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.

harr...

...new technology.

So today I was trying to upload my pictures from my new nifty camera and since everything is in Korean I just randomly push buttons, fingers crossed & hoping for the best, when little grey boxes blip up with lots of foreign-ness on them...

BAD IDEA!!!

In the future, should remember to have Korean teachers translate into English what exactly I am pushing. Turns out, I deleted most (say 200+) new pictures from my camera. Damn. damn. damn.

Oh well. The world is filled with too many images anyway, what's 200 less. There are many more days and many more pictures to be taken...:(

So I leave you with a look of this deliciousness...for some reason, about 15 pictures were saved and this picture was one of them. Sausage crusted pizza from Pizza Hut...what will they think of next ?? (gag)

Goldy Locks...

...and the three bozos.

ha.ha.ha.

Seeing Cyndi in Seoul...

...was sooooooooooo awesome!! Here's a quick look at our whirlwind weekend...

Liz & I hopped the KTX Friday after work highly anticipating the promised rapid speed of 300kph. Well, it reached that point for literally .5 seconds. We were happy though and I had a great time learning how to play gin while we vegged out on junk food...

Liz, Cyndi and I explored Seoul mostly by subway and walking



Cyndi & I in Insadong. It's one of, in not my favorite area of Seoul. Lots of art shops, people, shopping, and it has such a nice feel about it. We were pretending to be engaged in deep conversation.

A typical shop in Insadong with lots of touristy Korean things.

Metal disks that were displayed at the Andy Warhol exhibit/shopping area. Not sure what it actually was, but it was really cool...

The Andy Warhol exhibit thingy...

Cyndi & I and the strange pixilated display.

Kim & Liz share a moment at dinner. We ate Sam Gyup Sal in Hapjeong.

Norebang! Norebang! Norebang!

We were singing our guts out if you can't tell. This is actually our third singing room. The lines were far too long at the luxury norebang and we were kicked out of the second one for trying to sneak in our own drinks...woops:)

Hanging out with Danny boy in Seoul. Haven't really hung out with him for a couple of years so it was definitely cool to catch up.

This is in Dongdaemun...great shopping area.

Eating bulgogi in Dongdaemun

Dongdaemun subway station...there were lots of these cat mosaics doing different sports...probably from the Olympics.

Cyndi rocker and I had a photo shoot...this was her best shot...she is still in the running for America's Next Top Model.

Cyn Cyn and I were vegging out during our "photo shoot" and if you look closely, there's totally a hair in the package...I just think this is funny...that's all.

Overall, our trip to Seoul was filled with lots of shopping, miles of walking, delicious food & best of all wonderful company.
YAYYYY!!

Impulsive buying...

...leads to fun & new technology.

After a whirlwind weekend in Seoul there is much to update. Unfortunately, I can't do so now so I will let you feast your eyes with envy on my new gadget....

A few specs:
7.1 megapixels
2.5 inch LCD screen
50-1600 ISO
blah blah blah. It's exciting.

Vacation should be fun right??

I'm heading to Seoul this weekend to meet up with Cyndi, a friend from home who is currently visiting other friends living in Hong Kong. I'm soooooo excited to get away from the regular weekend happenings of Gimhae and have a breath of fresh air (not literally, but socially:) Anyway, I'm allowed 10 vacation days ~ 5 are fixed, 5 I can choose. Well, I've chosen this coming Monday as my first vacation day and it is turning into a huge fiasco. First off, I put in my request at least a month in advance as per my contract and yesterday as was busy preparing for my Monday classes my Director asked me why I looked so rushed. I reminded him that I wouldn't be in on Monday and he looked at me like I had just started speaking in ancient Greek. He then began to sigh heavily as if this was a major problem and told me I was a bad teacher. He then proceeded to chuckle. I however, did not find this funny at all and retaliated with calling him a bad director, followed by my own (very sarcastic) chuckle. I understand that I need to have my classes prepared for whoever fills in and I've completed this task to a tee including all the necessary handouts and step by step instructions for each class. For some reason, he then found it necessary to call me into his office and say, "Kimberly, the best thing would be for the teachers to teach, the 2nd best thing would be for tests". This was my turn to look at him as if he had just spoke in ancient Greek because I had (and still have) no idea what on earth he was talking about. For starters, the sentence doesn't even make sense! Basically I said, "look, I don't understand what you're trying to say, if you need to say something, please ask one of the Korean teachers to translate it for me, I've provided all my lesson plans for Monday and I'm not sure what else you really need from me". Maybe it was a bit harsh, but a vacation day is a vacation day right??!! I shouldn't feel guilty about taking 1 DAY OFF!! The academy should still be able to function perfectly without 1 teacher. HE SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR TIMES WHEN TEACHERS NEED A BREAK OR A SICK DAY RIGHT???? (siiigh).

