North and South Korea

I forget that I am in a country that is still technically in war with N.Korea. I also forget that there has been recent shooting and there is all this talk about WWWIII and all. Honestly, I am only reminded of it when I get emails from family and friends back home about it. Its interesting that people back home are more concerned than the people actually in Korea.

The day of the recent firing, all the teachers gathered around one teacher's computer and watched what seemed to me to be some pretty intense stuff. But after 3 minutes (not exaggerating), everyone just started going back to work!

Now, I don't know if this was because there have been exchange of fire before or because they don't like to talk about things too much (always thinking about maintaining that "social harmony") or Koreans are workaholics.

I can imagine it is a combination, but more so, that they always want to maintain social harmony and keep things the way they are as much as possible.. even if it means not talking about their fears or recent happenings with North Korea. At the lunch table, the teachers still talk more about the rising price of kim-chi (Korea's staple food) and how cold it is outside than they do about difficult issues.

Jeju United Soccer Game!

oh, you don't have a balloon? no worries, just get an orange trash bag, tie it to a stick and wave that around ;)



Thanks to Dave and his hostdad being a soccer ref, we got free tickets and great seats!



aw, i like when they bring out the little kids in the beginning :)



game time.. eh, more like tying his shoe laces but same difference



yay! minus the fact that i cannot open my eyes



love running into students! Please note the balloon I made for my host sisters, which only ended up flying away :(



hehe, English mistakes "We are Green Family"




check out Jeju United's coach, rocking his mint velvet (i think that is the term) coat!

in a middle school girl's mind

brought some word magnets from America so the students can play around with sentences.. came in to find this today
"Some day a boy forget girl, but the girl don't forget him"

Halloween!

a month late in uploading .. my bad, my bad.

I dressed up as my students from Halloween :) and had the students make costumes out of newspaper and present their costumes to the class. All in all, a great "Halloween week," lots of laughs and good memories with the students <3



some pictures were taken for the yearbook - i am pretty sure every Korean mother that will think who the hell photoshopped that brown girl into the picture?!



i also dressed up as a Samsung Girls' High School student on a different day of the week!



and then a boy from Seogwipo Boys' High School ! best.decision.ever. <3



Yey Rem giving a presentation about the halloween costume they made



i forget what "Red" (her English name haha) was, but Yellow (right, also her English name) was a fairy!



she was a traditional Korean woman, wearing a "Hanbok" and with the red dots on her face.

I wore one of my student's P.E/gym uniforms (yes, my students run around in bright yellow sweats)






I think she was trying to be a typical American woman, walking her dog, which was Emiliee's old stuffed duck haha



a bat!



Youn-a was a mermaid!



i was too busy laughing to hear what this girl was<3



"lady gaga on top and statue of liberty on the bottom" hah

"Kavi, bavi, bo"

this is how everything is settled in Korea. It still mind-boggles me just how MANY things and how MANY times in a day this is used - a 6 way version of "rocks, paper, scissors" or as they say in Korean, "Kavi, bavi, bo"

Pretty cool tranditional Korean dances

but, note especially in the last one, most traditional Korean dances are interesting 'cause all the individual dancers work together to make something or some type of formation that is beautiful. I think this another exemplification of how Korean culture focuses/cares more about the group than the individual, which definitely has its pros and cons.. just as individuality in America has its share of pros and cons

how most foods are cut in Korea

Scissors! It makes sense in that you won't risk little kids hurting themselves with knives. Even meat and most of their Korean foods are cut with scissors like these. Of course, there are different scissors for cutting stationary.

i need to upload a picture/video of them cutting meat and fruits with scissors!

random picture galore

i love the families with matching orange pants .. hehe ^^



.. do you want to ride the "Good bus"?! :) Also, if this is the "good bus," then where is the "bad bus"



this just made my day! but one correction, can = toilet, if you put the toilet paper down the toilet, what is described in the picture will happen haha (oh and its true) Koreans usually have a little trash can on the side for toilet paper.. it amazes me how Korean bathrooms don't reek



it's hard to see but at a foreigner's bar, there is a drink called "pine, thank you" because when you ask any korean, "how are you" - the response about 85% of the time is "pine, thank you"





this is the art street in Seogwipo - its really cute .. this picture doesn't do justice




happiness!



.. sadness :(

Strangers !

i love strangers! i was just minding my own business near a window of a coffee shop and these two guys from Italy and Ireland knock on the window and hold up a piece of paper against the window, saying "What is your favorite Led Zepillin song?"

That has always been a toss up between "Kashmir" and "Stairway to Heaven" so i scribbled that on the back of my coffee receipt. All of a sudden, they rush in to give me a hug because they were just debating about the two. Next thing I know ..we end up chatting for 3 hours about every topic under the sun from dogs to the death penalties hah. Turns out they were pretty cool guys that are recording for songs for their first album, which is pretty damn sweet. They live with the mantra of "No drugs, no alcohol and no caring what about people think."

The latter can be very easily demonstrated with the video below. We said goodbye with plans to meet up later. After a few minutes , my head is buried in the book was reading again and I look up and all of a sudden see them back in the coffee shop with doing this:



There was a crowd of old Korean women staring in deep confusion. I am not sure which was funnier - their dance or the look on the Korean women's faces.