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????

Beyonce

So yes, its true I have been neglecting you and I am sorry. So let me catch you up on my life in Korea lol. We went to see Beyonce and it was GREAT! We had great seats and had an even better time. Now, normally when 12 women get together one may question whats going to happen. Well we had a BLAST! All I can say is Beyonce is a BAD chick, her show was just like her videos, with no breaks in between. Here are some pics of the concert.

Mass Freeze in Coex Mall South Korea

Teacher You Nike Airs are a FAKE!

So, I decided to dress down one day last week and I wore a pair of sneakers to school. I normally dress rather casually but I never wear sneakers to school. I guess I was being a rebel this day lol. It was not until my second period class when a student keeps looking at my sneakers.

I did not really pay that much attention to the student until he started making funny faces. He then proceeds to raise his hand, I call on him and this was our convo.

Me: Yes, do you have a question?
Student: Yes, teacher your Nike air's are a FAKE! You get in Korea?
Me: Ummmm no they aren't, I got them from America, from footlocker.
Student: No, teacher let me see ( with his hand extended)
Me: OK, here ( as I give him my shoe)
Student: OK, teacher these are good, they are AHSA (awesome in Korean)!

So, I guess I was a bit flabbergasted more a fe reasons, 1 being IF i really did have some fake shoes on, did my student just try and blow up my spot???? and 2 how and WHY, does this little dude know how to tell if Nike's are real or fake??? I guess the world may never know lol
Still Seoul Searching.....

RENT !!

SO I know it has been a while since I have blogged and I am VERY sorry about that. Things have just been so busy. However that is no excuse I WILL do better! Since my last post we went to see the Broadway musical RENT! To answer your question YES it was in English! It was GREAT, I have seen rent before and I have seen the movie, seeing it again it was even better. The show was PACKED, it did bring some questions to mind though.

The Koreans really seemed to enjoy the show, but it made me think about if they really understood how REAL RENT is for many people. Drug use is not an issue in Korea and AIDS is not an epidemic here, so it just seemed like pure entertainment to them. OK enough sad talk. The singing and acting and the people I went with really made for a GREAT Sunday afternoon.

Taray's 25th

So one of my good friends here in Korea was celebrating her 25th birthday. She had mention to us before that she never had a party in her adult life and she really wanted one. In Korea there is a local party planning team and I asked them if they could help us for Taray's birthday. Well they ended up throwing an all white party for her big day. Taray had a blast! It was so much fun check the pictures

White water rafting and Bungee Jumping

So, I must say I am SERIOUSLY in need of an adrenaline rush, just something to get my heart pumping you know. There was a trip coming up, and I really wanted to go, I asked the ladies if they would be willing to go on the trip and what do you know everyone said yes. White water rafting and bungee jumping here we come. Now, everyone did not agree to bungee jump, but every one agreed to go rafting, what can I say you win some you lose some lol.

We had to be in the city to make the bus at 7:30am this meant we had to get up and catch the 5:50am bus (way too early). We got the rafting place and were placed in groups of ten. We rafted for about 2 hours and my arms are STILL sore! Rafting was a lot of run, we got to do a bit of swimming, and water sliding which was a nice unexpected twist. After we rafted for a while we then went to the bungee jumping location. Dun, Dun, DUNNNNNNNNNNN!

So we pull up to this huge bridge where we had 2 options as far as bungee jumping goes, we had the option to jump by our ankles OR by the waste. I remember thinking "Hey, I may never do this again so I should just go big, and go with the ankle jump" so that's what Carm, and I picked, and Marquita decided to jump by the waist. Once we made that decision we then had to sign a form (that was written ALL in Korean) I am pretty sure it said something to the effect if you die its your fault, then we got weighed. If you weighed a certain amount you could not jump. Then we walked up this HUGE stairwell to the stop of the bridge. We finally made it to the top and then we got strapped in to our harnesses. My harness was really really tight around my ankles, it kinda hurt but I just thought that it was supposed to be tight, I mean hey I didn't want to fall out or anything.

