Just another of day...

...full of questions.

My students today were full of questions today. Maybe it was the hot sunny weather that got their little brains pumping or maybe they're becoming clever enough to know how to veer me off course. At any rate, my 6:00 class was on fire today, shooting me right and left with questions about America, Americans, my family, being adopted, my biological parents etc...

It began with eye color. They wanted to know the eye color of Americans. I explained that there are generally blue, brown and green eyes but there are various shades which makes a broader spectrum. They asked if a mother who has blue eyes will automatically give birth to a blue eyed baby. Well of course I was about to draw a punnet?? square but then realized that would take forever to explain so I just said sometimes. I then told them my entire family has blue eyes and I am the only one with brown eyes because I am adopted. Well, this of course led to the most obvious question from sweet Alan and with the pursuit of truth in his face and conviction in his voice he asked, "teacher, uh, do your eyes, when you go to America, go blue??" It took me a second to realize this is not the time to laugh. Instead, I just said no, without laughing - without killing his curiosity.

As the students were listening so intently, he also asked me if my family hated me because I had brown eyes. At this point I noticed we weren't talking about calenders and months anymore and attempted to get the class back on track. I failed. Actually, I didn't care that much so we continued to talk about how Kimberly teacher looks Korean but can't speak the language and has a white skinned blue eyed family (GASP)!! Somehow the class managed to take up 45 minutes of talking before we played a game that I had promised them last week...good teacher huh??:)

Overall, it was a really good conversation and the children were very interested and perceptive of my story. I've never been pitied for being adopted by Koreans until recently when I learned the Korean equivalent - which I thought would make my life much easier to say "eeb yang" rather than pointing at my face saying, "yes, Korean, but, mother & father American, no hanguel (No Korean)" but today my students said I shouldn't use this word because it is sad and has a negative meaning. I tried to explain that it's not sad...that my birth parents were very young, unwed and probably would have been scorned by their own people for being in this particular situation. I also tried to explain that my "American" parents (yes, I've found i have to specify which parents I speak about even though I obviously have no clue who my birth parents are, nor do I consider them parents in any capacity) were unable to reproduce. I tried to tell them that I was happy I was adopted otherwise I wouldn't be the person I am! This of course gets very lost in translation when speaking to 11 year olds in a language they can hardly say the twelve months in...

Anyway, an interesting day of conversation to say the least. I'm sure they will rush home and tell their parents that mothers with blue eyes do not necessarily give birth to children with blue eyes and they'll all gasp and have a little chuckle over their kimchi and rice.

My my...

...how the mighty have fallen.

A great weekend has come and gone. I decided not to make a big go of it and wanted to just hang out in Gimhae. Plus, I had heard of a women's soccer team that played on Saturdays and some friends and I had plans to check it out. It was great fun too!! After our few laps around the field, passing drills and prep talk from the coach, we scrimmaged foreigners againsted Koreans. I think our team was a little more competitive and aggressive than the Koreans but it was great fun. I wiped out once and because it was a dirt field, I bummed up my elbow and knee a bit (fall #1). Oh well, the price you pay for recreational exercise...along with hardly being able to get myself out of bed on Sunday...and today.

Last night (Sunday) a few friends went to see some other friends play hockey...they practice with the Gimhae team but are rarely allowed to play in the games. I've never been to a hockey game so I was excited to watch. Unfortunately they lost...:( Anyway, on our walk home I was having a nice conversation when suddenly I felt my flipflop hit a tiny little ledge and all I could think was "oh shit"...before you know it I was sprawled on the ground thinking why the hell am I on pavement and oh man my knee...is it bleeding (fall #2)? Well, clumsy Kim happened to have tripped over the tiniest little uneven patch of pavement and ended up wiping out landing right on my knee that was sore from soccer. Sweet Mark ran over and helped me up but I was really embarrassed. Tripping is quite an ordinary part of my life. I sometimes tend to sluff around but I usually catch myself. Last night I just bit it.

Oh well, Monday's done...

Happy birthday brother.

Black Day...

...a day for the unloved, unwanted and rejected...in other words, a day for people like me...:)

April 14th marks an informal holiday in Korea. Its a day where singletons (who didn't give/receive chocolate on Valentine's Day or White Day (3/14)) unite and eat noodles covered in a black bean sauce. My former co-teacher and I always make jokes about being single and decided to relish in this tradition with a hearty meal of 짜장면~Jja Jang Myun. I enjoy this dish on occasion, but aesthetically it has no appeal...I always think it looks like a big pile of human insides...anyway...we went to a well-known restaurant in Busan that specialises in noodle dishes. She said it's been there for over 30 years and they make their own dough in the front window...

