Domo Arigato Tokyo!

I'm back in Korea after a week long trip to Japan that exceeded all expectations I had about the fascinating country. I think the thing that struck me the most, which is probably the same for most visitors, is the extreme contrast between the modern city of Tokyo and the rich history and tradition that the people still so strongly preserved. I was only there for 6 days, but there is soooo much to say about the sights, the food, the culture and all of my experiences, so today I'll write about Tokyo and then I'll do Kyoto sometime in the next few days.

I arrived in Tokyo by myself, as I had booked my ticket for a day later than my friends and would be meeting them at our hostel that evening. Coming into Tokyo Narita Airport, I was surprised at how efficiently I went through customs, and the train ticket office and on to the one hour train ride to Tokyo. I had expected to have problems finding my way through the chaos or communicating where I wanted to go, but everything was very calm and easy. After an hour on the train we arrived at Tokyo Metro Station and I got off to catch the subway to the hostel. It wasn't until then that the madness of Tokyo hit me. It was more crowded than anywhere I had ever been in New York and to make matters worse, I couldn't figure out which of the 5 different subway systems (yes 5, owned by all different companies) would get me to Akebonobashi Station, where I needed to go. But with all of my experience traveling alone, I remained calm and eventually figured it out. An hour later I was at our hostel, checked in and ready to get out and see the crazy city!

I had three hours to kill before meeting the girls, so I went straight to Harajuku, an area famous for the crazy youngsters who dress in elaborate punk rock costumes. There weren't as many of these characters there as I'd imagined, but it was a really cool shopping district filled with great clothes, cool people and lots of neon lights. After wandering around for an hour, I passed a big building that seemed like some kind of technology design center (it looked similar to a big Apple store). On the street there was a big screen TV showing a punk band playing, and I could hear that the music was coming from inside the building. I continued walking, but then thought, "why not go inside and check it out?" I was so glad I did. The crowd was full of gitty teenage girls, singing along with every Japanese word that came out of the lead singers mouth. It was such a Tokyo pop moment, and that's when I first really felt like I was in Japan. After the set was over, I headed back to the hostel to meet the girls and we decided to find a Kaiten-Sushi restaurant for dinner. Kaiten-Sushi is a type of restaurant where the sushi is placed on a conveyor belt and you pay for each plate you take. Most plates are between 100 and 300 yen ($1-$3) so you end up with a pile of plates by the end. We found one in Shinjuku, in downtown Tokyo, and tasted our first sushi in Japan. The eel, tuna and salmon were all out of this world, better than any sushi I had tried before. After a long and exhausting day, we went back to the hostel and prepared for a 5:30am wakeup, in order to catch the Shinkansen, the famous bullet train, to Kyoto.

Japanese punk rock band


Kaiten-sushi...sushi on a conveyor belt!

Shinjuku, downtown Tokyo

After two exhausting days in Kyoto (which I'll describe later in the week), we left historic Japan behind and made our way back to the center of technology. What better place to bring in the New Year than in the middle of Tokyo? On New Years day, we continued our sight seeing, making stops in the old quarters of Asukasa, which is full of temples and souvenir shops, and then tried to see the view from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, but it turned out that it was closed, so we had to go back the next day. We went back to the hostel, allowing several hours to relax and get ready for the big night. We started the celebration off at our hostel, where they hosted a pre-party and we hung out with our new friends from Australia, England, Spain and New Zealand. By 10 p.m. we were all feeling "electric" as Pau from Barcelona put it and we decided it was time to head out to start the main event. We went to Shibuya Crossing, the intersection famous for having over 2 million people cross it everyday. We had specifically decided to go there over the clubs in Roppongi because we wanted to meet Japanese people rather than just run into foreigners at the clubs, and we were soooo happy with our choice! Standing in the crossing waiting for the countdown, we met so many interesting Japanese people. From Harajuku girls to Tokyo breakdancers, to college students who taught us to countdown from ten and say Akemaste Omeneto (Happy New Year)! We had a great night partying and wandering the streets meeting tons of different people, doing as the locals do.

