Bread, the 9th floor, and June/July Adventures!

We have a bread company near the area that I reside. You may be wondering why this is a pertinent piece of information. Well, on some lucky evenings, when it does not smell like sewage or something equally fetid that is common in our area, I get to smell the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread. It reminds me of mom’s homemade bread and boy do I miss it!

We’re being watched. This I have discovered! Not that I have particularly astute observational skills, but two recent elevator rides have made me recognize this. The first instance, I entered the elevator with an older woman who I see every once in awhile around the building. As the doors shut, she pressed the button to her floor (I don’t remember which one) and then…pressed the number 9 button for my floor. Uh…thanks? The next time, I got on with a little boy around the age of 8. He acknowledged me with a very polite bow, and too, pressed the 9 button. How…do they know this? I suppose it’s not hard remembering what floor the only foreigners in the building live on…

Korea adventures:

2010 world cup! It’s over….I know, but in the first round, Korea played Greece and it was actually at a reasonable time of day considering South Africa is several time zones behind South Korea. After hearing for the past several months how excited the country gets for this event, we decided to experience it for ourselves! So, that Saturday, we grabbed ourselves a red shirt, and headed to City hall, where thousands of other people were gathered to cheer on their team! Unfortunately, the Korean weather decided to continue it’s annoying habit of being sunny during the week and rainy on the weekends, soccer or no soccer. So, we also snagged ourselves some ponchos, which proved to be of little use as the night progressed, from the subway and headed up to join the crowd…the very, very large, excited crowd. If you’ve ever been in a large group of people, you can relate when I compare it to an amoeba. I headed into the crowd with 6 other people, was somehow separated but still in sight of them, and within 20 minutes, though not even realizing that I had moved, somehow ended up right amidst my group. Holly described how crowded it was accurately when she said “I think I could have lifted my feet, and been held up by the people around me.” It was quite hot standing next to that many people so after the rain looked as though it had stopped, I removed my poncho only to find I had sweat so much, I was as drenched as I would have been had I not been wearing it. Ew. Then it started to rain again, but at that point, we were all so close to each other that I would have busted some heads trying to put it on so I gave up. A decision I immediately regretted after Korea scored their first goal, and some fellow fans sent up an immense cheer, along with an immense amount of beer and Newton’s law, true to form, took affect all over my head. Yay. Despite the wet, the hot, the beer, and my temporary fight with crowd anxiety, it was an enjoyable experience. Though, I did immensely welcome the suggestion to head to the outskirts of the crowd at halftime. We enjoyed the rest of the game from the side. An exciting year to be in Korea for sure!

We went paragliding! It was very exciting. I’m not sure how or who discovered that paragliding was an option in Korea, but as soon as it was, Holly and I immediately signed up. We were a little concerned that the weather wouldn’t cooperate the morning we left, the conditions have to be pretty perfect to take off, no rain, as well as the correct wind speed and direction, but fortunately Holly and I were both able to experience this awesome sport! We went in three groups and I was chosen to be in the first. So I headed up the mountain with two other girls and our professionals in the back of a truck. The ride to the launch site was practically as exciting as the actual paragliding…but not quite.  After the fast, bumpy and tree dodging ride to the top, we suited up and one by one ran off the mountain with our instructor. Both Holly and I were chosen to ride with the main guy in our individual groups, therefore we were also put in charge of filming the ride with his camera. So I floated through the sky, completely amazed that human beings figured out how to do these things. It took about 10-15 min. to float to the landing sight and then the next group went. So much fun!

The next weekend was a flurry of activity! On Saturday, we met up with our favorite South Africans and headed to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with several other foreigners, some of which happened to be QUITE obnoxious…I’ll just hold my tongue and leave it at that. Haha. We all learned about the DMZ in our high school History class but it didn’t really have any meaning for me then, because it was half the world away. It’s a whole other story when you actually go there. We visited several different points at the DMZ but the one I found most interesting was the JSA (Joint Security Area) where both North and South Korean soldiers stand on their respective sides of the Demarcation line, which is marked by white stakes and a cement line. A building stands right on the line and this is where all negotiations since 1953 have been held. We were able to enter the building and could step over the line and be in North Korea. Amazing! Another interesting place we visited was the 3rd incursion tunnel dug by North Korea. This tunnel was found when soldiers received a tip from a North Korean defector. There are in fact four incursion tunnels with at least 10 more suspected of being dug under the demarcation line. When discovered, North Korea claimed the tunnels were for coal mining but none has ever been found, though they painted some of the walls black to give the appearance of coal. I forgot this bit of information until I touched one of the tunnel walls accidentally. Ew. The 4th tunnel was discovered in 1990, which completely amazed me as the other three were found in the 70’s. But enough of the History lesson…we descended the steep slope into the tunnel with our hard hats and walked in a hunched position while trying (unsuccessfully on my part) to avoid hitting our heads on the rock and pipes. After walking all the way to the end, we were able to observe the first cement barricade of three that were constructed by the South to block off the rest of the tunnel to the North. It was a very interesting and informational trip. I highly recommend it if ever you visit Korea.

The day after our DMZ trip was my birthday! So, I decided to give a gift to myself, and go bungee jumping. Haha! The trip actually included river rafting as well, which I was also excited for but it sadly turned out to be quite disappointing. It doesn’t help that my only previous rafting experiences took place in Colorado, therefore I was expecting it to be as exciting as that. I’ll tell you now that Korea’s rivers aren’t that fast or filled with as many rapids. The day started very rainy, already putting a little damper on the mood and also making me a little worried that the wetness would prevent us from being able to bungee jump. When we arrived at the rafting sight we were told to get into groups of ten. As Holly and I didn’t know anyone, we were placed in a boat with eight other girls. Girls that were incapable of following the directions of our guide or even the simple task of paddling. Though this sounds a tad mean, I can defend my slightly exasperated statement by giving you an example of what I mean: The river that we were on was a very lackadaisical one. I could throw my little brother on a tube and have him float down it. I could take my life jacket off and swim down this river (ok maybe with the life jacket on…). It’s true, there were a few rapids, but these rapids weren’t that difficult. A few rapids did require some maneuvering and were bumpy enough for some excitement but nothing extreme. On one of the rapids, our guide was yelling at us to “row, row, row!” but a few of the girls decided they didn’t want to…or something. Who knows? What I DO know, is that out of the nine boats, ours was the ONLY ONE to get stuck on a rock. We all had to pile to one side of the raft while our guide actually hopped out onto the rock to push us off. Oh girls. So rafting was…an interesting experience. By the time we were done with that, the rain had slowed to a drizzle…were we going to get to bungee? YES! We WERE! So we traveled to the site, and split into two groups. I was in the second group, and out of the 46 people bungee jumping…I was 46th. People, that’s a long time to wait and watch other jumpers freak out on a really high platform. Only three or four people were too scared to do it and backed out. You had a choice of going by your waist, or your ankles. I figured, if I was going to do it, I was doing it 100%, tie me up by my ankles! When two people were left, a girl named Sophie and I, I wondered if I would have any nerve problems once I got to the edge. Sophie walked to the edge, stood there for a few seconds looking down, and then turned to the worker standing next to her. She said, “I can’t do it, can you just push me?” and he did. Lol. I was next! I walked to the edge, looked down, waved at Holly, and dove off. It was amazing. Freefalling headfirst is a breathtaking experience. I’d totally do it again.