Here is Charlotte, my closest Korean friend. She spent a year in Vancouver and her English is really advanced. It's nice to hang out with her b/c she gets my jokes and understands sarcasm...very sweet girl.

This is my JjaJangMyun before I mixed it together...

and here it is...just before my first bite. Delicious...

Being single is awesome.

The longer I'm here...

...the worse my English becomes.

My student's English abilities range drastically depending on their age, level and desire to learn. One of my more "eager" classes is filled with 4th and 5th graders and I quite enjoy teaching them. The unit they've been studying focuses on health, accidents and remedies so we've been discussing all the different injuries we've had. They really seem to enjoy this type of conversation so today I had them write small stories about an injury they've had and then they were to present it to the class. Here are two that really stood out:

1. Ann is hitting me my health is very small. I am tired very hard. I will crazy. him say you after class him hit me. I will die. Ann homicide me.

2. I was 3 grade. I made a kite. I flied a kite. Criminal tripped for me. I fell down I hit my head on a very sharp square stone. I was cry. Streamed my blood. I called my father and my mother. I saw a doctor and sitched. That time was cut my head second time.

Please take note that these students' levels are above average in the curriculum we teach...with that said, you might have an understand why my English has rapidly depleted over the past 7 months.

When in Korea...

...yaddi yaddi ya...

Koreans, especially younger girls (from what I've notice anyway), love to take pictures of themselves. I often see people snapping self portraits on public transportation or around town or in restaurants or in coffee shops or in (name your place here). These pictures are usually taken with cell phones and either include what I consider the "peace sign" or with a hand covering part of their face. When asked why this hand-covering-part-of-one's-face is done, my co-teacher said, "because small face is beautiful and hand covers part of face". OF COUUUUUUUUUURSE THIS MAKES SENSE.

So here is a very exaggerated version of how Korean's make their faces appear smaller...

...and here is Liz and my mockery of such an interesting concept.

On a side note...It's officially Friday. The sun is out, the flowers were smiling at me today. I threw around a Frisbee with some friends during our "Friday Lunch time" and I get out of work early tonight!! What more can a girl ask for? Oh yeah, Sunday I'm going scuba diving at the Busan Aquarium and am going to feed the sharks. If I never post again it'll be because one had me for dinner...

A trip to Daegu...

...to celebrate Ben's birthday, meet an old friend, and rediscover that good ole' feeling of SPRING BREEEEAAAAKK!! A lot happened this weekend and rather bore you with words I'll tell it with pictures...

Ben teacher turned 24 on April Fool's Day, a fitting day for anyone who knows him. Here he is in his birthday hat presumably thinking, "oh, is it my birthday today??"

Here we have Dave & Blair really excited about spring break '07. Long gone are their University days, but really, who's to say they can't have fun anymore?? RAAAAAAAAHHHH

Here's shot of Bill and myself, I think Bill tried to tackle me off my chair. The details are fuzzy.

Abbey & Kelsey are so perdy

Myung Mi, my Korean friend who I met in Grand Rapids. She used to attend Grand Valley State Univ. and I was paired up with her as a conversation partner. I also ended up tutoring her two sons...pictured below

She brought me to her mother's restaurant...it was originally a traditional Korean home, but her mother and step-father remodeled it into a delicious duck restaurant...and it was the first time I ate duck...very good

Won Kuen, the older son and half of In Kuen's face

Ahh, the yellow dust from China that's swept over Korea. It's awful. The sky has a yellow tinge to it. I could feel my sinuses fill up and my throat started to feel scratchy. All the vehicles looked as if they were driving for hours on gravel roads. Hopefully it doesn't last too long...

GOOD TIMES. YAYYYYYYYYYYY.

Surrogate friends??...

...yes please!!

Well, after about two or three weeks of being lazy, I finally got my bum back to the gym this week and what a difference it has made in my energy levels (and overall soreness and stiffness of muscles). Anyway, this morning I went for a little weight training - yes, I pump iron - and during my warm up I was watching an English channel on the new TV's they just installed. There was a show on with a Lebanese (I think, I kind of forget now) reporter who was doing a documentary on Korea. He was interviewing 2 Korean women, who I assume were around my age, while they were getting ready for work and then he continued to shadow them for the day. They ended up at a wedding and the reporter said something like "we're at a wedding, I thought you were going to work" and the girls replied, "we are at work, we work at weddings". I assumed they worked at the wedding hall but they were actually hired by the bride to be surrogate friends. I've never heard of this term before!! It's normal to make jokes about paying people to be friends with me, I mean c'mon, being so popular costs my parents a bundle...but, they had no idea who the bride or groom were and their main purpose was to pretend they were friends of the bride. Apparently, they make a pretty penny doing so plus they eat delicious food for free. The footage was highly entertaining to see these two women sitting in the audience as if they were genuine guests. The wedding hall was very full too so it wasn't like she (the bride) was a loser or anything. Anyway, I would love to go with a friend to people's weddings and pretend that I was best friends with them and eat delicious food and drink and dance all while getting paid. I must figure out how to make this a success at home...I think I've found my calling...

sitting on the beach...enjoying the sun...