Meeting some characters on NYE

Countdown in Shibuya Crossing

After New Years, we had two more days and I was determined to see as much as possible. It was easier said than done, because on Thursday, the city was completely dead as Japanese celebrate quietly at home with their family, but we managed to find some great sushi and went to the Government building where the observation deck was open. On our last day, I wanted to go to the Imperial Palace and I had heard that January 2nd was one of two days out of the year that the royal family was there. We decided to get up early and go, but had no expectations of any royal sightings. But when we arrived, we were stunned to seeing literally hundreds of thousands of people being herded through the massive gates, into the palace grounds. My friend Nat guesstimated that there were "at least a million people" but I convinced her that one-twentieth of Tokyo's population could not fit inside, and we eventually agreed that it was probably more like 20,000-30,000. Still, it was a lot of people! And to our suprise and pleasure we were some of the only foreigners! We were coralled through the gates and after about 45 minutes of slow, silent, zombie-like walking we ended up in the main courtyard, waiting in front of a large glass window of the palace. We still didn't know what to expect. It was eerily quiet for the amount of people that we stood with, and it was a perfect example of the reserved, quiet nature of the Japanese people. After about 10 minutes of waiting, the Emperor and Royal family appeared behind the glass and a faint sigh emerged from the subdued crowd. Everyone began waving their paper flags proudly, but no one clapped or yelled or jumped up and down. The royal family waved and then gave a brief speech (in Japanese of course) and then retreated back into the palace and it was over. We were all amazed. It was truly a magical ending to the trip; the icing on the cake. Japan was fantastic and I hope I get a chance to return and see more of the fascinating country.

Asakusa area


View of Tokyo city with Mt. Fuji behind


Making our way to greet the Emperor!

The Emperor of Japan and Royal Family

More to come soon about Kyoto. In the mean time, here are my pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/lcurrie711

Teacher's Workshop & Christmas Week

I made it through the Christmas season! After feeling the homesickness on Thanksgiving, I was sure that Christmas time in Korea would be really tough. They hardly celebrate it here, you really only see decoration at department stores and hear really bad renditions of Christmas songs. But that actually helped because I didn't want to be reminded of what I was missing at home. But December went by so fast and Christmas turned out to be much better than I ever could have expected.

School ended on Monday the 22nd, and on the 23rd I went on an overnight teachers trip which was supposed to be a teaching reading workshop...turns out that's a complete coverup for a huge party. We left on Tuesday morning and made our first stop in the city of Gyongju to have some of the famous tofu soup and ginseng makaley. Makaley is a white korean rice wine which is home made, and this special type was infused with Ginseng root. I quickly realized that this trip would be an eating fest, so I asked my friend and coworker, Jolie, to teach me how to say, "No, Thank you, I'm full," and "I don't want to eat anymore." Koreans eat A LOT of food and they can't understand how I couldn't eat as much of them, so they insist on making me try things, even as I'm stuffed from the 5th course of the meal! After lunch in Gyongju, we made our way to the city of Pohang where we went to a famous temple. It was nice and we took a lot of group pictures with the teachers, including a "singles" pic of the 5 unmarried teachers, myself included. After an hour and a half at the temple, we hopped back on the bus and made our way through the mountains to get to the famous Jwangchung Mountain. On the way, our female vice principal provided entertainment by singing traditional korean songs and made us play some pretty funny games. I felt like I was on a teen tour for Korean adults! It was hilarious! When we finally made it through the mountain passes, we arrived at our motel the Dream Palace, which I can assure you is a misnomer. The "Dream Palace" was freezing cold and we got to sleep on the floor! We ate another huge meal and drank a bit more makaley (at least I did, many people drank A LOT of makaley) and then it was time for our workshop aka sports tournament.






The sports tournament was definitely the highlight of the trip. The female vice principal divided the teachers in to two teams and we each had to sign up for at least one round of the tournament, if not more. Since many of the games required Korean, I was entered into Crab Volleyball by default. First was the "acccent" game. The vice principal gave a word and each team had to have each of five players say the word emphasizing every syllable. For instance, one word was "mcDonalds" (of course this would be the one english word they chose) so they had to say Mcdonalds, mcDonalds, mcdoNalds, mcdonalDs or something like that. Anyway, it only got better from there. Next was the "kissing game." Each teacher playing was given a 3 inch long straw which they held in their mouth. Starting with the first player on line, they then had to pass a paper ring along the line using only the straw! This required very close mouth-to-mouth contact and the whole room was in hysterics watching! Notice my principal in the background of the picture, wishing he could get in on the action! Soooo funny. Finally, it was my turn to play crab volleyball, in which you play volleyball with a balloon and using only your feet and head. After three LONG sets, my team lost, but we put up a great effort! Finally, it was time for some karaoke and we called it a night by 1 a.m. The next day we went hiking at Jwungchung Mountain and then went for a feast of King Crab in the city of Yongda. I was finally home by 5 pm on Christmas eve.









