Day Trip to Gyeongju and Other Things

Long time no post, I know.  I think I've been having too much fun the past month to think about writing on here.  Really it was a combination of that and taking too many naps on accident.  I've never been so ready for a vacation and it's finally just around the corner!

July started off with three days of finals at school.  Note that there were still two weeks left of the semester after finals.  Someone please explain the logic behind that one to me because I still don't get it.  This would probably be why I was taking so many naps.  The kids of course didn't want to be doing anything after they took their tests, so that was exhausting.  The first day of tests, though, I was off work early and already had my beach bag packed to meet Nikki and Laura at the beach.  I hoped right on the subway and they had Quiznos ready and waiting for me!

I actually haven't been to the beach much at all and I have monsoon season to thank for most of that.  It was very rainy here the end of June/beginning of July, so that got in the way of beach time and some baseball time too.  On the Fourth of July, there was a group of us who went to see the Lotte Giants.  We made it to the stadium and that's when the game was canceled.  Laura and I figured that was the most American thing we could do here to celebrate the 4th, so we were a bit bummed!

With the rain and the insane humidity here, I gave in and got magic straight.  I got a straight perm and it was the best thing I could have done to my hair.  Before this, I hadn't worn my hair down since the beginning of May.  Now my hair dries straight and the best thing is that it does not frizz whatsoever in this crazy weather!  Magic straight is very popular here and the cost is much better than at home from what I hear.  I went to a hair salon quite far from me, but it was worth it because the hair stylist can speak English very well from having lived in Canada before and she really seemed to know what she was doing.  Check out Soo Casa if you're here and need a new salon.

This brings me to the day trip to Gyeongju.  A group of friends and I spent a Saturday in Gyeongju, which is about an hour bus ride away from Busan.  It's also one of the more historical places in Korea.  I really enjoyed this trip because it was nice to escape from a big city and actually see green and some countryside.  I really miss that.  We spent the first part of the day walking around and exploring.  After feeling a bit exhausted from the heat, we stopped for lunch and then headed back towards the bus station where the motorbikes caught our eyes when we first arrived.  We were going to rent three with two people on each (which we did at first but only four of us ended up going).  The first place we stopped said we needed to have international drivers licenses, so that wasn't going to work out.  Instead of giving up, we headed across the street and this guy didn't mind as long as we had a license!  We were on our way and rented them for three hours. Amazing. I didn't drive, but it was awesome to ride around and not have anywhere we needed to be.

Mounds where they buried past kings.

To wrap up the month of July, I've been running English Camp at work for the past two weeks.  I've really been enjoying this because I got to plan whatever I wanted and I didn't have to worry about co-teachers or textbooks, which was a nice little break.  Check back soon to see what that was all about!

Finally, throughout the past month or so, I've been planning my summer vacation to Bali, Indonesia! Before coming to Korea, the two places I said I want to visit are Bali and Thailand.  I cannot wait to go.  I'll be there for a week with my friend Jen and will also have a couple days off before then to rest up and relax (hopefully a bit on the beach!) in Busan. It will be the shortest summer break ever (for a teacher at least) as second semester starts August 19, but I'll take it!

24

June 19 marked my 24th birthday and 4 months in Korea.  That called for a celebration, right?  Yes.  Not only did I have a two-day long birthday with getting messages well into June 20 because of the time difference from home, but we also celebrated all week long.

It actually started on June 15 when I was in Daegu visiting my mom's friend.  We were on a US Army base for a Father's Day cookout.  Now the cookout itself was amazing.  So much good food!  Then after a while, Don and Poki called me over in front of where a bunch of people were sitting to a table with a birthday cake waiting for me.  Of course then everyone started singing!

On Tuesday the 18th, a group of us from church went to dinner to celebrate Alex’s birthday and mine.  Alex being one day older than me.  I’m very thankful for the friends that I have made at church and the community we have there.  It's making a very positive difference in my experience here.  Not sure how I would be doing without it.

Lovely presents from Nicky!  I love buying random girly things for presents, so this was perfect and such a nice little surprise.  Thanks girl!

On my birthday, I spent the whole work day giving speaking tests to my students.  This actually lasted all week and I just finished them today.  I really enjoyed this though because I met with the students individually.  They came out to the hallway and randomly picked three questions out of ten and had to talk to me about them.  It was nice meeting with the 1st graders (7th grade) because I haven't been teaching them yet but will start to in August.

After work, I headed to Shinsegae at Centum City with two friends, Jen and Laura.  This is the world’s largest department store and I wanted to go to H&M and stop by Smoothie King.  I forget the name of the place we had dinner, but what I know is that I had a bread bowl.  Anything somewhat similar to Panera sounds great to me!  Now the soup wasn’t the most amazing soup, but it still was a bread bowl.  I miss Panera.  Panera and Target, I miss the most!  After dinner, we went to H&M.  I really needed/still need more clothes for work for this hot summer and I figured I wouldn't feel bad spending money on my birthday.   As I had a bag of clothes to try on, some announcement came over the speaker and it sounded like they were about to close!  What?!  We booked it over to the dressing room and after a bit of begging, they let us in.  I pretty much gave up though because I really didn't have enough time.  It was only 8 p.m., so I couldn't believe they were closing.  The reason this was such a bummer is because it's about a 45 minute subway ride each way.  I also couldn't get my familiar home treat because Smoothie King closed as well.  We ended up going back downstairs and got some ice cream.  That bag of clothes I wanted to take my time to try on, though?  Don’t worry, I went back to H&M after work on Friday!