The most scary part was the fact that we were waiting for an hour plus waiting for our turn to jump. It was rather nerve racking standing up there, heart pounding a million times a minute just waiting for your turn to jump off of a bridge. So the time had finally come, we were on the platform and it was our turn to jump one by one. We asked the guide who spoke English if he had any suggestions, and he said "Don't look down, and jump far out". I personally was not too sure how far I was going to jump, or if I was going to look down or not, but I did know I didn't want to be standing on the ledge for long. I told my self when he says "1, 2, 3,Jump!" I would do exactly that, JUMP!

So here I am, on the ledge and he says "1, 2, 3, JUMP" and I took a Superman dive off the ledge, when doing so I heard the guy say "Whoa!". That was NOT a pleasant feeling, I was thinking WHOA?!?!? WHOA, what? Whoa, we didn't strap her in right? Whoa, she jumped too early, Whoa, she is gonna do a Trevor on the Fresh Prince of Bel air?? WHOA what sir! My next thoughts while flying through the air were more like what the heck was I thinking, why did I jump of a flipping bridge? Well, adrenaline rush is what I asked for and that is what I got, that's for sure! After I stopped swinging and I was hanging upside down waiting for the guy in the boat to unhook me from my harness. I was sitting in the boat as we were rowing to the land and I remember thinking, my leg really hurts. And no wonder it was hurting, I looked down and there was a huge patch of skin ripped off my shin, like a burn. When I say ripped I am not exaggerating, the white meat was showing, it sucked really bad. So over all bungee jumping and white water rafting were TONS of fun. I think sky diving is next! Until next time :)
Still Seoul Searching...

Mud pie anyone???

Mudfest was a BLAST! Although the weather got a bit nasty we really had a good time. Mudfest I can honestly say is an "only in Korea" moment. I mean come on let us think about this, if someone said to me "Hey Tasha, let's go play in the mud, it will be fun" I would have given the serious side eye if we were in the states LOL!

We get to our room (I will not go as far as to call it a hotel) changed our clothes and went out to hit the mud! So we saw a huge kiddie pool like thing and thought what better way to shed us of our mud virginity? So hop in the pool and next thing you know, we were getting body slammed, pile drived and any other WWE moves one can think of. I was in shock! TIME OUT, TIME OUT I was not ready! We were getting mud slapped in our faces, and when we understood what was going on we joined in on the fun. We also went down a HUGE mudslide, which was a lot of fun.

Still Seoul Searching...

English Village

Saturday Hanna and I took 26 of the students on a field trip. Now, this was the 1st field trip I would be going on, and I must admit I was a little worried about how the kids would behave. We had a 2 hour bus ride to the English Village, the bus driver put on a movie so the ride went pretty quick. We only had one student get car, well "bus" sick. During the ride I kept worrying about if the kids were going to show out!

We get to the English Village and the students are in 2 lines, I looked down the line and counted heads before we went to the "airport". That is when it hit me, I am the adult here, I am responsible for these little 26 lives for the day. I see my students everyday but I have never taken them outside of the school before. The kids then got their passports, and could now proceed to the "immigration" line at the airport, and then they started showing their little a$%es! There are about 50 other kids in the other 4 lines and I look over and 2 of my students Tom and Brian were running around flipping the bird! I was so mad! I pulled them aside and had to give the "please do NOT test me in public speech", after that the kids were pretty good.

We then separated into 2 groups, I lucked out because I had only 6 kids in my group and Hanna had 20 in hers lol. We went to a class called "World Discovery" and the kids learned about adaptation. I was so proud my kids were answering a lot of questions and really doing well in the game. Now, I know I should teach the kids good sportsmanship and such, but we were giving high fives, doing dances and all! I think I one point I said " YEAH, that's right Jangdang! GET SOME!" LOL. My kids won the game and got candy so they were really happy.

Still Seoul Searching...

MudFest!