The fun continued at a Christmas Eve party hosted by my good friends Heidi and Matt. One of the best parts was their suprise...a puppy they bought named Clancy! The toy poodle was soooo cute. We ate western food and drank red wine and then headed to a Noreabang (karaoke room) to meet our other friends and exchange our secret santa gifts. We sang Christmas eve night away, putting out of our minds the family we missed at home and instead enjoying the great friends we've all made here. It was truely a great night. On Christmas Day, I met my three best friends here for our own little gift exchange and then we cooked a western meal and spent the day watching Christmas movies. It certainly didn't make me wish I was home any less, but it was a far greater holiday than I expected to have here in Korea. I'm really lucky to have met such great people here. And now Christmas is over and I have New Years to look forward to! I'm heading off to Japan tomorrow with Kathryn, Natalie and Nisha where we'll spend 6 days in Tokyo and Kyoto, and party into 2009 in Tokyo. It's really cool to know that I've fullfilled my dream of being on the otherside of the world for New Years 2009! Hope you all had a great Christmas and have a wonderful New Year too. Love you all!

Korean Cuisine: First Edition

OK, I'm finally ready to take a stab at my first Korean food blog. Where to begin? I never could have imagined before I arrived here how much variety there is in the Korean culinary experience. I absolutely love Korean food because its delicious, healthy, and always nice to look at too. I live in Busan where there is a special focus on seafood, which makes me soooo happy! In this blog, I'll try to cover some of the basic dishes and then talk about the crazier side of Korean food. There is so much to say though, so I'll be back with a second edition within the next few months.

The first and most important dish in Korea (which I'm sure you've already read about in my blog) is Kimchi. Kimchi is probably the single most recognizable Korean dish and they are crazy about it here. Basically, kimchi is white cabbage and red pepper paste, which has been fermenting in a large clay pot for any where from several months to years. It is served like salad (on the side) with every meal, and sometimes it is actually incorporated into the dish. Kimchi cheegay is kimchi stew with pork or tuna and sometimes you'll see kimchi wrapped around meat or stuffed in dumplings. It's not for everyone, but for people who have a taste for spicy and savory food, you just might love it.

Kimchi



Lots of small side dishes

Koreans, like many asians, love rice. Rice is also incorporated into every meal, whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner. It is usually served plain with a meal, but it is also used in many types of dishes. Some of the most popular rice foods are bibimbap, gimbap, rice cakes, and bokimbap (bap means rice, fyi). Bibimbap is one of my favorites. It is basically a bowl of rice with tons of vegetables and meats or fishes mixed in, and topped with an egg and a delicious thick red sauce made from soy, I think. Gimbap is the korean version of a sushi roll, only they put vegetables, kimchi, and sometimes meat inside, instead of raw fish. Bokimbap is a very spicy version of chinese fried rice. THEN, there are all of the other rice products. You wouldn't believe the variety of things that can be made from rice! Just like we use flour to make bread, cookies, wraps, cakes, pasta, scones, etc. they use rice for all kinds of things. Songpyon is a delicious dessert rice ball with sweet sesame seed or red bean paste inside. The list goes on and on, so I'll try to describe some other rice dishes next time.

Bibimbap

Rice cake desserts

Then there are all of the different meat and seafood dishes. Bulgogi is a popular beef dish, Songyupsa is korean barbeque...my favorite! Korean barbeque is so fun. You sit around a grill and cook your meat yourself. You then take a delicious sesame leaf and wrap the meat with kimchi and yummy dipping sauces. So delicious. There are also a ton of different soups and stews. My favorite are pork bone soup (Gum Jae Tong) and Spicy Seafood Stew.

Korean barbecue

Seafood Galbi...spicy!