...in the middle of March...this would be a very rare occurrence in Michigan...

What started as coffee/tea & breakfast on the beach turned into many hours of relaxing in the warm sand and dipping our toes in the not so warm ocean...

I applied my first coat of color on these babies for this year...AND...I broke out the flip flops. It was a Joyous occasion.

My favorite beach bums...they literally didn't move for hours!!

OMG OMG OMG

Just a random boat that sailed on by. I wanted to go for a ride.

I anticipate many many more wonderful days on the beach...for this, I can not wait!!!!

In true Kimberly fashion...

...I successfully locked myself out of my apartment.

Last night I rode my bike home and when I went for my keys I was filled with that overwhelming sense of "oooooh shiiit"...I definitely forgot my keys...in my lunch bag...under my desk...at work. I hate that feeling. I've felt it oh so many times and every time it happens I think, "this is the last time I will lock myself out of something"...of course this only holds true until I do it again...

I've always wished I could be one of those people who makes stupid mistakes only to learn from them and never repeat them. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. Throughout my life I have locked myself out of my car at least 10 times and out of my house/apartment more than 5. I've been lucky thus far to have roommates and a police officer for a father who always has a spare slim jim, but unfortunately, neither exist for me here in Korea.

I decided to leave my bike unlocked in the hallway of my apartment while I tried to ask the maintenance man for a spare key to let me in. This proved to be more difficult than I thought and was given the key to 510 instead my apartment, 501...I would have called my director to meet me at the academy but as luck would have it, I forgot my phone in my apartment. I was able to use the office phone to call my director and he met me at school so I could get my key...

The funny thing is though that when I got back to my apartment and was walking to my door I was startled by the bike sitting in the middle of the hallway. I just had to laugh at myself because I then realised it was my bike and amidst all my scurrying around I forgot I left it all by its lonesome...thank goodness it was still there.

I think it's time to make a copy of my key, maybe even two...and I should probably stop being so damn forgetful about these kind of things...

Welcome Aaron...

...and bring on the hot cheetos!!

Well folks, Aaron Kueck finally made it to this interesting foreign little country I've called "home" for the past 6 months. We met up in Busan Sunday night for dinner and he presented me with a big ole' bag of hot cheetos (thanks E2)...my all time favorite snack. I opened them immediately and ate hand fulls until my fingers were stained red with the spicy seasoning. It didn't seem strange to see him until we were stuffing our faces with chicken and rice when it hit me...I was eating with Ace...in Korea..and he was going to be living here!! Excitement overwhelmed me (only momentarily)...I was very hungry

Anyway, yesterday I didn't have to work until 5 so I decided to be productive and Lewis & Clark my way around some of the foothills near my apartment. After 2.5 hours I felt refreshed and my mind was clear...I went home and FINISHED MY BAG OF HOT CHEETOS. I understand that this binge may have thwarted my attempts of being healthy but I was not one to be reasoned with. I was like that kid who had crumbs all over my face and smashed up pieces within a 2 foot radius of my being.

Happy St. Patricks Day...

...a day late I suppose.

I kept thinking about last year's St. Patty's festivities at The Saz...stuck talking with some Marine guy (Aud's friends boyfriend maybe??) about the Marine's in Korea I've encountered in previous trips and how they (generally speaking) left a wretched taste in my mouth and filled me with embarrassment and shame to be claiming citizenship from the same country. Then I remembered the following day was the Irish Jig and Aud had an eye infection and Irwin was turning 25.

Fast forward to this year and here I am in Korea...thankfully I didn't celebrate St. Pat's day with any US Marines, but a group of people did go to Changwon (25 minutes west of Gimhae) to an Irish bar filled with foreigners from all over. We actually ended up at another watering hole with the funnest most dangerous game ever. Well, perhaps not dangerous, but it has extreme potential to be deadly. Basically, there was a gigantic stump with a basket of nails and a bunch of hammers. Because of my competitive tendencies I was intrigued by such actions of hitting nails into said stump and when I wasn't actually winning, I began cheating...all in good fun of course. I just can't imagine having something like this at home...