The next Saturday was what we have dubbed our Epic fail Saturday. It started out with such potential. We had a plan to head into Seoul with Ian, Laura, and John to find a Dr. fish (where you put your feet in water with little fish that eat the dead skin off. Sounds gross, I know) and an Ice Bar (a bar that is made entirely of ice; seats, glasses, tables, decorations). Both places were in Hongdae. We had researched them on the “visit Korea” website, written down the directions and were ready for a day full of new experiences and fun fellowship! We arrived in the area of Dr. Fish first, and after searching for about 30 min, found an English speaking native, and asked if he knew where it was. He pointed us in the right direction and we traveled up to the 7th floor of the building only to find a completely different business. They conveyed to us that the Dr. Fish had been closed for a year. Angry. Needing some comfort food, we headed to a hamburger restaurant that we had seen while walking around and around in search of the apparently nonexistent Dr. Fish. We all agreed that the burgers were the best we had tasted in Korea and gave us renewed hope that the day was not yet over, and we still had the Ice Bar to pick up our spirits. So, we headed for the Ice Bar, made a few wrong turns, looked up directions AGAIN on my trusty iPod touch, and spotted the sign that said “Ice Bar, 4th** Floor.” Oh sweet success!! We traveled to the top and once again, our dreams came crashing down around us. It was closed. AUGH! FOR SHAME! By this time it was around 9:00, and we were dejected, so we headed home early. The next day we all got up early to run the Ansan 4k together. John ran the 10K (because he’s awesome like that) and though Holly was signed up for the Half marathon, she decided she would be nice and just run the 4k with Ian, Laura and I. ;) So though Saturday was a little disappointing, our overall weekend was fun. Besides, it can never be all bad when you’re hanging out with three cool kids from South Africa!! If there’s anything to be learned from this weekend though, it’s not to trust anything on that blasted Visit Korea website. It’s all lies…LIES I TELL YOU!!



**Some buildings in Korea don’t have a 4th floor because it is unlucky. Instead, they put an F on the 4th elevator button or sometimes, they skip the floor altogether, going straight from 3rd to 5th.

What better way to spend a Sunday than eating brunch with friends? Well that’s what we did with Ian Laura, and John a couple weeks ago. But we also played the wii, and Jenga, and Bananagrams, and went bowling, and played football, and volleyball, and hiked a mountain, and ate ice cream! Of course, the only thing we planned was the brunch, everything else just happened as it was suggested by one person or another. Pretty much one of the best Sundays EVER!

Well, some of you may not know this but my school is closing. They are having financial problems so have decided to end my contract early. My original ending date was the 16th of September so I’m ending about 2 months early. Unfortunately this means I will not be receiving my bonus or flight home as promised. On the other hand, I get to come home EARLY! Which is exciting! I’ve had quite the adventures here and am thankful for the opportunity to experience all the things that I have. The most important thing that I will take from the past 10 months though, will be the friendships I have formed. I met many people but a select few became true friends, and one became like a sister. I am sad to leave those that live in other countries because seeing them again will be more difficult. I am sadder to leave my new sister because she will be staying in Korea for two more months and then living a few states away when she returns to America. After seeing her almost everyday for the last 7 months, this will seem like a much longer distance than just a few hundred miles.

My tentative itinerary is this: China next week, Aug. 4th I fly to San Fransisco to stay with my brother and sister in law for a few days (yay!!), then home to Kansas!! Can’t wait to see everyone and meet some new babies that have been born while I was away!!!

Buddha, Busan and Biking

Kaley’s adventures the end of May and beginning of June!

Lantern festival – May 16^th, the Sunday before Buddha’s Birthday weekend. We discovered that even though the celebration of this “enlightened one’s” birth wasn’t for another week, KoreaKorea because everywhere I looked was foreigners. I hadn't seen this many in one place since I left America. It was bizarre! was going to kick the celebration off early and have a lantern festival! There were all types of lanterns but all had a lotus flower on it somewhere. After getting off the subway, we were pulled into a stand where we could make our own lotus shaped lanterns. The Korean man who “convinced” us to make one was very enthusiastic. He practically pulled the camera off my neck to take pictures (pretty good ones actually) for me. We then walked down the closed off street and observed hundreds of other foreigners participate in the many booths that lined it. It was hard to tell that we were even in Korea because everywhere I looked was foreigners. I hadn't seen this many in one place since I left America. It was bizarre!

Busan - Happy Birthday Buddha! Though over half of the religious population of South Korea are now Christians, Buddha’s Birthday is still very important, and therefore a National holiday. In the past couple years the Korean government has cancelled some National holidays such as Parent’s Day and Teacher’s Day, so days off of work are few and far between. This holiday was the first three day weekend we were going to have in over two months…so Holly and I decided to do something special…Busan and your beach, here we come!

Now, normal people take the 5 hour train to Busan…but Holly and I somehow (don’t ask me how) found flight tickets there for virtually the same price. Amazing! So…Saturday morning found us boarding a plane for a 45 min. ride to Gimhae airport near Busan. It’s like flying from Kansas City to Garden City, as a reference for those living in Kansas. We then found our way (only getting lost a few times…really…just a few) to our hotel, and headed to the beach! Yayyyy the beach!!! Busan’s most popular beach is called Haeundae, a movie was even made about it recently, but we decided to visit a closer/smaller/hopefully less crowded one called Gwangalli. When we arrived, we found a spot in the sand, spread our towels out and relaxed. It was fantastic. Holly took some amazing pictures of nearby children who were playing with seaweed (yeah, that’s what I said). This one of the boy is my favorite. So stinkin cute.

