work, work, work

Not much has happened in the past couple weeks. We have portfolios due this Friday. I think I wrote about it before, but we have to have 10 pieces of graded work per student, plus a comment page, and a cover page. I have 10 of my 11 classes finished, and Jared has 8 of his 10 classes finished...but it did take ALL weekend to get where we are. We literally were working on them all day Saturday and Sunday, while watching movies of course. We are such nerds!

We are still trying to figure out where to go for Christmas. We have put it off so long that everything is super expensive now. We want to go to Thailand or Bali, but it is almost $1000 for the flight right now. We are waiting til last minute deals come, and hopefully the prices will drop, but we will see. I have emailed an English speaking travel agent in Korea, so maybe she will get back to us with good news. I want to do something fun. I feel like we deserve it. We have done very little besides be sick, and prepare work since we've been here.

Jared's Mom and Dad sent us a little battery operated light-up Christmas tree with some gifts today. And my Mom sent some more gifts (and some delicious thin mints!), so we have set up the tree with the gifts and it gives our room a little holiday feel...it's nice.

I really don't have much else to say. Gotta get back to work on my last class, then I can relax for a few days.

A bit of travel

Two weekends ago, Jared and I traveled to the original capital city of Korea, Gyeongju. We visited a park that had about 15 temples with gold Buddhas inside and people praying. It was pretty interesting to see. We then spent a day walking around a park that held tombs of old kings or important people. They were big mounds that were scattered all over the city, but there was a high concentration in one park we walked through. We then checked out a few other touristy things, like the oldest remaining star observatory in Asia, as well as another temple. It was a good, but a very cold weekend. We took tons of pictures and I will try to post some.

Last weekend we were planning on going hiking with a Korean friend, but I got very sick and spent all weekend (literally) in bed. It was horrible...it started Friday at school and by Monday morning, I was feeling healthy enough to go back to school (thank goodness). :)

This weekend, on Friday we went to dinner with another couple and a Korean friend. We had the most delicious BBQ, some mec-ju (beer), and soju (cheap alcohol). We went out to play pool after dinner and ended up having a great night. The next morning, the two other girls and I (Hannah and Kasham) made plans to go to a spa. We met at 10:30 and spent a few hours frolicking in hot tubs with about 50 naked Korean women. It was, at the very least, very interesting. We then got a massage from older women who were just wearing bras and underwear. It ended up to be more of a painful experience than anything. They out on these exfoliating gloves and rub your whole body right until til point of drawing blood. It was gross to see how much skin they rubbed off. They also did a rough face massage and packed our faces with this cucumber gel stuff. After the painful exfoliation, we got short massages from these women standing and walking and putting their knees into our backs. At times it was uncomfortable to be naked among all these people, but it is very common and normal here in Korea. I doubt I will get another "massage" again here, but I do feel clean now, and the tubs were pretty amazing.

After the spa, we met the boys (Jared and Daniel, who we work with), got Chinese food, and came to our house to watch Twilight. Hannah hadn't seen it yet and we all wanted to remember it before seeing New Moon that night. We spent a couple hours shopping before getting dinner (cheesy chicken spicy rice), then went to see New Moon. We all pretty much loved it, although Jared and Daniel were not as enthusiastic as us girls....

Today was filled with school work. We have portfolios for each student due in 2 weeks. We have to have 10 pieces of graded work, as well at a comment page, and cover sheet for each student. We have 12 classes with up to 13 kids in each class. Basically it's going to be a ton of work for us. I worked on them all day and added to the one I have finished already, I have four classes completed. Jared is about halfway finished with his first class. I think it may be a stressful two weeks.

Hope everyone is doing well. The weather is cold here now...maybe in the 40s, but we are missing the snow. Hopefully everyone is making up for us not being able to ski.

top 10 funny/interesting things we found in korea

These are things we have observed since we have been here:

10. While walking on the street, we often have kids stare at us and sometimes say hello...we have a few times had grown men walk up to us, say hello, then start giggling. We usually then say, "How are you?" and this brings on another hello and more giggling.

9. Our school (and the rest of Korea) is absolutely paranoid about the swine flu. They give everybody hand sanitizer in every class, as well as check all the students temperatures when they arrive at school and throughout the day. To check temperatures, they use the same ear thermometer for everyone...no changing the cover or anything. Then, they have a water machine with two cups, a pink and a blue. All the girls share the pink one, and all the boys share the blue one. That is over a hundred kids a day. It's hilarious! They are so worried about the outbreak of this flu, but they don't seem to realize germs are spread by spit. (and trust me, I have seen some kids sucking on the side of that cup, or drooling all over it...gross!)