Anyway, headed back to the Irish bar after I hammered nearly 15 nails and by the end of the night ended up at McDonald's for a delicious snack. Unfortunately I have no pictures to demonstrate my coordinating holiday attire...actually, the only green thing I wore was a necklace that broke...but a lot of other people were decked out in various shades of green and overall it was a fantabulous night.

Just a few things...

...that have been on my mind.

*I've officially been in Korea for 6 months!! The time is flying (as I continue to say as the months pass) and now instead of counting the months up, I'll will be counting them down.

*An example of how I've become accustom to living here is that I now unconsciously throw my toilet paper in the garbage can rather than in the toilet (only in public...I don't abide by such rules at my apartment:) It may sound strange that it has taken me 6 months to get used to this custom, but after 24 years of throwing it straight in the pot it's required a bit of conscious thought. I think anyone over the age of 10 would agree.

*I was wretchedly ill this weekend and horizontal (in bed) for most of it. I watched a lot of TV and clocked in multiple hours of sleep...Being sick and living alone SUCKS, but I'm very thankful for all the people who called or stopped in to check on me to bring me soup, medicine, movies and mandu...and many thanks to a friend (andu mandu) for doing me a huge favor on Saturday...anyway, I'm feeling better now~about 87% I'd say.

*I've rather adjusted to living alone and am really enjoying it...even though it does suck when sick. I've always lived with people, family to roomates to friends to friend, but never solely on my own. There were times in the past few months where I went a little crazy with myself, or found myself really boring, but now I'm realising that it's a great opportunity to figure out how I live...if that makes sense. I have learned that I shed a ridiculous amount of hair...(I can hear my mother and Zac sighing right now)...I've also learned that when I can't get a lid off a jar it really sucks.

*I've made really personable relationships with some of my students. They make my job worth it. Our schedule is constantly changing and sometimes our students get switched around and a couple of times I've been really upset because my favorites are now with the other foreign teacher. It's okay though, kids are kids and I like them.

So yeah, 6 months down 6 more to go. I'm looking forward to summer days at the beach (although I'm already anticipating how much I'll miss the summer at home: camping, aud's pool, bbq, beach, Frisbee, porches, fires, walks, festivals blah blah blah)...whatever, I can do all those things here - minus aud's pool.

weddings weddings weddings...

...weddings weddings weddings.

For as long as I can remember, every spring/summer/fall has been filled with weddings. I suppose having an abnormally large extended family, plus an equally as large extended step-family (many of whom married younger than my current age...and are still married - props to them) has lent its hand in jam-packing many of my weekends with decent food, free alcohol and lots of dancing. Over the past few years though it seems that the family weddings have dwindled (I'm at the younger end of all three sides) and the friend's weddings have exploded in frequency...

This year seems to be no exception...I left home with the knowledge of missing out on 5 weddings and since I've been here 2 more have sprung up!!! OMG people...seriously!!!

Actually though, I really do love going to weddings: dressing up, free food, drinking and dancing, critiquing what I like and dislike about the ceremony/reception (that's normal right??)...

Anyway, if any of you plan on having a wedding sometime this year...PLEASE WAIT UNTIL OCTOBER!!! :)

ah well...2 down, 5 more to miss...

Spring is in the air...

...everywhere I look around...turn around...I'm not sure.

Anyway, the first signs of real spring!! It's a beautiful sunny day today. I went for a walk and stopped to smell the flowers.

1 down...

...2 to go.

I just have to write and say HOW EXCITED I AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I literally just pushed the submit button paying off my first (of three) student loans. This is a great feeling. A large part of me being here this year is to make some money to chip away at my debts and 5.5 months after arriving I am getting the ball rolling. Yee freaking ha!!

that's all.

tummy's growling.

day's done.

bikes waiting.

asahh!!

Another Friday...

...finally.

This week has been a short one due to the holiday, but for some reason it seemed to drag on...

One of my students told me I had bad skin (while pointing to my face), this might be due to the big goiter trying to pop out of my chin, but none the less...thanks a lot. So, I told her she smelled like soju (Korean alcoholic beverage that smells like rubbing alcohol) and that she didn't have any friends. As you can tell, I really promote positive teacher/student relationships. It's all in good fun though, she really is a gem of a girl.

Climb Every Mountain....

...Search high and low....follow every byway, every path you know....dum dee dum.

This past holiday weekend was busy busy yet I was able to rest up and relax all the same. The Koreans rang in the Lunar New Years which basically means I had an extra day off work - YAY!! My director so kindly gave me a gift set of instant coffee - 10 boxes worth with about 20 packets inside each box. I love coffee, but I hate instant coffee, especially when half of it is sugar, so I ended up passing some on to a co-worker and trading the rest for a big box of seaweed. Haha, that probably doesn't sound too appetizing either, but to be honest, I kind of love the stuff.