We decided not to swim because as stated in previous posts, the weather had been unusually cool this year. Lying in the sun was perfect, but swimming would have been quite cold, though we did wade in the water, until we saw how dirty it was that is…

After awhile, we had to move because the nearby buildings shadows were encroaching on our original spot. As we stood up Holly said, “uh, Kaley, correct me if I’m wrong but…is that Laura?” “What?! Haha! Yeah! It is!!” We had inadvertently stumbled upon some church friends who chose a spot about 100 feet from ours. A very bizarre occurrence that would prove to become uncannily more common then one would think with our amazing South African friends.

We spent the evening with our friends and then decided to meet the next day at the fish market whenever we got up and around. Note that no particular time was decided on… The next morning, we woke up to a cloudy, rainy looking sky and a quote from Pooh the Bear is quite fitting in this situation: “Oh bother.” So much for our sunny, beach filled weekend! We’ll just have to find something else to do!!

Holly and I made our way to Jagalchi fish market to check it out while we waited to hear from John, Laura, and Ian. Watching our step as we walked through the rain/fish/trash covered ground, we looked up to the sight of our three friends walking around the corner. Wow…again, not planned. We’re getting good at this!

We ventured to the indoor part of the market and decided to pool our money for some sushi, barbequed fish, and lobster…and this is where it gets interesting:

Laura found a man who spoke some English and told us that we could buy a fish and lobster from him for cheap. Was this price too good to be true? Read on to find out…but for those of you impatient ones about to fall off your seats, I’ll just say that yes, it was. When the man had successfully selected our lobster, beheaded, skinned, and sashimi-ed half our fish (quite entertaining let me tell you) and sent the rest upstairs to be cooked, he grabbed the calculator and typed in what we owed. I’ll pay you cash money if you can guess how much the total was…but as you are probably making a guess in your head, and won’t actually be able to inform me, since I’m 6,000 miles away, and the fact that you’re probably making your guess in American dollars… I’ll hastily say “nope, that’s wrong” and tell you that it was 180,000won. That’s about $150.00. Ouch. We only had 148,000won between all of us, not planning on spending such a hefty amount of money for ONE MEAL. We tried to convey to the man our dilemma, with John and Ian actually showing him their completely empty wallets. We asked if we could get a smaller lobster to maybe bring down the cost, but after some deliberation, the man decided to just take what we had and sent us upstairs. With a sneaking suspicion that we’d been had, we sat down and ate some tasty sashimi. Then our fish was brought to us, as well as our surprisingly difficult to eat lobster. Ian actually bent a chopstick trying to break it’s “really strong elbow!” As the picture shows below:

After finishing, we decided to head back outside to look around the area some more. We put our shoes on, grabbed our umbrellas, and started to walk away when John spotted another foreigner that we had spent some time with the night before. Not knowing we had lost a comrade on the way out, he was inadvertently left behind when the “fish guts” hit the fan. The “fish guts” being that a woman grabbed Holly as we walked away because apparently, if you thought that the fee for cooking the fish was included in the humongous sum you paid for the fish, you’d be wrong. Holly’s great intuition told her that we were about to be swindled again, and she told us to “Go! Go! Go!” We then left at high speeds, trying to get away because we were very literally, all out of money. When we got outside, we turned around to discover that John was missing, and feared for his life/wallet. Will they make him stay to wash thousands of tiny side dishes for the rest of his life?! Will he have to empty and recycle bottles and bottles of Soju?! Will he, oh there he is, let’s go! We then relocated to a less conspicuous spot, particularly one that didn’t smell like fish, and John told us that the lady was trying to charge him another 80,000won! Ridiculous! He somehow got away by gesturing that he was going to find us…and that, my dear friends, is how I dined and dashed for the first, and hopefully the last, time.

The rest of the day we walked around Busan’s China town…but it should have been called Russia town, because everything was Russian. Then we hung out and talked in a coffee shop for several hours, hoping the rain would stop, but it was stubborn and didn’t. So we parted ways and headed back to our respective hotels. Holly and I relaxed until our flight the next day and returned to reality. It was an interesting and good weekend.

Gwangalli Bridge at night.



Lantern's for Buddha's Birthday

Seonyudo Island biking!Look how excited we are!!

This adventure took place on the last weekend of May and the weather was perfect! All we needed to do was jump the transportation hurdle for the promise of a relaxing weekend. So, we rode a 2 hour subway, 3 hour bus, and 1 hour ferry to our destination. The ferry was the only mode of transportation to this island, therefore there wasn’t much traffic. I saw a few trucks but mostly people rode around in golf carts, or rode their bikes. The island actually consisted of three different islands connected by bridges, so a bike was really the only way to do it anyway. When we arrived, we took our bags to the hotel, and hopped on our bikes for some relaxing pedaling.

The whole group totaled about 80 foreigners so we broke into smaller groups to explore the island. Our group was quite small, unintentionally replicating the fantastic four and contained:

Kelly from Connecticut, Chris from London, Kaley from Kansas and Holly from Minnesota. Poor Chris stuck with all those girls, what’s a nice guy with an accent to do!? Well…at one point, he joined forces with Kaley to eliminate Holly with a fishing rope. Fist pound. Haha!

We like being silly sometimes. Anyway, as I said before, the island only had three bridges, so we were bound to meet the other groups of foreigners. We spent some time with Jackie’s group and then split off again, but later learned that Jackie had had an accident involving a pot hole, some pedestrians, a hill, one of those golf carts, and some high speed. It ended with her catching the last ferry to the mainland to get some stitches on her chin, but boy was she a trooper!

Later that evening I was able to spend some time with a lively, funny and very friendly group of South Africans, thanks to my rock climbing buddy Naomi. The next day we went hiking and explored the phenomenon called “The Moses Miracle” that the island is known for. During a specific time of year, the tide goes out far enough that a pathway is uncovered to a smaller island in the middle of the bay. When normally you would have to swim to get to it, at this time, you can just walk there. It’s pretty awesome and Holly, Kelly and I experienced it together!

Our group watching/having fun, waiting for the sunset.

A bamboo bo staff fight also took place during this trip…I shall include the video below. I won’t make any excuses about why I lost *ahem* putrid, vile, substance landing on my FACE!... I’ll just admit my defeat to one Holly Vail Bonnema. Touché my friend. Touché.

To finish the weekend off, on our way home from Seonyudo on the Subway, as we stood waiting for the train to make a complete stop so we could board it, who did we see? You got it, Ian and Laura. Hey guys...this is getting weird...but I kind of like it. :)


Enjoy this post! More to come soon! Love you guys.

A plethora of random thoughts. Beware!