I just don't understand why one day off has to be such an issue, especially if it's written in my contract...I told him I should have taken 2 days off...but I didn't, that would have just been snarky.

"My uncle went to Malaysia and all I got was this stupid...protractor"

Of the many times I've been to Florida, or other such sunny family destinations, I've seen a lot of paraphanalia decorated with the phrase, "(person) went to (place) and all I got was this stupid (thing)". I always thought these things were rather stupid and much preferred silly sea shell figurines with wobbly eyes that had something equally as stupid prhase on it like "Florida" or "Gulf Shores" (I was a really cool kid if you didn't know)...

Anyway, two of my students (Cathy and Betty) are cousins and Betty's father just returned from a business trip to Malaysia. Yesterday, they were so excited as they told me he got each of them gifts. How cool is that? To get something from a far off land?? I remember how I always got excited when my parents went on a trip and brought me back some goodies.

So today, Cathy walked into class with a big smile on her face and proudly held up her new gift...a protractor!! Now, if my parents or relative went away to another country and brought me back a protractor...I would be less than enthused and probably wouldn't even be able to fake my excitement very well. I don't really consider myself an ungrateful person...but a protractor??? I guess this shows that Korean children are driven so hard academically that they receive gifts from other countries to keep them excelling in their studies...poor babies.

Tour de France hits Gimhae

Well...not really, but I am now the proud borrower of a beautiful yellow bike...fully equipped with a basket, a bell and a lock. Last week Friday, a few teachers and our director went out for dinner after work and I had mentioned that I would soon be in the market for a bike. I figured it would cut down on my bus usage (ie: bus fare) as well as travel time. My director offered to lend me his daughter's bike while she studies in Russia. I was apprehensive whether or not to accept...I know a few stories of people's bikes being stolen/lost and I'd hate to be responsible if my boss' daughter's bike fell into, or rather was snatched by the hands of an unknown person. On the other hand, accepting this generous offer would save me 70-100 bucks on buying a new bike so I decided to take it on the conditions that if it is stolen/lost I will replace it~ basket, bell and lock all new...

My ride to/from work is about 25 minutes and there's a decent path along the river...by river, I mean gross smelly stream that is drying out and littered with trash...well, it's not that bad, but it isn't a river by any definition I know. My friend who lives in the same area as my academy also has a bike and we have decided to start a bike club. Our goal now is to figure out our uniforms and we're thinking of denim jackets with dragons screen printed on the backs (I keed). Eventually, our plan is to give bike tours of Gimhae and once we make some money, we'll expand them all the way to Busan. The plan unfolded as we were huffing and puffing from my neighborhood out to hers and basicallywe were mocking our lack of biking abilities despite our constant efforts at the gym. It will come though, before you know it, we'll be mountain biking to the observatory. Until then unfortunately, my bum and legs can only handle the straight and level ride to and from school...

Wine & Cheese Pt. 2

There seems to be a new Gimhae women's tradition forming amongst the waegook (foreigners) crowd. A few months ago a small group of women decided to gather for some red wine, delicious cheese and well, a proper gab fest. The second of these such gatherings took place this past weekend at Abbey's lovely apartment and while much of the same wine-drinking, cheese-eating and women-gabbing took place, it seemed to have taken on a new name with more people and it included an exercise class...

Wine and cheese night has now been dubbed "chat n' fat" by none other than the wonderful Eileen.
Twice as many amazing women turned up...and.......Abbey decided kickboxing was the best way to host this gathering as she did not stop kicking up her healing foot all night. To my bewilderment, she still maintained perfect composure and managed to be the most hospitable host all while boxercising!! This then led into liturgical dancing by myself (cough cough, shame) which turned into playing each and every one of Dave's mixed CD's while dancing and singing at the top of our lungs...thankfully they don't have neighbors next door!!

