Losing my head spinning round and round

I'm very amazing and often shocked by the generosity of Koreans. David and I have been treated very well by people since we've moved here. I mean, we are a strange duo of outsiders speaking English and acting clumsy as we try to figure this strange world out. Nevertheless, people are often more than happy to help us out or even come up and say hello (even if it's just to practice their English)!

Let me give you a few examples.

Last Friday I was waiting for my co-teacher to come pick me up at my apartment (we went out for lunch and administered a test at a school in Gwangju). I ventured outside probably 5-10 minutes early, and she was 5-10 minutes late so I was out in the cold for a good while. (Hey, when you live on the 13th floor it takes 5 minutes just to wait for the elevator)! Anyway, the security guard saw me waiting in the cold on his camera and came to get me. He said "you are cold." and offered me a seat in his warm booth! He then said 4 more English words: apple, banana, sit down. :) He offered me some banana's, cut me an apple and told me to sit down! How sweet!

Then, either later that afternoon or on Saturday, I was taking the elevator back up to our apartment. There was a neighbor lady - who I've met once before - riding the elevator, too. She said, "kimchi, you like?" At first I thought she was just making conversation, but then she said, "You, Me, Kimchi I give!" She brought me to her apartment and gave me like 5 pounds of kimchi! It's super delicious - her mom made it! :)

Anyway, speaking of elevators and apartments, I thought I would post a video that David and I made a few weeks ago. It's a tour of our Korean apartment:

One more video - it's of Goguma.

I'll update later with pictures from last weekend! :)

They invent her a new world with oil skies

Tomorrow I start English Camp and I'm looking forward to it for several reasons! First of all, my classes are 3 times smaller than normal and I only have 4 of them per day. My largest class has 9 kiddo's which should make it easier to grab their attention and keep it!

So, my first class is at 9am and then I get to come home at 12:10pm! Hoorah! That'll last for the next 3 weeks and then David and I are off to Thailand.

Speaking of Thailand, I'm starting to get so excited! I can't believe that I left for Brazil a year ago...it seems as if it were only a few months ago when I was stomping around in the Amazon and enjoying the beaches of Rio!

Anyway, David and I have officially booked our hostel. We're staying at Lub*D for an incredibly cheap price since they're having a special promotion (buy 3 nights, get 1 free...that's 4 free nights). The room we booked is a private one for only David and me so that'll be nice! Tomorrow evening we'll book our tours.

We're signing up for 2 or 3 including a visit to Tiger Temple, a temple where buddhist monk's raise tigers and you can pet them, etc. We're also planning an elephant safari of types where we'll ride an Elephant around the jungle for a while. How exotic is that? Of course there will be several Thai massages (the PG kind) and plenty of Thai cuisine and temple-looking.

Ooh, I wanted to post a few pictures from last weekend when we visited Itaewon. You see, we happened upon this lovely cupcake shop called "Life is Just a Cup of Cake" which is pretty much the cutest name I've ever heard of. Of course I had to venture in to check it out. The exterior was positively darling and lured me right inside.

Like most Korean stores and shops it was tiny, but perhaps a bit bigger than I expected it to be. Two women were sitting at a very tiny table drinking tea and enjoying tasty home-baked cupcakes. To the left there was a tiny room with teapots on display and another, larger sized table, with a group of cute Korean women huddled around pleasing their tastebuds.

The owner was Korean but spoke English very well. She asked if we were visiting and was happy to hear we were Korean residents. After snapping a few shots and weighing my options, I chose a charming, "Earl Grey" flavored cupcake speckled with the perfect amount of shiny silver beads (edible, of course!). I devoured it later and am happy to inform you that it tasted very tea-like and was a scrumptious afternoon treat.

Here are a few pictures:

Kahmsamnida :)
<3, wendy

the reality looks far now but don't go

Anyeonghaseyo!

I've been really concentrating on my Hangul as of late (Korean). I am able to read it now with much more speed...and though I have no idea what most of it means, at least I can read it, right? A lot of the times they sound like English words. For example, Taxi is "tahkshi" and icecream is "i-suh-cre-muh." And it helps when watching TV programs since they're all in English, but written in Hangul.

I told David that whenever I read the Korean I channel an old asian man for some reason and he said, "I know." That must mean I do it without even thinking! So random...

Anyway, this past week was Christmas. It didn't really feel like Christmas though - at least not one that I'm used to. I learned yesterday that Christmas is a couple's holiday in Korea as opposed to a family holiday. After we opened our presents (filled with goods from home and lovely jewelry for me!) we noticed that traffic was quite busy. So we decided to join the masses and head out into the cold to see what was happening.

We ventured over to Jamsil station where Lotte World is located...I wrote about it when I first got here. Anyway, it was packed shoulder to shoulder with couples buying cakes, eating dinner and shopping. David and I watched a few indoor fireworks (crazy) and attempted to see a movie but opted against it since the wait was so long. We also had a Korean/Japanese dinner that involved kimchi, tempura, udon noodles and bimbap! It was delicious, though we were stared at pretty hardcore.