Pork bone soup

Spicy seafood stew

Now, for the weird and scary parts of Korean cuisine! In my time here I've enjoyed sooooo much good food, but have also tried some pretty scary things. Among them: silk worm larvae, jelly fish, pigs blood soup (GROSS!), and......wait for it.....wait for it....live octopus!!! Yes, I have eaten all of those things. Let's start with silk worm larvae, which you can find on the street at most street vendors and is sold in a paper cup with about 100 of the little critters. They smell very funky...a little bit like dirt and bugs! And when you bite into one it pops in your mouth. It was absolutely gross. But children love eating it for a snack...they pop it in there mouth like M&M's! Next, there's jellyfish, which is pretty delicious. I didn't even know thats what I was eating, but it was pretty good. The pigs blood soup was served to me unknowingly at school. I didn't know what I was eating and I didn't like it either, so I ate very little. It was just very gooey and bland tasting and dark purple in color, so I got bad vibes. Later when I found out, I was not happy! Finally we come to the live octopus, which is served on the plate still moving! It is cut up, yet somehow the tenacles continue wiggling around on the plate for over an hour. It was delicious. I can't really describe the experience other than it was so much fun, but you can watch below for yourself! Enjoy!

Jellyfish

Silk worm larvae

Don't try this at home...or anywhere!

Don't worry, be happy...

The holiday season is here and I am beginning to feel the homesickness kicking in, and starting to ask myself why I came here, so far away from the people I love. It doesn't help when the closest thing I have to remind me of home is Starbucks. But as much as I miss you all, I know this experience is worth it, so I'm just keeping my chin up and reminding myself of the things that make me smile in Korea. Here are a few...

Things in Korea that Make Me Smile:

*When my principle says to me everyday at lunch, "Oh, Laura, nice to meet you."
*Being 10 minutes away from a beautiful mountain.
*Stumbling upon random temples in the woods.
*When my students pet me and say "Oh teacha, so beauteeful."
*When my favorite student runs in the room, hugs me and says "I LOVE YOU LAURA!"
*When my coteachers says to a student "Take off your clothes!" because he's hot from playing outside.
*Singing 80's ballads at norebang (karaoke) while drinking beer and eating dried squid.
*How all of the boys at school are obsessed with saying, "Fire in the hole!"
* Kimchi!
*Random English signs (see pic)
*Giant hula hoops (see pic)
*Randomly being invited to a picnic by a group of older Korean folks while strolling through the park.
*Being fed by the older korean folks at their picnic and being forced to drink homemade korean whiskey.
*Korean babies...so freaking cute.
*Korean hikers, they get all dressed up and take it very seriously, hilarious.
*Sitting on my warm heated floor...until it burns my tooshie!
*An 8 year old who doesn't know that his shirt says, "Shit Happens When You Party Naked."
*The secretary at my school who doesn't know that her shirt says, "Add Vodka and Stir."
*Last minute weekend getaways, and a bus ride that only costs $7 round trip!
*Finding ways to remember korean words like delicious (masheeshayo)..."my-sister-yo"
*Getting beer for $3, a cab ride for $4, and a t-shirt for $5!
* Planning for my upcoming trips to Japan and Thailand!
*Having my own apartment, meeting new people, and having the freedom to travel to the places I've always dreamed.

Norebang!!!

Being fed at a Korean picnic

The "I love you, Laura" girls

I live by this beach :)


Weekend getaways...always an adventure!


They didn't even try to use English on this sign


Stumbled upon a temple in the woods


MJ, my co-worker, with a giant hula hoop


making new friends!


a contemplative moment


Hanging out with the hikers...I fit right in!

Another thing that makes me smile is this video called "Where the Hell is Matt?"...you may have already heard him because he's gotten a lot of press lately. Anyway, this video inspires me to travel and reminds me that no matter where you are in the world you can always find a way to be happy and spread the love. WATCH IT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBZQ1G5RBA4

Korean Culture Top 10's!!

Since coming to Korea, I have experienced many strange and different customs from my own. As I've said before, many foreigners get frustrated living in Korea and dealing with the cultural differences. Some people look at American or western culture as right and other cultures as wrong, but I think that that attitude is the only thing thats wrong. With culture there is no right and wrong, it just depends on your perspective. Having this mindset has helped me to better understand Korean people and it has saved me from stressing out about things I cannot control.