This blog contains some things I’ve learned, experienced, and seen here in Korea. It isn’t one about recent trips that I’ve taken, that one is still expounding in my brain. (I don’t even know if I used that in its correct form. Nicole?) Anyway, it will be here soon!

Musical road – On our way to Costco awhile back, our driver, Jenny, said “listen!” to Holly and I. Not knowing what to “listen” for, we sat and confusedly looked at each other. Suddenly, we realized, the road was singing. Well…not singing, but playing a song. The grooves in the road were strategically placed to play Twinkle Twinkle Little star, I think, I actually don’t remember the song, I just remember that it was cool. I recall hearing about something like this in the States, but never experienced it. I wonder how long it took to make!!?

Toy guns - On my walk home one Saturday, I had my headphones in, listening to a newly downloaded (awesome, of course) CD. I heard some commotion, took my earphone out, and spotted several elementary aged Korean boys playing at the park. I hardly ever see this…because they are almost always in school, but it happened to be a Saturday that they actually had a break, and there they were, playing, with toy guns nonetheless. Toy guns aren’t a big deal here like they are in America. I’ve seen them brought to school, and even tucked away in pockets in church. So, I watched in amazement as these 15 or so boys, immensely enjoyed laying waste to each other with imaginary bullets. It was pretty fun to watch, their death scenes were quite impressive. It made me want to whip out my pistol and ninja roll into the fray…but then I remembered I didn’t have a pistol, and I would probably hurt myself in the ninja roll attempt. So I went on my way, chuckling at their childhood antics, and remembering my own.

Yellow dust – I may have already briefly touched on this topic in other blogs, but will explain it in more detail so that you may understand what it is. Yellow dust is quite a problem in Korea. Mostly during the springtime but I’m finding that it has lingered into the summer as well. What is yellow dust? Well, it’s a very fine dust that blows over from the deserts in Mongolia and China. The reason it’s so worrisome is because as it comes from the desert, it travels over the industrial belt in China, therefore picking up some fun toxins on the way. Yellow dust is the main reason for the masks, and umbrellas…if you don’t have one when it’s raining, “your hair will fall out” because the rain has yellow dust in it. The weekly forecast may consist of: rainy, sunny, partly cloudy, and a yellow dust storm or two. One day this Spring, I was actually reminded of a “pre-tornado” sky back home, because it was completely yellow. The next day, all the cars had a layer of dust on them. I didn’t really notice the dust before, but now I can tell when it’s in the air…because it has the faint smell of moldy/old cardboard boxes. That’s the only way I know how to describe it. Lol.

Traffic signals – they aren’t followed here. People run red lights like CRAZY! When asked how people can run them without getting into trouble with the Police, they just say that the traffic cameras take your picture and a ticket is sent to you, but that doesn’t seem to faze these drivers. Plus, there are hardly any police officers here anyway. I have never seen a police officer pull anyone over, and the few I see are always just driving around with their lights always on, but no one ever gets out of the way for them. It’s preposterous! We do however have a power hungry traffic cop that works at the apartment complex near Holly’s. He likes to stand outside his little house and blow his whistle to tell cars where to go. The thing is, he’s not even standing at the intersection, there are only two ways to turn when the cars DO get to the intersection, and there are so few cars that even the IDEA of a traffic cop just seems pointless. Unless, of course, the real reason is to wake up everyone in the surrounding area with his whistle, because then, the idea makes perfect sense! *eye roll*

The bee story – Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I have a break between my kids’ classes and my adult classes. During this time, I prepare, but if I already have everything ready, I usually watch something online, or type this blog…if I’m motivated. ;) One day, as I was sitting at my computer, I heard the dreaded noise of a bug caught in a room. You know the noise, the one where they can’t figure out where to go so they just smack aimlessly into things. This particular bug sounded quite large, so I looked around to check the category in which I would be dealing with. Ah, a bee…wonderful. That’s when Mr. Kim spotted the little (well…big actually) bugger, and proceeded to run out of the room. Haha! He said that it was called a horse bee, or something, because they were so big. I was standing in the doorway, watching it fly around when Mr. Kim told me to come out and shut the door because “they can kill you!” Uh…ok. Then he said, “I don’t know what to do.” And I said, “Give me your tennis racquet; I can kill it in one shot.” But he vetoed that idea right away, probably because it would be hard to find a sub for me on such short notice. Ha! What did he decide? To get the bug spray, stand in the doorway, and fill the room with poison until the bee finally died. It worked, but guess whose stuff is right inside the door? You got it, mine. I had enough sense to close my computer when I realized what he was going to do but the top cover, my books, desk, and everything else had a nice layer of bee killer on it. Sick.

The idea of memory- My students are unable to comprehend the concept. Don’t get me wrong, they definitely know how to PLAY it…because all I had to say was “memory” and they were setting up the pieces practically before I had them out of the rubber band, but the idea is just…lost. They like to have things organized, so when two pieces are matched together, all I have to do is wait, before…yep, there goes Sally, moving two other side pieces in to fill those new empty positions. Guys…you’re supposed to REMEMBER where the match is!! Not move them around!! I should just rename the game to “you’ll always have to guess where the match is if you keep doing that.” ß that’s a silly name, Kaley. When the pieces dwindle to about 6-10…they like to just mix them all together and re-lay them back out. I’ve stopped trying to prevent them from doing this. I guess they just really don’t want each other to win for that extra sticker prize. Oh what they’ll do for a sticker!

At the gym – We’ve found a new machine that we like! It’s a hiking machine, and it’s pretty great. The hiking machines have their own little room so there is hardly anyone back there when we arrive. One day, we noticed that the cleaning woman was wiping the machines down. Holly and I were walking/running/hiking on our machines when suddenly a shininess on Holly’s machine caught my eye. I looked down at her feet and saw that the machine was wet, I then down at mine and saw that the woman WAS CLEANING MY MACHING while I was still on it! Oh snap!!

Calendar – I have a calendar that I X the day off when it’s over. Last month I had to put two X’s on one day. I’ve decided, if two days have to share on a calendar, then that month has too many days. Moral of the story, May seemed super long.

Animals – I miss them. When I see a dog, I just want to stop and pet it. There were some puppies on the Island we went to on our bike tour (which I will write about in my next blog, promise). They were quite dirty puppies, I must admit, but every time I passed them, I just had to give them some lovin! Sometimes we walk by pet stores, and I have to stop myself from watching the dogs and cats for too long. Can’t wait to go home and see my two dogs and many, many cats. B.J. named the new litter of kittens with all Z names. I was super impressed. He’s learned to carry on the tradition of unusual names for our animals. Way to go kid.

