Bye Bye Korea HELLO USA!

All and all I had a WONDERFUL time in Korea! I can truly say I was very blessed to have such an awesome experience. I am really grateful for the opportunity that allowed me to live in another country for an entire year. If any of you ever get the chance to live somewhere other than the USA take advantage of that opportunity, see the world, learn, enjoy a new culture, and challenge your self! No good byes but see you later Korea, you have been good to me :)

11 months

I can not believe I have been living in Korea for 11 months already, at times it is as if we just got here. I really enjoy Korea but I am beyond excited to return home. If you have the opportunity I would encourage everyone to live abroad. Living in another country has made me a much more patient person. I can say I consider myself to have always been an independent person and in most cases that's great but in Korea its impossible especially since I don't speak the language, and the little Korean I know is hardly enough to do EVERY thing a person needs to do. Just think about it, imagine your self in a bank and NO one speaks English, or how about the doctors office, where the doctor speaks very little English if that. Crazy huh?

Leaving Korea is going to be bitter sweet, more sweet then bitter I can honestly say. There are truly a lot of things about Korea that I will miss. I will miss my students (well some of them), my co teacher she is crazy, but we have become good friends through this process, some of the food (when is the last time you had dinner with a beer for $4.00?), and how cheap everyday living here is. I have learned so much about myself and another culture in 1 years time and I am blessed and thankful for my Korea experience. The countdown is on until I return to Pittsburgh and I am EXCITED!
Still Seoul Searching...

Korean Traditional Villiage

It has been REALLY cold here lately and each cold day reminds me of the winters at home. My co-teacher asked if Carm and I would go to a Traditional Korean Village with her on a Saturday. Now, at first I was really excited to go and get so more Korean Culture in my life until, I found out that we would be outside for most of the day. I felt really bad for considering to back out of a nice cold day of culture due to the fact that it was my co teachers birthday. So Carm and I bundled up and headed to Osan to meet my co teacher. The plan was that we would meet at 1pm in the subway station.

Carm and I hopped on the train and headed to the meeting place, we arrived a little early so we decided to do some shopping. We walked around the station and out to the shopping area near by. It turned out to be an unexpected but, great shopping day, always a plus :D. Sujin, my co teacher called, we met her and headed to the train. When I saw her I wished her HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Sujin then turned to me and said "oh Tasha today is not my birthday" I was so confused because I asked her 4 times in the past week and a half "Sujin, your birthday is Saturday right?" each time she confirmed and told me yeah it was! Now, this ticked me right on off because I sure would NOT be out here in this 7 degree weather going to a dang gone Korean Village if it was not her birthday! I asked her "Well Sujin why did you tell me your birthday was the 5th then?" she then proceeds to say "Oh I forgot it" Carm and I gave both gave her the dumb look. There was nothing I could do at that point so I just took a deep sigh and let it go.

Overall I was really happy I did make it to the Korean Village it was pretty cool. We saw a few shows, one of which a man did a routine on a rope while in the air, and another show was a horseback riding show. The horseback riding show was a little too dangerous for me, I was so worried someone was going to get seriously hurt, I understand that is their profession but it was still a bit nerve wracking to watch. In the village there was a really interesting museum that took us through time in Korea. We got to see traditional ceremonies, such as when it was the Emperor's birthday, to the celebration on ones birth, and Lunar New Year celebrations, it was really neat.

As we were walking to the museum, Sujin says "We have to cross this bridge" I looked at Carm and Carm looked at me and simultaneously we said "What bridge?". All we saw were a bunch of rocks, Sujins then says "This stone bridge" Now let me paint the picture before you see the actual picture. There is a body of water, and a waterfall on the other side of the "bridge". All I could think was "Please Lord, don't let me fall in this water" as we were walking across, some of the stones were shaking, it was all around just a bad idea! Sujin crossed the river like "Crouching Tiger Hided Dragon" and it took Carm and I about 20 minutes to cross the river. Needless to say it was a pretty interesting and adventurous day at the Korean Traditional Village.

Still Searching....

My Hair Journey in Korea

From when 1st decided to come to Korea until now a lot of women ask me "What do you do with your hair?" or "Who does your hair?". I know its hard to believe but believe it Koreans do my hair. They have put twist in my hair, and they have washed and pressed it out for me.