Though I know that Korean culture is not any better or worse from my own, I have certainly come to see how different it is. There are things about Korea that I think are great and there are things that to me are out right bizarre. Now that I've been here for over 3 months, I wanted to do a Top 10 blog about Korean culture. Once again, this is not a judgement on the culture, it's just a fun way of pointing out the differences I've seen.

Top 10 Strangest Customs & Beliefs
10. You should not go to a restaurant by yourself...ever.
9. Pregnant woman should not eat red beans. No explaination provided.
8. You cannot wear gloves until December 1st.
7. You should eat soup in the summer because it will make your body feel hot and the air feel cooler...eat soup in the winter because it will make your body feel hot and the air around feel warmer...??!
6. Drinking water during a meal slows digestion...hence, I'm always thirsty at meals.
5. You can only eat ice cream during summertime. :(
4. Rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, rice for dinner.
3. You cannot go to the beach after August 15...even though its hot through October! (seriously, no one goes!)
2. A dog can be your pet...or your dinner. :(

and the strangest belief I've encountered thus far in Korea...

1. Fan Death! This one is my favorite...Korean's believe that you can die if you have a fan on in a room with all the doors and windows closed. You can actually list it as the cause of death on the death certificate.


Top 10 Best Things About Korea
10. Koreans love fashion. They have great style and cheap clothes!
9. No urban sprawl. Koreans build up not out, so even though its a tiny country, there is so much natural beauty.
8. Chivalry is alive and well...need to find myself a Korean boy ;)
7. Heated floors! Koreans have used this efficient system for centuries and it really works...ever wonder why Asians sleep on the floor?
6. Koreans are so active. Their favorite activity is hiking and they are always on the move, hence one of the lowest obesity rates in the world.
5. Tokens of appreciation. Koreans always give random small tokens of appreciation to their friends, usually a bag of fruit or a pair of socks. It's great!
4. Hangul is easy! Hangul is the korean writing system. It was invented by a king who wanted a writing system for the commoner. There are only 24 characters so its easy to learn to read.
3. Konglish...Korean and English mixed together- its great for foreigners because there are so many words. ex: com-pu-ta, re-mon, chang-ee, hand-pone, note-a-book, lunch-ee, tak-shi...and on and on.
2. Norebang! This means singing room aka Karaoke. It's pretty much the national pasttime.

and the best thing about Korea...

1. Korean Food! It is delicious and so healthy (blog on food coming soon)!

Goofing around with my favorite 5th graders

Korean friends, and Gretchen on the right!

I was bored so I wrote an essay...

This week, I had a few days off while my sixth grade students went on a cultural trip (of which I was not invited!) so my co-teacher and I decided to spend our time writing for an essay contest. The contest is being sponsored by the Korean government and is a chance for foreign and korean teachers to talk about their experiences and offer suggestions to improve the English program in Korea. Specifically, foreign teachers were supposed to write about the challenges of adjusting to life and work in Korea and how they overcame them. The grand prize is $500 and there are 12 other prizes from $300 - $50... it was thrown together pretty last minute and is by no means great, but I'm hoping for a little dough!

Below is most of my essay; I cut a number of paragraphs about my co-teacher and the english education program because it would be kind of boring for you all to read. But I hope the rest will give you a better idea of my first three months of work. Enjoy...

You Get What You Give:
Lessons Learned about Becoming a Teacher in Korea

Last New Years Eve, standing in Central Park in New York City, I vowed to change my life and travel. I thought to myself, "On New Years 2009, I want to be on the other side of the world." I kept this thought in my mind for a couple of months, but I didn’t see anything abroad that looked feasible so I just let it be. Then one day, I stumbled upon an advertisement for teaching public school abroad in South Korea. The job with EPIK had everything I was looking for; living in an Asian country, an opportunity to gain teaching experience, good pay, housing, airfare, and an orientation where I could meet other foreigners. I decided to go for it. And though it was a long and sometimes tedious application process, I finally found myself stepping off of the plane in Seoul last August.

The orientation in Seoul was a great opportunity to meet many new people, adjust to life in Korea and develop skills and ideas for teaching in public school. Over the course of the week in Seoul, we took many classes about teaching and life in Korea, took a field trip to a Korean folk village, and had several different cultural lessons to help us better understand Korean history and tradition. It was a good time; yet, at the end of the week we felt like we had been in a safe bubble and had no idea what challenges lay ahead of us in the real world of Korea.