8. Everywhere you look here, there are shops...small ones, but tons of them. And everything similar is grouped together. There are some parts of town that have literally 15 cell phone shops in a row, and half of them will be the same company. Then there are plant stores. There will be 10 of them next to each other, but you can't find any of them a mile down the road. The "thing" near us is towel shops. We must have 10 towel shops right next door to each other and all they do is sell towels...mostly small ones that say the date on it. We can't figure it out because they have tons and tons of them displayed outside their store, but we have never seen anyone buy any or anyone inside the store. I wonder what happens to the towels that have old dates on them...weird stuff!

7. We went out of town this past weekend and our bus driver, while driving a bus full of people, was casually reading a book while driving! Also, almost every taxi you get into here, has a tv/gps (but always set on tv) in their front window. Seems a bit distracting...plus, there is some crazy driving hat goes on here, although we haven't seen or heard any accidents yet.

6. Commonly, but most often at night, we see men walking arm in arm or hand in hand together. Sometimes they have had too much soju (they country's cheap alcohol), but sometimes their just being friendly. Even the older (and younger) boys in our school are very affectionate with each other.

5. During our third week here, we got new teachers at our school. The first night they were here, we all took them out to eat. Ally, of the new teachers, ordered a side of rice with our meat that we were cooking. As Ally is eating her rice, Daniel (another teacher who has been here 7 months), reaches over the table and takes a scoop of her rice and starts eating it. He didn't realize it until it was almost to his mouth, and then said, "oh, can I have a bite of your rice?" It is the only way people eat here. They share everything. Many meals are ordered to come out on one big plate and everyone eats of the plate. It's pretty cool, I think!

4. When we hail a cab, everyone gets in on the passenger side, even if you are already on the driver side. You need to walk around and get in on the other side. I don't know why-Korean culture. Also, cars here are not allowed to turn left, except at a stoplight. So if there is a side road on the left that you need to get to, you have to pass the road, then hang a u-turn and go back to the street to make a right on it. It seems to make driving in general more dangerous to me...people making u-turns all over the place.

3. There are no napkins or paper towels here. At most restaurants, you will either have a roll of toilet paper or individual style kleenex at your table. If a kids spills water or juice in class, they run and get toilet paper. If a kid vomits on the floor, they use toilet paper to clean it up (yes, I have seen this). Toilet paper is used for everything that a napkin or paper towel would be used for in the states.

2. The Korean language is very whiny, especially when women are speaking. Their sentences seem to always end in a drawn out whine tone. The word for "yes" is nay, but they, again especially women it seems, use a extremely whiny sound instead. It's something like "uuagnhh". So ALL THE TIME in conversation, you here this sound over and over again. In classrooms when kids are reading out loud, the teacher will use this sound to encourage them to keep reading...it's kindof annoying. Thankfully (yes, sarcasm) Jared has picked up this sound and often answers my questions with an "uuagnnhhgg" instead of a simple and polite (I think), "yes."

1. Actual quotes from school work turned in by kids:
Nick teacher was trying to teach sequence or consequence. A kids wrote,
1. I got angry.
2. So I punch my baby.
3. My baby is die.

Another teacher had a boy turn in a couple sentences about his best friend. The boy ended his paragraph with this:

"My best friend is Jack. I want to always be intimate with him."

Those are the things that I have found most interesting or funny while being here in Korea. We went out of town this past weekend, so I'll write about that soon, and hopefully get some pictures up!

We are still here...

Things are going a bit better since my last post. I (we) definitely have days that we hate being here, but most days are pretty good. Only one day this week did I think about quitting and going home to something more fun and easier. So that was better than last week. Maybe next week, I will enjoy every day.

Really, most of the kids are enjoyable. There are just those select few that ruin it for everyone else...but hey, it's like that everywhere in life, right?

I have finally finished "Into the woods," by Bill Bryson. I've been working on that book for months. I don't know why it took me so long to finish...I very much enjoyed it. It's very inspiring to go try to hike a long trail. Maybe part of the pct next summer...hmm... Now I have started and am deeply into the 4th Harry Potter book. I decided to read the series a couple summers ago and have been reading other books into between each book. They seem to have picked up recently, so I doubt I'll be able to avoid the 5th after I finish this one. That doesn't make me nerdy, does it?

