really enjoyed.  They thought it was really neat to see American kids who are learning Korea, making movies.  It's the same as them, but with English so I think it boosted their confidence a little to see that other kids had successfully made a movie~

 making props for kongjwi patwi movie

zombie movie 

I went skiing last week, but I'll save that for another post~ I spent this weekend at Soyeon's house! She came to Korea for a short visit, and it was really nice to see her and her family!  The weather has started to warm up a bit, so we went to Changdeokgung Palace 창덕구 with her aunt, uncle, and cousin and walked around and took pictures!  It was really fun and a nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon~ It was nice to decompress after studying all week for finals (although I still have one more exam to go...).
(*btw, I had my interview and did a lot better than I expect and was surprisingly pleased with my grades ^^)

Soyeon, her aunt, uncle, and cousin

Soyeon and me

Soyeon in the arboretum 

cute ducks

The Tests Are Almost Over~ For Now...

Hiya~

So, let's see... what's new. I hung out with Sarang and her cousin on Saturday. We went to Insadong and had lunch and then to another area near there with a bunch of really cute cafes~ We had a feast for lunch! Man, the restaurant was really expensive, except they had a lunch special, that included a ton of side dishes!  It was really nice inside too~

 kinda creepy looking, but tasty~

After lunch, we wandered around Insadong for a bit and then went to a chocolatier cafe and had hot chocolate. I ordered the hot cocoa with the most cocoa in it, I think 75% maybe... It was so bitter! I had to add a lot of sugar to it, but it was really good!

Nik came back to Korea on Sunday, so we had dinner together. I was supposed to be studying, but that didn't really happen... oops. But it was fun to see him and hear about his visit home and his adventures in LA, California~

I'm almost done with midterms. I had my writing exam on Monday, and my speaking/reading/listening exams on Tuesday~ I did okay. I was really annoyed with myself about my writing exam, because on the last page, I used the wrong grammar ending for the entire page, so I got -7... If I had used the correct ending, I would only have had -2 off... Ce la vie~  I did well on my listening exam and actually, I aced my reading exam.  That was a surprise, because the listening exam was so fast, I didn't feel like I actually caught what was being said.
Next Wednesay, I have my speaking interview with the teacher, and then we'll get our speaking exams back~

classroom

some classmates during break time

Anyhow, after work on Tuesday I met up with an unni, I met through a friend. We went to dinner and then to a cafe. It was really fun, and nice to get a chance to practice speaking Korean~ I got home pretty late, but my host sister had gone out to and was picking up pizza for us to eat, since I finished my exams! so sweet!!! So, even though I had eaten, I ate again. I can eat sweet potato pizza anytime!

On Wednesday, I went straight from school to Aehwa to teach ASL. I had new students, so we just went over the basics.  I swear one of the girls asked if I was pregnant... Maybe not, because she asked it in KSL to one of the teachers. But, I swear that's what she said... lol. I guess my sweatshirt was kind of bulky... um.  But the kids are really great and very sweet. (and apparently, very honest ^^)

After volunteering, I headed over to Nik's.  Even though our exams are over, we still had to make our videos of memorized dialogues from our book. Two classmates came over and we filmed at Nik's. After filming, we made dinner and hung out with was really fun!  I taught my classmates, one from Japan and one from China how to say "drop it like it's hot."  And today in class, they said it to the other American in class, who got a kick out of it~

Today, teaching went really well! I was very pleased and felt like the kids actually learned something. They seemed to have calmed down a bit, although this school has always been pretty good...  Hopefully I don't jinx myself! Afterwork, I met Nik and we headed to Hyehwa to meet up with Sarang, Nathan, Hyeonjung, and Hyeonjung's friend, Meejoo for dinner. Sarang called while we were on our way and we figured out that we were riding the same subway! lol!  It was rush hour so the crowds were terrible!!! The subway station was jam packed full of people! We had to transfer, and Sarang didn't think there was room for us, but we were already running late, so I said we should just go.  So, we shoved our way onto the train and made it.  Unfortunately, the door we needed to exit from was on the opposite side of the train... So, we literally shoved our way through a mass of people and made it out. Whew.

Met up with everyone and went to Korean BBQ and then to Baskin Robins for ice cream.  It was really fun, linguistically confusing, for me any how...^^  Hyeongjung and her friend, Meejoo are Korean KSL interpreters, so they know Korean and KSL.  Nathan knows ASL and KSL.  Nik know Korean and English. Sarang knows Korean and English.  I know English, ASL, and Korean (sort of..).  So, for example, if Nathan was talking in ASL, I would translate it into English and then Sarang would translate the English into Korean. A very entertaining experience ^^
Oh, and on the way to the ice cream shop, I totally wiped out! I told Nik earlier, on our way to meet everyone that I was gonna wipe out sooner or later... The roads here are terrible!!!
[ I can't remember if I already wrote this in another post, but when I was in Myeongdong, I literally saw two city workers with a hammer and a chisel trying to hand chip all the ice that had formed.  The roads were literally covered in sheer ice, from the snow that melted and refroze and also just because SOOO many people had already walked all over it and packed it down. ]
In any case, my shoes had no traction and we were going down a really steep hill and I totally wiped out. It was actually extremely hilarious. Sarang and I laughed and laughed.  (actually, even now as I write this, I've started to crack up again...) So, since we were on a hill, aparently, I just kept rolling... If I recall correctly, I think Sarang told me that as I was rolling, I was laughing (I don't actually remember). And I had my backpack on, which is kind of blue. So, Sarang thought I looked like a blueberry rolling down the hill.  So, after I stopped rolling, I tried to get up, but my bag was too heavy and I was on such a steep hill, I couldn't get up... So, I gave up and just lay there, until Sarang pulled me up. It was epic.

Anyhow, now I am finishing up editing our videos for class... I hope it doesn't take too long, because I want to go to bed...
Til later!

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~