I must admit my 1st trip to get my hair braided turned out to be terrible, I went to an African braiding shop and it was as my students say "it was NOT fun". I am not even sure where I should begin, I arrived at 7am to the shop. When I got there they were really rushing while doing my hair. They had a lot of appointments that day and they had a tight schedule to keep but that was not the issue. Issue number 1. when I go to get my hair braided I DO NOT want to work! This is what I am paying YOU for, don't ask me to separate the hair because 9 times out of 10 I will be doing it wrong. Furthermore how am I to enjoy a good book if you have my hands occupied??? Issue number 2. I am not African nor did I grow up in a French speaking country, so STOP TALKING TO ME IN FRENCH! I had to tell her 3 times I speak English! and Issue number 3. Why is my ponytail so scraggly? Why do I have a million braids but only have 3 strands of hair in my ponytail?

The 2nd time I got my hair braided I went to the Koreans and they did a GREAT job. I was so shocked, those who know me know I have really THICK hair and these Koreans got with it. The only complaint I had was I didn't think they gave me a good deep condition. Other than that they had me looking and feeling good feeling great AND I had a full ponytail :D.

Recently I decided to give my hair a break from braids as to insure the survival of my edges, because being with out edges is NOT cool. I mean who wants to be a bald headed scalawag not I said the cat lol! My hair is currently natural so I was a little nervous to say the least about what the final project was going to look like. I was told about a shop called Ms. Kims and that she does a great job. I made an appointment and once again the Koreans have surprised me. They really care about healthy hair and that's important to me too. They gave me a moisturizing treatment and pressed me out and I was bouncing and flowing when I left there. Like a Pantene Pro V commercial!

Still Seoul Searching...

Kpop

So recently I have been listening to a lot of Korean Pop songs better known as Kpop. I have no clue what they are sing about except for the random English words here and there. The story is the same every time, my students say "Teacher do you know?" and I say "No" and they say " We show you" lol it never fails. After they show me the latest Kpop songs, with the music video and what ever the dance that goes with it I find myself singing along. Do I know Korean you ask??? Of course not, but do I sing along YES, I make up sounds that I think can pass for Korean and gets to singing lol. Posted below are a few songs that have become my Kpop JAMS! Don't judge me just listen and get addicted like me :)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day in Korea was super strange, I had to work, and it was just a regular day nothing too special really. In fact for dinner I ate waffles, self proclaimed gourmet 3 cheese eggs and bacon, it was tasty but not for Thanksgiving.

Please can someone tell me why people from home really think Koreans celebrate Thanksgiving, Korean Americans maybe, but Koreans born in Korea who have NEVER been to America, yeah NO THANKSGIVING! I had to tell mad people "Yes, I have to work its an American holiday", Koreans could careless about the pilgrims first meal with the Indians on November 26, 1621! My mom called me at 1:30am "HAPPY THANKSGIVING" all I could do is laugh, because when she called me it was Thanksgiving in America but Thanksgiving day was already over in Korea.

The team decided to cook on Saturday following Thanksgiving at a friends house because there was an oven there. Most Korean apartments do not have an oven so it would make it rather problematic to cook at one of our places. We had a friend who is in the military go to the grocery store on base, to get the essentials for a true Thanksgiving feast. With a list in hand he went to the store and got "everything on the list" and a feast is exactly what we had. We had Turkey (we named him Herb), curry chicken, greens, green beans, corn, mac n cheese, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, rolls, corn beard, brownies and cakes. Everything turned out SO good, I really forgot I was in Korea because we do not have access to this kind of food on a regular basis. It was a good time with great people and great food.
Still Seoul Searching...

"I can BUY you"

So recently Korea has been a blast and I am enjoying every bit of it however it has been hard to if that makes sense. I think because I am on the down hill side of things I am getting excited to get home. I have less than 100 days left in Korea can you believe it?! Lately I must admit, I have become "so over" some Korean ways.

Today in class we where having a conversation about things we can purchase I say "Ok class what are some things we can buy?". A student raises his hand and says "You teacher, black people, you know slaves", my jaw dropped! The student is one of my better English students and speaks well and often translates to the class. The thing that mad me so mad was the fact that he knew exactly what he was saying and what he meant. I then proceeded to say to the student "SHUT your mouth before I slamm you for free 99, also you just bought 100 push ups, how you like your change?" in my mind I was thinking, I guess you are my slave now huh?

Korean can be so crazy, and you would think I would be used to it by now but somethings I just can not get used to. Often times, Koreans think its ok to say what ever they want at any time. Now, if I mentioned the treatment of Koreans during the Japense occupation that would be a HUGE problem. I understand I am in a new culture and some things are NOT going to be like home, and thats becasue it is not home, but come on! You know what they say when in Korea do as the Koreans...right????