Played for Pizza

The school year is coming to an end soon and after school classes are ending early. The students came rushing in my class and Judy one of my 4th graders (who speaks really good English) says "Teacher, today is our last day of class" I really was unsure, part of teaching in Korea, there is a huge lack of communication or you are informed at the very last minute. I called the head English teacher to find out, I called her 3 times but she did not pick up. I started to feel really bad that it was our last meeting and I did not have anything special planned. So I rushed and called and ordered pizza and coke for the kids and had it delivered to the school. We joked around and just ate pizza and had a really fun day. After class Hanna calls me back and says "Oh the children told you a lies" I wanted to say first of all its told a lie not lies and second why didn't you tell me this ummmmmm 2 and a half hours ago when I called you! I can't believe those little ninjas! They gamed me up with goodbye letters and messages on the chalk board and all. So yes I got played for pizza!
Still Seoul Searching ...

English Speaking Contest

So after returning from orientation I was informed that I had to be one of the judges of the English speaking contest. Now this sounds all fun and dandy BUT it was 3 hours long! The students ranged from 1st grade to 6th grade. I felt bad for some of the kids because their parents were there and they wanted their babies to be the BEST! Ok, I am talking costume changes, music accompaniment, gifts for the judges and cheering sections. Korean parents do not play when it comes to their children in a contest. Which resulted in some of the kids running off stage crying, parents requesting the children be allowed to perform again because they were unhappy with what they did and all other types of foolishness.

Some of the children did REALLY well, and others...well they looked so cute! To be honest, some of them were rather painful to watch and listen to but, I clapped and put on my happy face. Sujin (my co teacher) said "I can not understand their English" I said "Me either" and we both cracked up. We were all thrilled when it was over, to say the least.
Still Seoul Searching...

Orientation

Ok, so first and foremost I want to apologize because I have defiantly been slacking on the blogging tip. Sadly my life has been rather uneventful these days lol. Just living for the weekends mostly, but over all, all is good. So after teaching here for four months I was sent to teachers orientation, which seemed a little backwards to me since I have already been working for a while, but hey it was 4 days away from school lol.

I must admit it was really strange seeing 270 foreigners all in the same space but it was comforting also. On my way while riding the subway I met some really cool people from South Africa that were headed to the training also. We ended up being in the same group for the training. One really cool aspect of training was they broke us up into groups based on our location, so everyone in your group live near each other.

My freshman year "My 1st dorm" feelings were returned because we had assigned rooms with assigned roommates that we did not know. All I kept saying was I hope she does not smell bad, and I hope she is not a thief. I really did not want to bring the "Pittsburgher" to Korea but.... lol. I arrived to a bit early so I got to the room first, YAY first pickings of beds and such. I got to my room and picked out a bed and did a little bit of video chatting , placed my stuff on my bed and then went to the 1st session.

After the 1st session we had a bit of extra time so I went back to my room in hopes of meeting my roomie for 4 days. She was not in the room however her stuff was in the room, and not only in the room but on MY bed. YES, you read correctly, she moved my stuff from my bed to the other bed. Now the other bed was cool BUT less appealing, it was not by the window where you could get the cool night breeze if needed, lacked the great view of the tv AND was not near the bathroom, perfect for the middle of the night have to go moments. I was a little bit hot, I can not lie, she came to the room about 10 minutes later and apologized and offered me the bed back. She ended up being a really sweet girl and we got along great for the 4 days we were there.

Over all orientation was helpful the sessions were a bit too long at times but over all pretty good. It would have been even better if I had training when I 1st got here but hey what can you do? They had sessions about conflict resolution as far as your school in concerned, Korea survival class, lesson planning and a history Korean education lesson. I did get a lot of cool ideas for class and how to keep the attention of the students so that was defiantly helpful.
Still Seoul Searching...

I want to learn how to fry chicken :)

Sujin (my co teacher) asked me to make her some "American" food, I asked her what she wanted and she said "I want fried chicken". So we went to E mart and got the everything we needed for dinner. I made fried chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, and corn. Sujin said she really liked it and asked me to teach her how to cook fried chicken lol. Here are the pictures!