Spelling – is slightly irrelevant here. Whenever a student pronounces a word that I don’t quite understand, I ask them to spell it for me, which is a mistake because, they most likely can’t. Words that are translated from Korean writing to English, are spelled different every time I see them. For example, they have a food here called Kimbap, but it’s pronounced Gimbap, and sometimes spelled that way. This is also common with town names. Their 3^rd biggest town is Busan, but they say Pusan. When I first arrived in Korea, I was trying to find flights to an Island called Jeju, but it kept coming up as Cheju on the internet. WHICH IS IT?! Haha. Needless to say, I can now understand why some words are hard to say for them. The letter Z isn’t even used in their language, so the word Zoo…is unbelievably hard and sounds like joo. I commend those that stick with learning the English language. It would be a very daunting task for sure.

Fin! Korea trips blog coming soon! Love you guys!

Imaginary hedghogs and cans of corn.

Hello my compatriots and kinfolk! Here’s the whirlwind of what I’ve been doing the last…2?...and a half?..no…for sanity’s sake, let’s say just 2 months. Ok. GG guys. High five.

My last blog was about Hiking Seoraksan in February, so I will continue from there, determined to continue writing until I’m all caught up! Is it possible?! Whether my fingers or your brain become too exhausted to go on, only time will tell. But I warn you, the length of this one is not for the faint of heart. On your mark, get set, Green! Gobbstoppers! (haha...a great way to trick those overzealous kids playing red light, green light, that’s a free tip, you’re welcome) GO!

Begin foot note/ My weekdays consist of…pretty much nothing (it’s true, they stink), so when I talk about all the things I’m doing, just assume it happened on a weekend. Also, when I say “we”, it’s always Holly and I…because we’re practically Siamese twins…in…Korea…do I smell some sort of parody? Eh? / End foot note.

March 6- Hey soccer and Riverdance! How are you doing?! One of my students decided that I would be joining him and his co-workers early one Saturday for a rousing, and surprisingly serious game of Soccer. Usually when my students invite me to things like this, I can say “sure,” but it doesn’t usually happen because if I wait long enough, they forget, or stop coming to class. Sun though, he’s a persistent one, and made me pick a date back in December. March 6th was the day and when it rolled around, he hadn’t forgotten, and was still in class. So he brought me a uniform (yeah, that’s what I said), and mens sized soccer cleats (see? Serious). He picked me up at the school, and we arrived at a turf field they rent every Saturday with other companies. I was on the Tenneco team, and they decided to put me in the right-back defensive position. Now…people, I like soccer, and I played…but it was 12 YEARS AGO. AND it was REC LEAGUE! A.k.a. like they taught us detailed rules and real positions! (They didn’t) So I pretty much didn’t know what I was doing. At one point Sun was talking to me about a rule where the defense has to stay behind the people who can score, or the goalie, or something. <---- Do you understand how I explained that? Good, because I don’t either. So I asked Sun, “Ok, so what do you need me to do?” and he said “Kaley, (Kelly, because it’s hard to say my name) you already do it! Good job!” So…maybe I looked like I kind of knew what I was doing? I can only hope. After 4 hours straight of playing soccer with a bunch of guys, we had a lunch of Kimchi pork and tofu. Not that bad actually. Sun and Danny told me: “you’re much better than we expected!” Oh good. It was fun. Right after I returned from the game, I showered, and we headed to Seoul for some RIVERDANCE with Sarah, David, and Jen. This was an original performance and it was absolutely spectacular! I loved it, and now want to go to Ireland even more. (Nicole)

March 13th- Birthday weekend! Holly’s birthday was on the 11th and Kelly’s was on the 15th, so we all decided to get tickets to the famous show called Nanta. This show involves percussion, martial arts, food and silliness. So like, Blue Man Group, Stomp, Jackie Chan, Julia Childs and the Three Stooges all rolled into one. How can THAT not be a fantastic mixture of things?! It can’t, so it goes without saying that the show was super fun. Especially with 3 other wonderful individuals *cough* Holly, Kelly, Pete. Basically, four chefs had a limited amount of time to make a wedding dinner. They had to overcome many problems; a novice chef, their overbearing manager, knives/plates/food/brooms/hats/pans/whatever you can think of being thrown, spilled food, someone getting stuck in a trash can (how does that happen…more than once?) someone forgetting to turn on the oven for the cake, crowd members with no shoes on (Kellyyyyy) and many other things, to make a perfect dinner. Of course, they made it on time, huzzah! Fun times!

March 27th- Suraksan/Bulamsan hiking. These mountains are on the outskirts of Seoul…unfortunately…they were the particular outskirts that are on the complete opposite side from where I live. Woe is me. ;) But as they were the hiking group’s mountains of choice for the weekend, Holly was working (sad), and it would be Pete and Kelly’s first hike with Warren’s group, I decided to brave the 50ish (preposterous!) subway stops to join them. It was a good time. I met another Holly from Minnesota, there was some slipping and sliding on leaves, reenactments of Avatar, sprinting up the mountain to test the theory “the faster you go, the longer you get to rest” (the jury's still out on that one), cute prickly seed pods that looked like baby hedgehogs who said “pet my belly!”, treacherous rock climbing, jumping pictures, gasping for air, gorilla pictures, and some getting lost. All in all, another successful Korea hiking group adventure, but not quite the same without the other Holly from Minnesota... ;)

April 3rd- Spring! Cherry Blossoms! Yaaayyyyy! Oh wait…it’s still Winter in Korea. The Cherry blossoms won’t bloom for another 3 WEEKS. Never mind. This weekend we were supposed to travel to Jinhae on the Southwestern tip of Korea for the biggest Cherry Blossom festival in Korea. Regrettably, as it had just snowed the week before, there were no (ok, maybe 2) Cherry blossoms in all the land. Also, part of the festival had been cancelled due to the recent sinking of a Naval ship on the North/South Korean maritime boarder. We luckily met Shaun, who knew a little Korean and was our tour guide for the next two days. We had a great time walking all over the city and talking with him. After Jinhae, we travelled to the second largest island (Jeju being the first) in Korea called Geojedo. We had the opportunity to hike but decided to follow Shaun around again. A few other people came with us but we split up after hanging out at the water for awhile and it ended up just being Shaun, Holly, Jay and I. Jay is from Korea, so we actually hopped on a bus to head to some sweet places. She was very feisty with Shaun because they know each other and it made me laugh. “Jay, ask him where the bus goes.” “No Shaun, you do it!” “You’re the Korean!” “Shaun, you can just get off the bus at the next stop. I’m serious.” Haha!! Since we were so far south, the weather was a bit warmer than Seoul, so we lounged near the water for awhile. It was great! We got home on Sunday around 11:00, a little late for my liking, but worth it.

