It has been a while!

So I have been pretty terrible with updating my blog lately. I am very sorry! Especially after receiving lots of e-mails from friends and family asking for more! So, here is an update!!

I am going to start with the beginning of September… I have a new class. My summer intensives loved my class so much so they all signed up for regular monthly classes! They are a great class, so I am really happy. We also had two extra students join my class. I am pretty sure that these two new students were new to English school because they didn’t have an English name. When you take English lessons here, you are given a name. The teachers are usually left responsible for naming these students. I think that is a pretty important role, as most of these children will keep these names for the rest of their English speaking lives. A name is very important for someone and can really give someone personality. I had a girl student and a boy student. Since it was the beginning of September and I had just missed my friend Jennifer Devine’s wedding and I was a little homesick I named her Jenny. Jenny, you will be pleased to know she is a wonderful student and very smart and doing very well in my class! So, you have a little Korean girl named after you!! As for the boy I tried to name him Edmund after my Daddy, but he couldn’t really say it or spell it all that well and he didn’t like Eddie! Hahah So, thinking about all the men and boys in my family I picked a nice short name in which he could easily spell and remember and pronounce. So I have a student named after my cousin Ben! Ben, you will also be pleased to know he is at the top of the class as well, and loves his name. The Korean c-teacher named him Tim because the first day he was so shy and never told her I had given him a name. In the next class all the other students were calling him Tim, but he told me he liked Ben better!

I went to a baseball game here last week. It was great fun, probably the most excitement you can find in Korea. Seriously. These games are always packed! Once you get to the stadium, all the seats are first come first serve, so it can be madness. Our friend left earlier and saved seats as I ran home after work to change out of my dress clothes. After you are seated everyone makes pompoms out of newspaper, you fold the newspaper in half, and tear it in strips until you reach close the end, you leave some room for a handle and then you roll it. I am not joking when I tell you that everyone makes these. Also, I heard the most cheering I have ever heard in my life at this game, and I lived in rez! My favourite cheer is when you hear the stadium yell “Ma! Ma! Ma!” yep… they are chanting asshole. You can bring your own food and alcoholic beverages into the game, even glass bottles of soju, so everyone gets pretty boozy, which makes it funny when you see the old men dancing, like the man beside us, or when people get up on stage at half time or even as you are waiting for the game to start to sing karaoke! During the last inning everyone in the stand is handed an orange shopping bag. You are meant to blow up this bag and then tie it on your head. It is really funny to see a sea of orange heads! I think the main reason for this practice is because you are allowed to bring in your own food and drinks you can put your waste in these bags and leave it at the door as you are leaving. We didn’t bring our own things to the game, but bought a few beer. It really didn’t make much of a difference because it was still really cheap. One beer only cost me 2000won ($2). I couldn’t read the sign very well since it was all written in Korean, so I befriended the group beside me. During half time they went to get food, and even came back with enough for my group of friends as well. Koreans are so nice. They bought us fish that was molded into tubes that looked like thick noodles that was soaked into this spicy red sauce. It was actually pretty good. Another hit at the game is dried squid, or fried chicken. I have had dried spicy squid before, and it is actually pretty good!

This past weekend was a Korean holiday, which was really nice. I got Monday and Tuesday off of work, so this week I only had to work three days! The holiday was Chuseok, which is like a Korean Thanksgiving. From the amount of gifts I received from my kids you would have guessed it was Christmas! I got lotions, soaps, body wash, perfume, a picture frame. It was lovely! The perfume is very nice, it is a really nice brand I am told called Anna Sui. I like it because it smells nice and the top of the bottle is shaped like a peacock.
From what I have been told and what I have read Chuseok is a major holiday here and it is a time where all families gather together and give thanks to their ancestors for the bountiful harvest for that year. In the morning before they eat they make Songpyoen. This is a rice dessert filled with sesame seeds, red beans, chestnuts, pine needles… they are actually very tasty! We had a cooking class with our kindergarten classes where we made homemade songpyeon. It was so messy, and the kids had so much fun. We teachers in my group even made a bunch, and I was told I made them very well! Which is nice to hear because an old Korean saying says that the person who makes the most beautiful songpyeon will meet a good-looking spouse! Haha
The day before the holiday all my kindergarten classes were playing traditional Korean games to celebrate Chuseok at ECC. We played a jacks game, a game where you had to throw a stick into a long tube, a game that reminded me of hackie sack, and many others… we even got to eat songpyeon! All the kids also came to school wearing traditional Korean gowns… they looked soooo cute! I even got to wear one for a photo with each one of my students! My Camera is broken, so I don’t have any photos, but a friend of mine will send me hers soon! I will post them soon! However, Allie the drama queen and supermodel of the class who goes with her mother to the nail salon all the time to get her nails done told me I looked beautiful! Haha
For my long weekend I went to Seoul. It was really interesting there! Such a HUGE city. 10 million people live in Seoul, and they have 10 lines on the subway! It was madness at times! I took the cheapest bus to Seoul, which most people told me was crazy since it was the long weekend and a regular 5 hour trip would take 10! I decided to take my chances since the ticket was only 19000won, and the train was 50000won. I am glad that I chose the bus. It was actually very comfortable for me (I have short legs!) and it only took me 4-4.5 hours! The train takes 3.5! So I think I saved money there!!!

Once my friend and I got to Seoul we adventured onto the subway to the middle of Seoul, since I was on the East side. It took 30-40 min and I had to transfer subway lines like three times. But I did it!!! We got off the subway in Itaewon. This place is known as the “America of Seoul”. There are a lot of chains there that you would see in America, and the most foreign population I have seen in Korea yet. Walking down the street, I am not kidding you, I heard 5 different languages and about 20 different English accents! We ate Sushi for supper, then went to the corner store and bought a bottle of wine. This wine was only 5000won! We got ready for the night in our hotel, which had no bed! Oh… I had Korean style sleeping on the floor that night. Once we were ready and had a few glasses of wine we went to this cute jazz bar and listened to live jazz music. It was lovely! The music was great, and she even sang some English songs! When she finished her set, it was almost 2 in the morning, so we walked down to the heart of Itaewon and found the hill that many frequent called “Hooker Hill.” Now don’t get any ideas! We went to this bar called “Trance”… they had a Korean Drag show! What fun that was!! These drag queens were beautiful, and did a great job with their performances!! However, there was one woman who was a total train wreck, but hey, you can’t go to a drag show without at least one total train wreck right?!
The next night during my trip we stayed in Insadong (the spelling is probably wrong)… this is a very artsy place and you can buy lots of handmade goods, and that I did!! At one point during my shopping I saw a tiny little parade drive down the street. They were in these little orange motor bike type things with instruments attached all over. The first one had a keyboard, and the rest were various types of drums… I wish I had my camera! My camera is of course broken! The rest of my trip was pretty low key. I did a walk of the the old and new downtown areas of Seoul and saw a street that was made to look like a piano and a walk along the river… we also saw a Palace… I can’t wait to go back there! A friend I went to university lives there… well two friends! And I plan on going on another visit to spend time with them! Hopefully I will have a camera by then!
Well, I am sure there is tons more I could say…. But I am super tired and have a long day tomorrow! Someone I know came to work here in Korea, and after a week couldn’t handle it and left the country… her school was in dire need of help, so my co-worker Brad is covering all her morning shifts, which means I am covering one of his classes for the month!!! Ughhh… tragic turn of events!
Well goodnight all, and I promise to blog more often!