Arriving in Busan, I don’t think there was a single EPIK teacher that wasn’t nervous about what would happen when we arrived. Would we like our co-teacher? Would our school have an apartment ready? Would we be allowed to go see our apartment or would we have to go out and meet the principle of our school on the first night? The nervousness and anticipation seemed too much to handle, and then in a moment we arrived at the Busan Education Office and our questions were answered. In what seemed like some kind of organized chaos, our co-teachers found us in a sea of people, helped us grab our luggage and whisked us away, unsure of where we were going or when we would see our friends again. And for the next week, some of us had smooth transitions and some of us had it a little more rough, but we all faced some kind of challenges. In my case, my school had not found an apartment for me (which was very disappointing), but when I learned that they were concerned for my happiness and wanted me to choose where I would be living for the next year, I felt relieved and knew I was in good hands.

For a week, I stayed with my co-teacher, Jeongim, who graciously offered her home and anything she had. While I was thankful and happy to have such a nice co-teacher, I felt overwhelmed living in someone else’s home, which I had never prepared for. For 8 days, my luggage could not be unpacked and I felt like this wasn’t my life, just a quick vacation and I would soon be going home. We went looking for apartments on several occasions, but nothing was ever good enough for them (although I would have taken anything, my school did not want me to settle). The anxiety began to affect me and one day at school, I let the emotions get to me. I cried to Jeongim and told her that I was very thankful for her hospitality, but I didn’t feel comfortable living with her anymore, and I wanted to find an apartment soon. She immediately got to work calling real estate agents and within two days I was moved into a great little apartment down the street from my school. Although the first obstacle was out of my way, I still faced many more in the month to come. Getting my life sorted out was no simple task, and it felt like I had to rely on my co-teacher for everything. From getting my medical check to opening a bank account to learning how to purchase garbage bags, I felt completely helpless. But with a little patience and a lot of help from my co-teacher, I finally my life sorted out, seven weeks after arriving to Korea.

I came to Korea with a desire to teach and had a lot of experience working with kids in a camp environment, but no real experience teaching in the classroom. I knew it would be tough, but no one could have prepared me for the difficulties of the first month of teaching. I arrived at school on the first day, feeling like a child on the first day of kindergarten; nervous and excited about the new life ahead of me and all of the lessons I was about to learn. Things went pretty smoothly at first. I met my co-workers and was greeted warmly by all of the faculty, students and parents. My first week of class was a breeze as I just introduced myself, showed pictures of my home and got to know my students and their English ability. And then I went to my second school, and it was a whole different ball game.

My second school is located at the top of Geumjeong Mountain. It is a very small, rural school somewhat secluded from the city, so they had never had a Guest English Teacher (GET) before. I was immediately thrown into teaching and was shocked to see that their style of co-teaching was very different from my first schools; it didn’t exist. The co-teacher just sat in the back of the room and watched me teach. On top of this, both the third and fourth grade had already finished the curriculum during summer English camp, so I would be responsible for lesson planning every week. There is nothing like the feeling of standing up in front of a class and realizing that you’ve finished your lesson but you still have 15 minutes left to teach. Having 20 sixth graders stare at you as if they are saying, “Now what, teacher?” is sure to produce anxiety in even the most easygoing person. At first, I was constantly worried about my two days a week at the mountain school and dreaded going to there. I did not come prepared for this kind of pressure. I tried explaining to the teachers why I was having such difficulty and asked them for help, but they were all busy with their own classes and they were very shy to speak English, so nothing ever got done.

After a few weeks, and many tearful hours at my desk, I came to the conclusion that the school wasn’t going to change, so I had to. I found an English text book that I liked called “Gogo Loves English” and I realized that I could use the book for both third and fourth grade, just by changing the difficulty of the activities. Soon, I began to gain confidence in the classroom as I put systems in place and used games, songs and activities that both excited and encouraged the children to speak English. Now, I am unfortunately no longer at the mountain school because the education office decided to place me in my first school full-time, but I have been given my own first grade class here which I teach four times a week. I no longer have any anxiety about teaching by myself; in fact I find that teaching my own class makes my job more exciting and worthwhile. Being in the classroom and constantly having to challenge myself to create a lesson or explain something difficult to my students has helped me to learn very quickly. For Halloween, I created an entire lesson plan for the sixth graders, which turned out very successful (I have provided a copy of the lesson below). I’m proud that over the past three months, I’ve become confident in my teaching skills and have become a leader and an equal partner with my co-teacher.