April 10th- to Yeouido in Seoul…at another attempt to see cherry blossoms. Another failure. But we did get some yummy Kraze burger. Oh beef, how expensive you are, yet how completely delicious.

April 17th- Rock climbing! Holly went to Jeju Island this weekend with her cousin Curt. So…I went rock climbing. It was fantastic! I could make that a hobby when I get home. From what some of the other climbers told me, it was different than normal rock climbing…but I had never done it…so didn’t know any better. My favorite part was rappelling down the rock face. Super fun. I met two GREAT girls who were also there as singles. Angie, Connie and I became fast friends. People kept asking us, “ Do you guys all teach together?” “uh…no…we met on this trip.” “WHAT?! Really?!” haha. They’re great! I also met a few girls from South Africa who were fantastic. Marie and Naomi helped translate for the 3 other loud, funny, loud boys from South Africa. At one point, we were a bit further back than the rest of the group on a hiking trail, we came to a split in the road, and not knowing which way to go…decided to wait a few seconds. Why? Well...wait long enough, and you’ll inevitably hear Conrad’s laugh…and sure enough…it came from the right trail. Thanks Conrad. Haha! Turns out, their favorite word to say sounds the same in Afrikaans as it does in English…if spelled a little differently. I’ll just say it’s a four letter word and leave it at that.

April 24th- to Bucheon we go! It has the most delicious curry restaurant that we were introduced to by Carol and Vernon. They were back home in South Africa, getting married this weekend, so we traveled there in their honor to Celebrate. Yay and yum! On Sunday we met Sarah and David at a Science museum after Church…and can I just say…MADNESS! It was family day or something. I don’t even know…but there were kids everywhere! I also saw a storm trooper walking around with a Darth Vader mask on. How bizarre…

May 1st- Volleyball! Or so I thought. When I arrived to the volleyball courts to meet the people and finally play this wonderful game that I had so missed…I found that the courts were being de-sanded but a big backhoe for a reason that still eludes me. Thanks Korea. I was pretty disappointed. Luckily, we were meeting Pete and Kelly at a Doosan Bears baseball game not long after so I had something else to look forward to. This game was AMAZING! The fans get so excited about their baseball! We were in the general admission seats right on the first base foul ball line. Everyone had the thunder sticks that you bang together and cheered like CRAZY…even though the bears lost 11 to 1 to the Nexen Heroes. We’ll be going back to another game!

May 5th- Children’s day in Korea. An actual national holiday! Woo! Too bad it was in the middle of the week! This day is like Christmas for the kids. They get gifts and go to amusement parks with their family. It was the first holiday in the last two and a half months so EVERYONE was out. Holly and I decided to go to Olympic park. We passed the Seoul Grand Park subway stop on the way there and were completely flabbergasted by how many people were waiting for the train. Seoul grand park has an amusement park AND a zoo…therefore…it was where everyone was headed. Boy am I glad we weren’t headed there. Olympic park was pretty crowded as well, but it’s a really big area so it wasn’t bad. We were only “almost” run over by several people on bikes, my head was nearly taken off by a rogue kite flier, Holly saved a small child (but sadly, not his slushy) from a hole, tried to scale a log, sat on a wall for 30 minutes before we were yelled at to get off, listened to cheesy music being blared over the speakers, witnessed some boys sword fight with sticks on roller-blades (yes, someone ended up crying, of course) , and we watched a boy play baseball with a big water bottle as his bat. After that, we found a 30 minute shortcut by subway (huzzah!) and after looking for an On the Border, we stumbled instead, upon a Bennigans just before the lunch menu was over! SUCCESS!!!

May 8th- Caving. We did! We went caving! But first we rode a ferry for a couple hours… and experienced some lovely sun whilst doing this. The ferry ride was fairly long, but I didn’t mind, I had some wonderful company: Pete, Kelly, Holly, Erik, and Reuben. We ate lunch on the ferry too…well…some of us did, Reuben had a can of corn, yes, a can...of corn, you can imagine how much entertainment that gave us. Lol. In his defense, he's from Iowa....so...he likes his corn. After the ferry we went down into the cave, it’s so amazing that you can be that far underground, and then when you come out, it’s just a mountain, with no trace of what’s inside it. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be the first person to explore caves. I’d have to give myself a SERIOUS pep talk beforehand, that’s for sure.

OK! So…I’m up to speed I believe! I was a little impatient with the length there at the end…so maybe didn’t include all details and such but hey…you get the picture. ;) Love you guys!

P.S…I’m listening to itunes radio right now…who is this Justin Bieber kid and why does he sound 12 years old? Haha. Have a good week guys.

Hiking Seoraksan: "What's taking these muggles so long?!"

In Korea, the word “san” refers to a mountain. It took me a little while (time frames aren’t necessary here people) to realize this. After it was brought to my attention, I realized I had been saying Seoraksan mountain…which means I had actually been saying Seorak mountain mountain. Silly me. The same goes for the word “do” meaning island (or province) and “gang” meaning river. So some advice, you don’t have to say Jejudo Island (Jeju island island), or Hangang river (Han river river). Or you could, and feel silly, like me. Do what you want.

Tangent, back on track. There are several mountains/mountain ranges in Korea, but the three tallest (that we can get to, because the tallest is quite inconvenient, being mostly in..uh..North Korea.) are called, in order, Hallsan (on Jejudo), Jirisan (south part of Korea) and Seoraksan (North East side). I hiked Hallsan last October without knowing these details when I visited Jejudo with Sarah and David.

The hiking group I’ve written about before decided to do a Seoraksan overnight bus trip the last weekend in February. Holly and I willingly joined in, once again, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into. But that seems to be the norm in this country so…no biggie. The plan, was to meet at the bus station at 11:30pm Friday night, drive through the night, and hike to the top for a, hopefully, spectacular sunrise. Normally, from what I gathered along the way, most hikers start pretty early, hike to the top, sleep there, and then hike down the next day, making it a two day hike. Not us! NO! We decided to do it all in one day! Nuts!