Once I got home Wednesday night, I finally had a chance to open my package from my family and I talked to my Aunt Linda, dad, mom, brother, and sister on the phone, Skype, and FaceTime.  I went to bed way too late, but I’m glad I got to talk to them and see some of their faces.

The celebration continued to the weekend.  On Saturday Laura and I had a mini beach day!  I’m pretty sure most of my Saturdays are going to be beach days and I am very okay with that.  After lying on the beach for a bit, we grabbed some lunch and then Cold Stone.  Couldn’t pass that up.  I'm really talking about food a lot aren't I?!  Once we were done there, we met two other friends in Seomyeon to go to a norebang.  Now this was my first norebang experience so I was hesitant to go, but it was so much fun!  A norebang is a karaoke place where you have your own little room for you and your friends.  We had one rule being that we were only going to play 90's pop music!  They only had one Spice Girls song, though.  What’s up with that?!

As if I didn’t extend this birthday celebration enough already, I returned to my desk at work on Monday after some more speaking tests and I found five cards from home!  Five cards in one day?  Talk about a good day.

I heard from so many people from around the world--Korea, Switzerland, England, and home in the US--this past week.  Thank you for all of the sweet messages and for making it a great birthday so far from home.

Priceless Sleep

If there's one thing that I've learned about my students, it is that they love their sleep.  During one of our lessons at the beginning of the year, many of them said their favorite hobby is sleeping.   Then one student said that sleep is a priceless gift when they learned the meaning of "priceless" this week. When someone happens to fall asleep in class, I really don't blame them.  Not only do the students sit through school all day, but so many of them go off to their academies in the evenings.  Also known as hagwons, which are private schools.  They really don't even go home in between.  They have enough time to walk around with some friends and grab something to eat.  Then they're off to class again.  On my walk home from work, my students are usually around walking in the same direction.  They ask me where I'm going some of the time and I do the same because I'm so curious about how often they go to academy and for how long.  A couple months ago, one girl shared that she goes to academy twice a week for math and three times a week for English.  Each of those being a couple hours long.  Then another girl goes to academy Monday-Friday from 6-10 p.m!  I was talking with her two weeks ago as I was hurrying to get home because it finally was Friday and I was so tired from the week.  I just couldn't imagine going off to sit through another four hours of class.  I just feel bad for them.

The students here really do seem to do well in school and care a lot.  Whenever there is a big test coming up, they say, "Teacher, I'm stressful. Study."  I said "Happy Friday" to a class once and they said, "No teacher! Study all weekend."  They really do concentrate when it comes time to study and try to do their best, but they have so much pressure on them to excel.

We had June 6 off work for Memorial Day here.  Of course I went on another hike up a mountain with some friends!  The next day, I asked one of my classes if they enjoyed their day off.  My co-teacher kind of giggled and then one girl said, "Oh, I came to school anyway."  What?!  She came to school anyway probably to study.  Good for them for doing their best in school, but when do they have time to be kids and have some fun?  I did run into a few students on my way to and from the hike and they all seemed to be going to the movies. Good!  That's what they should be doing.  It's no wonder they love sleep so much, though. They don't get nearly enough.

1st Quarter Highlights

Today marks three months in Korea.  Three months marks one quarter of the year complete. I've certainly had my ups and downs in these three months, but it is amazing how much I have already learned and how much I know I am going to appreciate more once I am home again.  Here are some pictures highlighting my year so far!

At the airport with my sister, brother, and sister-in-law!

Wonderful letters from family and friends.

Orientation Class 3

Roommates during orientation!

Farewell Dinner

Welcome home!

My neighborhood in Hwamyeong.

Hwashin Middle School

My favorite classroom.

Gwangalli Beach

Hike number one!

Amazing view.

First piece of mail from home and so many more have come since then.  Thank you!

Cherry Blossoms

Underground shopping.

Skype with the best grandpa I could ever ask for, Grampy!

7th graders I will teach next semester!

New friends who were here for a short time.  We plan to run the Nashville Half next April!

Country night!

Ohio!

Lotte Giants baseball game.

Visit with my mom's friends from high school.

I have a confession.  I may have mentioned on my blog that I was really missing Reese's Eggs to see if anyone would send me some! ;)  Thank you to my wonderful godmother, Aunt Linda!

And thank you to one of my best friends, Ally!

I don't know.

We can't be serious for too long.

Excited for another hike!

At the top!

Goofing around and making sure I did my Korean homework.  Crazy girls!

The river where I go running!  Love it there.

Geoje Island

Joined my family for dinner, except I was eating my breakfast!

Namhae Island

Kayaking and hanging out with the jellyfish!

Confession: I Stopped Eating the School Lunch

Okay, that is old news.  I stopped eating the school lunch about the second week of April. 