Anyway, Friday night was fairly typical. Lauren spent her last night in Gimhae passing off things she couldn't fit in her suitcases (I scored some spices and a shirt) and I left at a relatively decent time...I will miss her though...

Monday a bunch of Gimhaens decided to go hiking in Liz's neighborhood...Here we have (L to R) Me, Andu Mandu, Emma & Liz, Joe so kindly took the picture. It was a beautiful sunny day and we all agreed the fresh air was a huge welcome to our otherwise polluted lungs...

I was so excited to use my new hiking boots. We had an auction at Christmas where all the students brought in things to be auctioned off and one student brought in a brand new pair of boots. They fit my little toes like a glove and I was happy that no one bid on them. Well, some way up the mountain we took a short sit and I looked down at my shoes to find this....

My shoes are now in the garbage. Both soles peeled right off leaving me with a small sole and little grip. They weren't uncomfortable though and still functioned decently for the trek down. It was quite funny. At the top we stopped for a rest and here's a picture overlooking part of Gimhae...there are two temples nestled in their too...And here is the other side where you can see part of Busan.

Overall it was a great weekend spent with friends and nature...lucky for us there are so many places to do day hikes here so we'll have to make it a weekly tradition...hooray.

Male stamina & smelly Koreans...

...straight from the horses mouth

One thing I thouroughly enjoy about teaching in Korea is hearing Korean's opinions on why things are the way they are. Let me explain. Yesterday, I taught my new adult class for the first time. Because it was my first class we chatted about basic things like family, Valentine's Day and food. Two of my students said their favorite Korean food was dog soup and snake soup. Neither of these sound apetizing to me in any capacity and the one time I actually ate rattle snake I threw up...so, I asked why is it so wonderful? Is it the taste or is it medicinial or what exactly? Well, Eric told me that it is both and helps for the sake of "male strength", and Sean said, yes, for "male stamina".

From talking with other foreign teachers, it seems that there is an infinite list of ingestibale things that enhance male stamina, and by stamina, I don't think they mean exactly how many pushups, situps and pullups one can do... So I asked my students, what about female stamina? What about the other half of the human race? Well, they basically said, Kroean women are born strong and don't need food for their stamina and that men are born weak and need to eat certain foods for their stamina. I was apprehensive to continue with the conversation but decided to forge on ...I asked, "so if Korean men need to eat certain foods for their stamina, does that mean Korean men have a history problems in this particular department". The guys laughed, the women blushed and one guy said, "yes sometimes at night I have some problems with my stamina" and another guy said, "I'm not sure about my stamina, I am not married".

This is one example of many awkward and funny conversations I have with my students. Today, my middle school class was writing letters to imaginary penpals about their families, their cities and Korean in general. All six of them didn't write positive things about Korea, they all wrote about how it's dirty and how Koreans stink like garlic, onions and kimchi. I had a chuckle since I've almost bit it on the treadmill numerous times due to someone's awful oder on the machine next to mine.

Ahh, the innocent honesty of my students whether their 14 or 29...gotta love it sometimes.

Oh Day of Love...

...and lots of chocolate.

Just call me little piggers today. I've never been a huge fan of Valentine's, but when my sweet little kiddos rush up to me and throw chocolate in my face, I rather rejoice in all the glory of it's wonderful tastiness...and in turn, have a very sore belly.

very, very sore.

Happy Happy Happy Day of Love to all!

5 months past...

...7 to go.

Nah, I'm not counting down the days to go home at all. The time is flying by so quickly I'll be sad to leave once September comes around! It's just one of those weeks - where things at work aren't going very smoothly and I'm just too tired/don't even really care enough to fix them. Well, that's a lie, I do care, I'm just too damn stubborn to be the first to speak...

Usually, when one part of my life is causing me to stress out( in this case, work) I can go home, think about it, discuss it with someone, reasses my actions etc. but here I go home and because I live by myself I end up driving myself mad with internal discussion. When I left work last night I decided to stop by BnG because there is usually someone there having an after work drink. Thankfully, some of my closest friends were there and I was able to sit down, relax and complain to them. I guess when things aren't so rosy and wonderful it's easy to think of the little things at home that I miss. Then I think, "buck up you little booger butt, you're in Korea and you've met awesome people and you shouldn't let the ridiculousness and stupidity of things at work consume the awesomeness of the rest of your experiences". So yeah, on a definitely more positive note I don't have to work until 5:15 on Wednesdays for the rest of this month and that's really good news.