For any person teaching in Korea who is not happy with their job, my advice is to get up and do something about it. Sure, I am very lucky to have a great co-teacher, but my co-teacher is not the reason I’ve had a good experience, I am. If you feel like you’re not doing much in the classroom, ask to be given more responsibility. If your school doesn’t want to entrust you with your own first grade class, start small, and ask to teach 10 minutes of the class on your own. Then make sure those 10 minutes are fantastic. Whatever challenges you face at your school, there is always something you can do to make your situation better. It’s never going to be perfect, but with a positive, “go-get-em” attitude, you can be sure that you make your experience the best it can be.

Though I’ve been in Korea for just three short months, I’ve come a long way and have learned about myself and about teaching. I am grateful for the people that have helped me settle in, and so proud that I have achieved my goals. Life here is wonderful and if you come with a positive attitude and a little bit of patience, you can have the experience of a lifetime. This New Years Eve I will feel an incredible sense of accomplishment knowing how far I’ve come in just a year. I can only imagine what exciting things await in 2009.

Home sweet Home

This week has been full of reminders of home, beginning with Halloween last Friday, which is definitely not a holiday celebrated in Korea. I made a lesson on Halloween for my sixth graders which they loved. I taught them all about the holiday; how we dress up, trick or treat and of all of the characteristic things like witches, devils, ghosts and black cats. I taught them to sing "Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat, Give me something good to eat!" and told them I would give them candy if they sung it to me in the hallway. Big mistake! I ran out of candy in about an hour and they're still singing the song a week later. Now, I just tell them to sing it four times and when they're done I say "Halloween is over, silly!" It's pretty funny, but at least they're speaking English! At the end of the lesson, I posted pictures of my childhood halloweens, and they absolutely loved them. It was a really fun lesson and I really enjoyed sharing some of my culture... even if it is a silly, meaningless holiday, it's still great.

On Friday night, foreigners took over parts of the city, surely scaring Koreans with our ridiculous costumes everywhere we went. My friends and I went to a bar crawl in the Pusan National University (PNU) area, which also happens to be my neighborhood... and one of the coolest areas in the city! There were some ridiculous costumes, which was quite impressive seeing as there is nothing Halloween-themed sold in Korea. One guy went as Dokdo Island (the controversial island that Japan is trying to claim from Korea). One girl was an ipod Nano, and some of my friends went as Busan Pants Party 2008 (That's a reference to the pick up line "Would you like to come to the party...in my pants?" in case you hadn't heard of it...eh hem, Mom and Dad). I went as an 80's pop girl, which I know is not very creative, but I found the coolest, vintage 80's dress and leg warmers so I had a lot of fun. It was a blast and we were all so partied out after Friday that I think pretty much everyone sat around and watched movies for the rest of the weekend.

This week, all of us Americans eagerly awaited the elections, which didn't take place until Wednesday for us! When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I immediately checked the news, but the polls were just beginning to close and nothing had been counted yet. So, at school I found myself sneaking over to my laptop every 10 minutes during class to refresh the NYTimes homepage, which I don't think my co-teacher appreciated too much (but I know she understood how important it was for me). By 1 p.m. it was getting very close and I was at the edge of my seat waiting in anticipation...but I had to teach my first grade class! I turned off my computer and decided not to check again until all of my students had left the classroom. Finally, at 2 o'clock the classroom emptied and I frantically pulled up the news. "OBAMA" popped up on to the screen and I let out an excited scream of happiness and relief.

Yesterday, I was overwhelmed with emotion thinking about home and the pride I feel for our country. I know not all of you reading this may have voted for him or voted at all, but I think we can all agree that change was desperately needed and that we have found an honest, capable man to do the job. I don't think anyone put it better than Barack himself when he said, "Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope."

It's been an interesting week, and I'm reminded of how great it is to live abroad, but at the same time how lucky I am to have such a great home to return to.