Why is this important?  Of course I spent time reading about what I was getting myself into before I left for Korea.  There were two things in particular that caught my attention.  First, of the stories I heard where a school did not particularly like their EPIK teacher, it seemed that "they didn’t even eat the school lunch” was tacked on at the end.  Eating the school lunch is a big deal.  At least that’s what I thought.  Secondly, we shouldn’t expect to actually use our sick days.   I kept hearing it’s not common for Koreans to stay home and rest but tend to work even if they are not feeling well, so that is what they expect from us.

Before coming to Korea, I really didn’t think eating the school lunch would be a problem for me.  Man was I wrong!  I also didn’t think I would have to worry too much about “not being allowed” to use my sick days.  You already know I broke “rule” or should I say “advice” number one, but I broke number two as well.

Let’s start with the school lunch.  Most of my school lunches were okay.  But only okay.    That white rice every day was a life saver.  Then there were a few that I was worried about keeping down.  Note that they don’t drink with their meals here, so I also didn’t even have water to help me out.  I’m really not a picky eater, but I decided that I needed to start packing my lunch.  I never looked forward to lunch beforehand.  And what teacher says that?!  I was also paying for food that I didn’t particularly like and I often left still hungry.  I gave it a good try, though.  I ate the school lunch for just over a month.  And that I think was important.  You need to be open to do new things and try new things when you’re living in another country.  I was worried about what my co-teacher would say when I told her I wanted to start bringing my own lunch, but she took it better than I thought she would.  However, the next day she did ask me some questions about my reasons why.  She knows I tried, though, and I think that’s what makes a difference.

Moving on to sick days.  I don’t get sick very often, but I’ve already been sick twice since I’ve been in Korea.   I woke up with an awful headache two days last week and then was sick all weekend.  I canceled plans Friday night and skipped out on the baseball game Sunday afternoon when I still wasn’t feeling well after church.  Then I took Monday off of work.  I used one of my sick days and it wasn’t a big deal whatsoever.  I texted my co-teacher Sunday night to let her know I was thinking about staying home the next day and then called her in the morning to let her know I was taking off for sure.  She said it was just fine and to be careful.  I think she meant feel better!

I went to the doctor on Monday and got some medicine.  There’s a doctor’s office just down the street from me and the doctor can speak a good amount of English, so that is perfect! Side note--I was in and out of there in about 10 minutes and it only cost me $7.00 for the visit and my medicine.  Amazing!  I figured if I was sick enough to stay home from work that I better go to the doctor’s because if I ever mention that I have a headache or whatnot, my co-teacher always says, “Oh Kelsy, shall we go to the hospital together?”

As soon as I got to work on Tuesday, the vice-principal came over and asked how I was feeling and made sure I went to see the doctor.  One of my co-teachers even mentioned that they were offering for me to stay home instead of going on the field trip on Wednesday.  Even though that was tempting, of course I went on the field trip.

If there are any future EPIK teachers reading this blog, I say all of this to say that no matter what you read before coming here, it is most important that you take care of yourself.  Living in another country completely different from home can be hard and tiring.  Do your best to try new things and experience the culture but also pay attention to how you are feeling.  Make sure to take time for yourself without worrying about how the people here will react because most likely it is going to be okay.  Whether it's packing your own lunch or taking a day off when you're sick because that is what you are used to doing at home, just do it.

A Little Piece of Home

One important factor that has helped my mom feel a bit better about my move to Korea is that she knows someone living here--a friend from high school!  She feels better knowing that I can use Don as a contact here if I ever need anything.  Of course I like that too.

Last Saturday I got to spend the day with Don, his wife, Poksun, and another friend from high school, Bob, who was here for work.  Don and Poksun live in Daegu, which is about an hour or hour and a half drive from here.  They came to Busan to take me to lunch!  My mom was so excited for me to meet them and I was also looking forward to it.  They picked me up at my apartment and we headed to Haeundae (the touristy area in Busan) in the car.  It took maybe an hour to get there?  I didn't quite keep track, but I felt bad.  I had no idea at the time how bad the traffic is here because I'm always underground!  After we had some lunch, we walked along the beach area.  I hadn't been to this beach yet, so I was excited to check it out.  Then we grabbed some coffee before we headed back into the crazy traffic making our way to Hwamyeong again.

It was a relaxing day and so nice to be with people who know my mom and are from the same area as me.  I was able to talk about home with people who knew or understood what I was saying.  It was a nice little connection to home in a way.  I was thankful for that.  Don wants me to come to Daegu to visit them sometime soon.  That's definitely the plan.  I'm not sure when yet, but I will make it up there.

To end the day, once I got back to my apartment, I tore open my box from home that Don brought for me since it was delivered to him.  I knew my summer clothes would be in there--the ones that didn't fit in my suitcases at least!  My mom also threw in a bunch of other goodies--Golden Grahams, Reese's Pieces, pretzels, beef jerky, and a few other things.  I was thankful for these little pieces of home that came through conversation with some great people and a package from my family.

                             Thank you all again for coming to Busan!

                                          Eating my Golden Grahams while skyping my parents!  Always love my cereal!