Last night we met up with 4 other friends in Korea. We ate Mexican food, got lured into a brand new bar that I enjoyed very much(it had beds for chairs...) and then went to a German pub for David and Shin, who are beer snobs! ;D

I still need to upload pictures from that wild and fun adventure. I can't wait to make plans for new years! New years in the 2nd biggest city in the world! I'm pumped.

I finally uploaded those pictures from last week (that I alluded to in the last update). To jog your memory, we went to Itaewon, Seoul's most exotic area of town. To give you an idea, last night at the bar we sat next to German's, ran into Australian's in the bathroom, were served by Koreans and sitting with Canadian's. Anyway - here are the pictures from last weekend:

This was in front of an antique store. We didn't go in, but I plan to go back in the next few weeks!




I thought this alley was eye-catching.




David and I had dinner at an Italian place. It was so delicious and the service was excellent. They took our coats, pulled back our chairs and waited a few feet away from the table the entire time! We went at a slow time which made for a quiet meal!




A tiny lounge area...I love the lights hanging in the back.


We found this sign quite amusing.


David took this picture inside of Starbucks. Two men bought us coffee and then we did a 10-minute interview for 50,000 won (like $50). Totally random, but totally worth it!


Itaewon at night (it gets dark here around 5pm)


Toward the end of the evening we met up with Julia and Andy at Seoul Tower, one of the highest (if not the highest) points in South Korea. It's located on top of a mountain and the view is incredible, especially at night.


This picture is just dreadful, but it gives you an idea of how big Seoul is. This is just a sliver.


These are locks at Seoul Tower. Couples come here to put a lock on the fence. There are thousands of them, literally!


The teddy bear tree! With a flying person!






Andy and Julia

After spending several hours at Seoul Tower, we went to Insadong to eat dinner. It was, needless, to say, a little different. We had a traditional Korean meal. We took our shoes off, sat on the heated floor and enjoyed a plethora of side dishes (which are free and never-ending here). Then we pointed to something on the menu and watched in horror (varying degrees of horror depending on the person) as they brought out 2 live octopuses, stuck them in the pan in front of us and let it cook there (alive). The server then came out and chopped it up with scissors, including the head/brain/octopus ink area. David has vowed to never eat an octopus again. I thought it was delicious, despite the brutality of it all!


ordering


side dishes


The server cutting the octopus.


Almost ready to eat!


Servin' it up.


David NOT eating octopus.


Dinner is served!


How's that for an interesting meal? :) I plan to do several more while I'm here. Anyway, I have so many more pictures and things to say, but I'll wait until next time. Until then!

All I want for Christmas is you

This weekend was really nice. Friday night David and I stayed in and relaxed and then Saturday we hit the road and explored Seoul! We've been wanted to go to Itaewon for a long time. It's the foreigner/exotic place in Seoul and it seriously felt like we left Korea the second we stepped off the subway! It's this giant fusion of cultures from all over the world - very diverse in ethnicity's and more people speak English there, too.

After about 5 hours of roaming around, having a meal and shopping (oh, and being interviewed for 50,000 won!), we met up with Julia and her boyfriend Andy at Seoul Tower. I believe it's the highest point in Seoul and the sight from the windows was just beautiful. It made me feel really small and the view showed just how large Seoul actually is. Crazy! We had fun, dancing in the light show and exchanging random stories, then we went to Insadong to get a meal which was an adventure in itself. For now I'll just tell you that it involves a live octopus and no shoes.

I have a mega-ton of photos to upload from that lovely adventure, so stay tuned. I'll post them in the next update.

For now, I want to show off some of my wonderful 4th graders. Fourth graders are my favorite grade to teach for several reasons. First of all, they are still at that stage where they want to please me and make me happy and they love learning English. Secondly, they don't have that pre-angst/ownriness that some of the 5th and 6th graders do. Thirdly, they are cute as can be and their English skills are quite good.

Anyway, Friday was my last day teaching this years 4th graders since they are going on winter vacation beginning this Wednesday. Because it was such a lax day, I brought my camera and took plenty of pictures while they worked on Holiday cards. Here are a few of my favorite pictures!

This is "Jenny" (the girl from the last post who gave me a pen)


Jenny again

(I love all three of these students to death...they're great!)


This little boy seldom has his book and doesn't talk much, but boy is he a cutie!


She's so sweet! She made me the following picture after a fight erupted in class:




I fell in love with this kiddo the minute I met him. He plays violin, does Taekwondo and loves to talk to me. :) His English is very good, too. He helps me translate Korean words and when the computer isn't working he's the first to help me out!


There he is again


And there he is, normal! :)


This is "Lisa." She lives near me and always shouts hello. She's outspoken and knows the strangest English words (such as lesbian).


She's covering her mouth because she's wearing a mask (she was sick)


A group of boys in the hallway!


This kid is so adorable...but alas, he never pays attention! :)


She is very quiet and shy, but incredibly skilled when it comes to English!


I just love this picture! :D



That's all! :) There are enough peace signs in this post to put an end to world violence, me thinks!
Stay tuned!