We didn't make it to a National Park last weekend because Jared got sick, and we were both too tired from work that we just sat inside all weekend and watched movies. Last night was a co-workers birthday and we all went out for dinner..cheesy, spicy rice cooked in the center of the table. It's pretty good. Today, we are going to go walking. I'm not sure where yet, but I know we need to start thinking about Christmas gifts, so maybe we will go shopping.

If anyone has a request from Korea, let me know. Apparently shipping is cheap from here to the states. And if anyone wants to send any Cheetos or something fun, we are always happy to accept gifts... :) jk

Our address, for those who have asked:

Kate Tomlinson/Jared Trine
877-6 Daldong, Namgu
Ulsan, South Korea 680-030

Hope everyone is staying warm. It's still nice-ish here. 50s and 60s.

One month down!

We have completed our first month. I guess I feel happy time has been going by fast. I love Korea, and the city is great, but I miss Washington so much, it surprises me. I think Jared is feeling the same way. Our school is still taking a lot out of us, but again, every day is getting better. I'm sure in a few weeks, it will be much easier for us, but right now, we are still struggling.

We celebrated Halloween in school the other day. I will try to attach some photos to see more adorable kids. We had a haunted house in a room that was about 8 by 10 feet big. The lights were off, we hung black sheets with cobwebs, and had balloons everywhere. When I think about haunted houses I went to as a child, this was pathetic...but it worked. Most of the kids, ages 4-13, were scared..some much more than others. It probably didn't help having 3 or 4 of us teachers dressed up and jumping out screaming and yelling in their faces...but hey, it was the scariest thing we could think of.

I was set up to go paragliding this morning, but the wind was too strong, so I was not able to go. That would have been fun, but I guess I'll get to go another time. It is much cheaper here than in the states.

Besides that, not much new. We got two new teachers at our school...one couple left, and this one replaced them, so we are already not the newbies anymore. Kinda wish we still had the title until we were more comfortable. Oh well.

The weather is still warm here. Tshirts during the day, light jackets at night. It's nice! We are going to try to go to a National Park next weekend to get our hiking and camping fix. It will be our first long trip using the train/bus combo across Korea, so we will see if we make it. Hope everyone is having a great fall!

Karaoke!

Last Saturday, after school presentations, we decided to go out for a celebratory dinner with most of the teachers at our school. It was also a goodbye to the other couple teaching, who were leaving for Nepal to volunteer at an orphanage. We went to a meat restaurant and all sat on the floor around a long table. At each grouping of four people, there was a round grill on the table. They brought out tons of sides, tons of beer and soju (the Korean cheap alcohol-tastes like a mix of wine and vodka), and a bunch of raw meat. Traditionally, Koreans have long meals and spend a lot of time socializing. We had the traditional Korean meal and spent hours cooking our own food, drinking, and socializing. It was the most fun I have had since we've been here. After dinner, we decided to go to a Noribong (I don't know how to spell this), which is a Korean karaoke room.

The first and second place we went to were full (yes, these are very popular amoung Korean culture). The third, a few doors down from the others, had a room available. I had no clue what to expect and was a little nervous about doing karaoke with a bunch of people I just met, but was pleasantly surprised when we walked into to find a very small, private room with booths lining the walls. The 12 (or so)of us went in, brought some more soju and chips, and spent hours singing karaoke.

For me, this karaoke room was ideal. It had nothing about karaoke I don't like: strangers watching us, solo pressure, etc. We started out singing solo or couple at a time, but by the end of the night we were all singing and dancing together...the company even supplied tambourines. It was so much fun!

School Presentations!

Since we have arrived at our school, our morning classes, which are all kindergarten, have been working on "presentations". Each class has about 13 student in them, and together they have been practicing a play, poem, and a few songs to preform for their parents. Apparently this is the biggest event of the whole year. Each presentation is about 20 minutes long and done entirely in English. Most of the parents speak little or no English, but it is imperative that each word is critiqued and pronounced correctly. The kids have been reciting their presentations every day, the whole time they are at school, for the past two months. There was no school work done, just practice, practice, practice.

Well, the presentations were yesterday afternoon, and lasted 4 hours. It was pretty adorable, and everyone did really well. All the kids were dressed up in ridiculous costumes, and all their parents brought them candy and flowers. I'm going to try to attach some pictures and video so you can see how cute these kids are!