We live in a studio the size of a shoebox! (revised)

Yep, they messed up and got us separate apartments! LOVELY, huh?! So, for now we are living in Kevin's apartment, which is about the size of my bedroom growing up!




This is our entire bathroom... shower included! The shower hose is connected to our sink and the shower spiket hangs over our sink on the wall. Which means we basically take showers in the middle of the bathroom. It gets everything very wet!


We found out they are waiting until Kevin's place (pictures above) sells and then they will look for something bigger for both of us. They said it may take 2 days or 6 months. They say they don't know how long it will take!

We are currently about a 20 minute walk from the subway, which Kevin is bummed about. We're hoping that our new place is closer to one.

My school is AMAZING and ADORABLE! This is a picture of my co-teacher, Stella, and I at the front doors.


The commute is about a 10 minute walk, a 10 minute bus ride, another 5 minute walk, another 10 minute bus ride and then another 10 minute walk (up hill)!(this is on top of the bridge that I walk over everyday to catch my bus in the morning. :)

Snack time...

One last blog for the night! I completely forgot about this and Kevin just reminded me!

Everyday this week, we had snack time in the middle of our lectures. During snack time, we were given a 10-15 minute break. There were always snacks like cookies, chips, or whatnot laid out on a table outside our classroom for us to have. Yesterday though, we had what looked like a chicken nugget box, but inside was an entire chicken leg!

I have a school!

Today they told us what school we will be working in. I was placed in Gamjung Elementary School, which houses 1st through 6th graders! I still don't know which grade I'll be teaching yet. The school is pretty far from the downtown area of Busan, which I was kind of sad about, but once I saw this picture, I became much more excited!! This is the view from my school! :)

Bad news is, I think I might be walking up that hill everyday to get to work... On the other hand, the good news is, my legs are going to be amazing by Feb 2010!


P.S. We've been told we probably won't have internet access at our apartments "for a little while." I'm not sure if that means a couple days, or a couple weeks. We have to call to get it hooked up and what not... so if you don't see any blog updates, you know why! :)

Until next time...

Anyahkeysayo!

Farewell...

Last night, they threw a big Farewell Banquet for all the EPIK teachers, since tomorrow we will be loading the busses and heading to our cities! It was filled with WONDERFUL FOOD...


(I called this my baby shrimp)

PERFORMANCES...

This is our friend Rodney from Atlanta doing some free-style! He even incorporated Kev and I... It was something like "Kevin and Jill like Jada and Will." We were amped and felt like a million bucks, because there were about 500 people in the room watching him!


This was a Korean guy who played "You look wonderful tonight!" Kind of a romanic song for a farewell teacher dinner, but nice none the less!


These were 2 people in our class this week. They were AWESOME!

DANCING...

(Carlos dancing with Mimi, the director of the orientation)

(Colin and Kristen)

FRIENDS...

(Jess, Me, and Kristen)

(Rodney and Kevin)

(Jess and Carlos)


AND LOTS OF LAUGHS...
There's a story to this picture!

I asked one of the Korean servers where the restroom was. He didn't understand me, so I spelled it for him. Usually, if you spell words, they understand them right away. After I spelled it, he still didn't understand it, so I made a motion like I was washing my hands. He said "Oh" and started running across the banquet hall. I thought "hmmm, this is a funny way to give someone directions to the bathroom," but I followed him anyway. He stopped at one of the banquet tables, knelt down, pulled up the table cloth, reached under the table and pulled something out. He looked at me, with a huge smile, and a look of utter accomplishment in his eyes, and handed me this pile of NAPKINS!

This morning, we all looked at a map to point out where our schools are....

and said goodbye to each other before boarding the buses.

My lesson plan!

I did it!  I presented my lesson plan with Jess & Rob today and our mentor teacher told us it was PERFECT and that she is going to use some of the activities we came up with! We didn't win the prize for the best lesson plan though... Kevin's group did!! You better believe he flaunted it all day too!


Before we presented, I treated myself to a hot chocolate in the University coffee shop, which is adorable and a great place to hang out here. This cup of hot chocolate was, HANDS DOWN, the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted in my entire life! This is my tribute to my wonderful hot chocolate!

I'm scared!!!