Let me first start with my three biggest mistakes…I shouldn’t start with my mistakes, but they are necessary for the rest of the story. 1. 3 ½ hours of sleep (on a bus, even better), is NOT ENOUGH for a 14 hour hike. 2. Tennis shoes, no matter what you tell yourself, are not proper footwear for an icy, 14 hour winter hike. 3. Headlamps/a flashlight would be a very, very smart idea when starting at 3am for a 14 HOUR HIKE. In my defense on this one, there is usually a language barrier involving explanations on these hikes. Though it’s never proven to be a huge problem in the past, this particular issue could have been more clearly explained. I also could have USED MY BRAIN and thought about the implications of being at the top for the sunrise, which meant we would have been hiking in completely darkness. *head smack*

Ahem. Moving on. I darted out of work that Friday night, ran to Holly’s, grabbed our bags, and got on the subway to meet the crew in Yongsan where our chartered bus, and new friends, were waiting.

The first thing I saw when I walked down the bus aisle was a KU hat…Rockchalk! Another Kansan was here and after further discussion, we discovered that we actually had a mutual acquaintance. Amazing! We then picked a seat, listened to some interesting instructions from our fearless/funny/energetic/ sometimes frustrating group leader, Warren, and headed to the mountain.

When we arrived, we piled off the bus in a somewhat scattered manner and somehow ended up at the trailhead all together. Warren had gone to the ranger’s office to check on the trail status. When he returned, he informed us that much of the snow had melted off the rocks near the bottom of the trails because of the relatively warm weather the last couple of days. “Oh that’s good” I thought (thinking of my awesome choice of footwear) but it would have been smart of me to let him finish talking before I thought that. Why? Because then he said the very heavy fog was freezing on those uncovered rocks, making for some fairly treacherous footing situations. Optimism! That’s the key! Let’s go crew! And away we went!

It didn’t take us long to realize that there was a potential of losing each other on the ascent. A few other groups of Korean hikers were determined to make the top by sunrise as well, and they were intermingling with our group and getting us all SORTS of confused in the dark. So on our first break someone jokingly said, “We should make a bird call like “coo coo!” so that we know where everyone is in the dark.” Many people laughed at the silliness of this statement…but it soon proved to be a necessary part of our hike. If one group got too far ahead someone would just coo coo! And they would stop and wait for the group. Don’t judge. It worked OK?!

Soon we just accepted the fact that unless we tied ourselves together with ropes, we were going to get separated somewhat. At one point, I was hiking with three complete strangers, but they all had headlamps and were very helpful! In especially hazardous situations they pointed it down at my feet to assist me. Thanks guys.

The first three hours or so of the hike were pretty straight up. It was quite difficult. About an hour into the hike we had to put our “clamp-ons” or, spikes for our shoes, on because we were getting into the heavier snow. These spikes were helpful in the snow but when we would hike on the rocks again, they kind of got in the way. If you had any time to look up instead of at your feet, you would see the sparks when the spikes connected with these rocks.

In the first several hours of darkness we walked over several rivers, and I only know this because I could hear them, scaled some rocks with ropes, lost the trail a few times and thought maybe a canister of oxygen would have been a good idea. Good thing these mountains weren’t that high above sea level. Sheesh.

When it started to get lighter outside, we noticed that the fog was also getting thinner. Could we be near the top!? “In 20 min.” said Warren. This meant another 45 at least. We spotted the top around 6:40, right around the time we came all the way out of the clouds. It was magnificent. It was like a blanket underneath. We stopped to take pictures and realized it would be even better at the top, so even though I felt like I couldn’t lift my legs ANYMORE, I pushed on, and made it. The view was even better. The clouds looked like you could just jump into them and land in fluffy cotton. They slowly flowed over and into the valleys around the area. It was very peaceful. But also very cold, so after spending about 45 minutes there, we headed another 20 minutes to a shelter on the ridge to rest, eat and get more water.

The way down was demanding on the knees. This was made better (and more fun) at times by the snow. You could just sit down, and slide several feet on your bum. You had to be careful of course, for one of these things could happen if you got careless: 1. hit a tree 2. Hit another hiker 3. Fly off the mountain (haha, but seriously) 4. Hit a big bump and break your…rear end 5. Wind up in a river 6. Miss your trail.

We were less careful in getting separated around hour 12, with 2 left to go. We wanted to be done, so some groups split off to try and shave off some time. I ended up with three other guys. One, named Yoon, had just finished working in Australia for a year, so he spoke English very well. After unsuccessfully trying to pass a group of slower Koreans, we became a little frustrated that they wouldn’t stop to let us go by on the very narrow path. Yoon surprised me by exclaiming, “What’s taking these Muggles so long!?” which made me laugh very hard. A Harry Potter reference. Awesome.

So after 14 hours, we made it to the bottom, and stumbled onto the bus. Very sore, but very worth it. A three hour bus ride and a two hour subway ride later, Holly and I walked into the apartment, and passed out. It was a great weekend. The pictures are below!

More stories soon! Sorry that one was so long. Eeks.

Love.

Clouds on the mountain.

Sunrise! Beautiful!

clamp-ons for the snow.


The fog! And a rope we used to climb up steep parts.

Not too long before Sunrise...


A waterfall!

Some of the brave at the very top!

Stories, just stories.

Hello again my lovely readers! Hey guess what…I hit my 6 month mark on the 16^th of March! Woo! It’s downhill from here kids…

I think I’ll keep up my pattern of extreme motivation in writing my blogs for two days and then slack off for the rest of the month, what do you think? (rhetorical, haha) So I’ll be posting two blogs fairly close to each other. The first will be just little tidbits that I’ve found interesting/funny/appalling/ and just downright..well…Korean. While the second consists of the things I’ve been doing the past…month…yikes.

- Weddings: I am fortunate enough to gather a wealth of information from many of my students because I have to find SOMETHING to talk about for several hours a day with adults. If anything else, I’m becoming more talented at stretching a short conversation into a longer one. I get really tired of talking. Haha. Anyway, one such conversation was about weddings in Korea. Weddings are a big deal in every country, but in Korea, it may be the equivalence to a popularity contest. Weddings are almost more important to the parents than to the actual bride and groom. The parents invite ALL of their friends and acquaintances. The guest lists can be outrageous in number, the more people, the more impressive. What’s interesting is, if a set of parents don’t have very many guests, they actually HIRE people to come to the wedding. Say WHAT?! This isn’t really common, but amazed me nonetheless. Guests bring money as gifts and all of the money goes to the parents. Good luck kids for having any money to start yours lives with, it’s going to your mom and dad. Haha.