Let the pictures speak for themselves. More to find at the yahoo photos link to the right...(unless you were there you might not find them too interesting...:)...also I've realized that dear Abbey seems to be the star of the show...he he he:)

A night is incomplete without the ever-nerdy triangle picture...love ya girls!!

Yes, this is in fact a Lionel Richie CD...however, it did not make into our rotation for the evening.

The spread: some cheese was already eaten and there was more in the kitchen...we don't mess around when it comes to chhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssseeeeeeee

Our "service" that came with our wine...it's a doll that unwraps into a blanket.

HOW GENIUS!!

Abbs~the hostest with the mostest~kicking away!!

bandaids Before Sunset

Last night a few friends decided to gather for a proper Korean bbq dinner. 4 of us headed to "restaurant street" as Ben has so cleverly coined (it's basically an alley with all restaurants on it...dah da dah!!) and landed at a bbq joint we've all frequented before. The food is always delicious and filling so it seemed like the best solution to my gargling stomach. I had eaten my share of blah blah blah galbi (marinated pork and pork ribs basically) and wanted some 물 냉 면 (water noodles). After doctoring them up with the proper fixings I began to fiercely cut my noodles with a scissors anticipating its glory in my belly. After are few jabs and cuts I noticed something that seemed inedible...as I slowly began to pull it up from under my deliciousness ~ otherwise known as noodles ~ I discovered a used bandaid that seemed to have slipped off a persons finger. How gross! I brought it back to the kitchen and watched the entire Korean staff swarm like bees hovering over my dish as if an alien had just popped its head up to say hello. The waitress' explanation was "ajooma" (older married woman) while she demonstrated a bandaid falling off a finger into a bowl...DUH! I get what happened...I understand that whoever made it had a bandaid on their finger and it obviously fell off into my dinner...if this were a game of charades we'd have won 20 minutes ago!!! This just made me really crabby and annoyed. To make it better, the waitress brought us a bottle of free cider (Sprite)...I don't even drink pop...
Now, I've worked at a few restaurants at home and if someone found a used bandaid in their meal they would for sure get their meal for free if not the entire bill taken care of...plus dessert!! Not here.

Anyway...

I ended up leaving the restaurant kind of crabby (and kind of sulking a little bit) and decided to rent a movie. I took home Before Sunset. I know there are two movies with Ethan Hawke (After Sunrise & Before Sunset) but I couldn't remember which came first...I rented part 2. Needless to say, I really really really enjoyed the film and it put me in such a better mood. I have yet to see After Sunrise, it might give last night's movie a little more clarity...

bandaids before sunset...i tell you what.

Resolutions: to be made, to be broken...

to feel better, to feel guilt.

My dear friend inspired me to post my New Year's resolutions. There's no particular reason for doing so, but maybe I will stick to them more if I have a visual reminder...we'll see.

here goes:
1. GYM GYM GYM
2. cut my friend James' hair
3. eat more fruits/veggies, less sweets and candy and snacky snacks.
4. drink less coffee, beer, etc.
5. read at least 1 book / month
6. budget better
7. buy a computer
8. buy a digital camera
(funny how those two follow my desire to budget better)
9. enjoy life more
10. be more productive

Pretty basic I suppose, oh well, isn't that pretty normal when it comes to resolutions??

konglish and it's ability to amuse

So I was teaching one of my upper elementary classes today when I started cracking up mid-sentence. I think Asia in general takes the cake for having really funny English sayings on shirts. My student Tom was sporting a nice long sleeve t-shirt with a picture of Poppey holding a bouquet of flowers. He had a speech bubble coming from his big ole smile saying, "My sweetie pie fell in love with an older woman". How random!!

Sooooo. New Year's was great! Steve & MeiLi (friends from home teaching in Japan) came for a visit and we hit it up in Busan. We also met a guy (Chris) through one of my Gimhae friends who was two years behind MeiLi in high school (GR Christian High) and he and I figured out we were at the same wedding this past summer. Crazy how connected this world really is...NYE pictures will be posted later when Steve & MeiLi send some! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! Miss everyone!!