- Dog story told to me in class: “I wanted a dog when I was a kid. One day, I found one on the street and I took it home to ask my parents if I could keep it.” ~Mickey

“Oh, did they let you?” ~ Me

“My dad ate it.”~ Mickey

“Uhhh….I…umm….Let’s move on to the next question.”~Me

- Korean time: referred to several times since I arrived in Korea. I didn’t understand what it was at first…but basically…it’s a way of saying that Korean’s are almost always late. They joke about it…which is good. In a “bad habit” conversation once, several of my students said their bad habit was being late, and that they have tried to break that habit…but then they laugh…I can only assume it’s an impossible habit to break. I don’t judge, I was on Korean time before I even came to Korea.

-Olympics: I know they were several weeks ago, I’m SORRY, OKAY?! Kim Yuna, before the Olympics people in other countries’ response was “who?” when someone said (attempted to pronounce) her name, but as you now know; she’s the 2010 Gold Medalist in Women’s figure skating. Koreans LOVE LOVE LOVE her. No joke. Like…immortality level, love. Her picture was everywhere before the Olympics even started and she has so many sponsorships, I would be willing to bet that her salary has a near equivalence to Bill Gates’ (I don’t really know). Honestly, I felt pretty sorry for the girl. Koreans tend to develop an intense reverence for specific individuals who have the potential for greatness and success. There isn’t anything wrong with that, because Americans do it too, but when they put all of their hope in a 17 year old girl, she has to feel some sort of pressure. The last time they put their hope in someone was in 1998 when Female golfer Se Ri Pak won the U.S. Women’s Open, and golf became one of the most popular sports in Korea. Now, ice skating has become extremely popular with the rise of Kim Yuna and their extremely successful speed skating team. But, if Kim Yuna came home without the gold, she had the potential of losing millions of dollars in Sponsorships. Wow. Saying that, I admired the calm that she portrayed throughout her whole, and spectacular I might add, Olympic performance. It could be safe to say that she was pretty confident she would win.

As I highly enjoy watching the Olympics every two years, I was a little disappointed that it was difficult finding an English station to watch them. But I made due with listening to the Korean commentators. On the day of the Figure Skating semi-finals Holly and I were at the gym. We both decided that we wanted to watch the top five perform on the big screen upstairs in the main area, so when the time came, we dropped our weights and ran upstairs. What we found was amazing, there were about 30 Koreans gathered around the TVs., anxiously awaiting Kim Yuna’s turn. We watched in amusement while they cheered, gasped and clapped for all the other contestants, except her rival from Japan, she received…silence. Lol. Sad. Then Kim came on, and they were mesmerized. It was an amazing thing to experience, with the yells of excitement and everyone sucking in their breath while they waited for her to complete her flawless jumps. We couldn’t wait to watch it again in the final performance. So at the end of the week, we raced upstairs again, the only two foreigners in a sea of Koreans, but we cheered her on with them when she won, almost 17 points ahead of the silver medalist and set a world record. Amazing.

Also amazing is the rule that Korea has about winning gold medals in the Olympics. This rule only applies to the males of course, because they ALL have mandatory military service for two years. The rule? If you win a gold medal, you don’t have to go to military. So all the gold medals won this year, were an accomplishment for not only these men’s country, but also meant so much more. It meant that their mandatory (and usually dreaded) military service was negated. So, more than just a gold medal? I’ll say.

- Smiling on the subway…and other stories: Subway rides on the Seoul subway system can sometimes be unpleasant. Usually it’s quiet, and always a bit awkward. People are serious and seemingly always in a bad mood. They are usually doing one of the following things: watching something on a portable player, listening to music, reading, sleeping, or staring at someone (like, say, the foreigners). Sometimes you’ll be fortunate enough to get on a train with someone friendly or happy. I always enjoy those people. My favorite is when you spot an individual who’s watching a particularly funny show, and they will just be laughing to themselves. It’s great to watch them just crack up randomly, while everyone else continues with their humdrum attitudes.

I witnessed one day, a boy fall asleep next to his mother. As sleeping in an upright position tends to team up with gravity, his mouth kept falling open. This, apparently, was of great concern to his mother, because she kept reaching over and pinching his mouth shut with her fingers. Very, very strange.

A man, was asleep, with a newspaper tucked behind his head, and over his face. Hmmm.

On a particularly long ride, Holly and I watched (started out sneaky but we gave up and just obviously watched his screen, he laughed) a planet Earth documentary with a Korean next to us who had a dvd player. Soon, three or four more people were involved in the watching, after they saw our expressions (appalled AND disgusted) when a bug ate another bug...or something equally gross, they were curious. I laughed.

I rode from Dangogye (end of the blue line) to Oido (other end of the blue line) last weekend, unintentionally. 50 stops. I never want to do that again. Ever.

Germs, germs on the subway! AHH! A man sneezed, without covering his mouth, and it ended up all over the window. Oh my yuck!

One Saturday morning we got on the subway with an older woman. Later that night, we got back on the subway to go home...with the same woman. What are the odds...THE ODDS!?! Same time, same train, same car, same stop. Bizarre!

-“Tetris Event”: Lately, every time I walk into the office here at work, everyone is glued to the computer. Why I ask? It’s a Tetris event! And what does this mean? Well, after they finish the particular level they are on (because there is no pause button), they explain that a cheese company called Bellcube, has the game of Tetris on their website and if you get a high enough score, you win something. Something worthwhile? I didn’t get the chance to ask, because the next level had started.

One day, Cindy had been playing for 20 minutes, and was particularly proud of how far she had gotten. Then Mr. Kim called her phone to ask something. She successfully answered her phone AND put the long purple block in its place to create a full line, but then her concentration broke, thus ruining her game. She became angry, yelled something in Korean at Mr. Kim, hung up the phone, shouted “I hate him!” and restarted her game, in a very angry manner I must say.

Another day, the middle school boys who come here after school walked in while she was playing this very addictive game. They were being noisy, which wasn’t abnormal for them, and seeing that Cindy was preoccupied, I went out to try and see if I could get them to be quieter, without knowing any Korean, fat chance. Then I saw that they weren’t being their normal loud selves, they were actually in a fist fight, yikes. I started to say “Stop it! Guys!” and then realized how little that would do, so I went back to the office and said, “Uh, Cindy? They are…like…punching each other.” The first thing she did was quickly glance at the screen that shows all the cameras to see what was going on. There are 4 cameras here: main lobby, back classrooms, T.V. room, and in front of the elevator. She saw that they were fighting, and then she saw that Mr. Kim was just getting off the elevator with the other kids. Can you imagine what happened next? She said, “Mr. Kim will take care of it” and continued her game. It was funny. Usually she runs out of the room waving a metal curtain rod to threaten them within an inch of their lives. But right now, Tetris had her undivided attention. Oh Korea.

Love!