Today, I found out I'm going to be an elementary teacher in Korea! For all of you who know me well, you KNOW I'm a little freaked out! What do I do with kids?! eeeehhhhh! We are presenting our lesson plans to our peers tomorrow afternoon, and luckily Jessica, Rob and I are in a group together (my new friends)!  I'm very lucky to have them in my group! We've been working on our lesson plan all night!  Who knew, talking about "being hungry" would take 5 hours to plan for!  

Kevin found out he's going to be teaching Junior Highers and according to one of our Korean lecturers, "Junior Highers are not students, they are evils!"

"If you drink well, they are going to LOVE you!"

This is what our lecturer said today!

Drinking is VERY IMPORTANT in Korean culture! He said that if we are asked to go to dinner with a Korean friend or co-worker, it will start with the meal, lead to drinking, and will ALWAYS end at a norebang! (Kareokee) One of the girls in our class asked, “Can we say, “”No Thank you”” when they offer us soju (Korean liquor).” His answer was, “No, no… you don’t say no. It’s very rude!” He also said that In Korea, your shot glass WILL be refilled within 3 seconds if it’s empty!

As far as school policy on drinking goes, THERE IS NONE! Teachers drink alcohol during the school day! No joke! Not only that, there is a school budget for teacher dinner and drink outings!

Looks like I better find a Korean drink I like... and FAST!

Funny stuff!

We were in our 2nd lecture this morning, which happened to be all about songs and chants for elementary students! We had a Korean teacher who was talking about a dance she does to one of the songs she sings with her students. She was showing us the motions and said, “At this part, you need to use your spiritual fingers!" (translation: spirit fingers!) Hilarious!

Josie!

Kevin and I sat down for breakfast next to a darling girl from England. She introduced herself as “Josie.” After a couple minutes, Kevin looked down at her name tag and said, “Oh my gosh! You have the same name as my grandma. Her maiden name was Josephine Miller!” Kevin’s grandma was an AMAZING woman that was loved by all! Seeing her name again made us both smile!

I love field trips!

Today was our big field trip to the Korean Folk Village! We all loaded onto a greyhound type bus and off we went!  2 tangerines, and 1 hour later, we arrived!  We were each grouped with a tour guide that was supposed to take us around and explain what everything was, but our tour guide spoke sooooo slowly, my impatience got the best of me, and before I knew it, I was wandering all about the park without the official group! (I know, I was a bad girl!) Here are some pictures from the day! ENJOY

This was called the "Wild Flower Garden"

This was some some sort of honey/nut candy!   We watched the guy hand make it within 1 minute.   He took a huge chunk of solid honey and started stretching it out and dipping it in flour and then folding it, and refolding it, over and over and over again until wala... it became this stringy white candy! He then took a spoon full of the nut mixture, poured it onto the candy, folded that over a couple times, and this is what we got! It tasted sooo good and apparently has been a famous Korean candy enjoyed by Kings for years and years.


I loved this! It was a very, very large stone that had rope tied around it.  Attached to the rope, people had written, on small pieces of paper, their hopes and wishes for their family or friends.

Kevin's wish...

Kevin tying his wish to the wall.


This picture is for our nephew Caeden, who for some reason keeps asking Kevin's sister and husband if we've seen the animals on our "vacation" yet!   Yep, Caeden, we have seen the animals!   :)

This is a replica of an ancient farmer's home. Each room is entered from the outside of the home. (Kevin and I, Colin, Carlos (Mayo) and his wife Jessica)

I'm not totally sure what the purpose of these sticks were, but I tried it using them none the less. The woman in the picture below was super excited to help me! What you don't see in this picture are the 75 + people watching! It was quite the spectacle! You know how I love to be the center of attention! :)



I felt like I was famous, because the lady who helped me with the sticks wanted me to take a picture with her family!  haha!


Just some cute little HAPPY piggies that were hand made in the village.


Kevin has (had) an Obama pin that he had pinned to his bag. Our EPIK team leader, Yong, REALLY liked it, so he gave it to her today!  She was so excited about the gift, and immediately attached it to her name tag, which we have to wear at ALL TIMES!


Me and Kevers, randomly throughout the park.




In ancient days, Koreans would mush their rice this way!  I'm not sure what the mushed rice was/is used for, but it was fun to mush it none the less!  I happened to be in the right place at the right time and was offered a chance to try!  That darn thing was SOOO heavy!


I found this little girl and had to take a picture with her... we had MATCHING SHOES for goodness sake!



Some of our new friends on the stepping stones in the river that ran through the park. (Carlos, Colin, Rob, Me, Kate, Daniel, and Kevin)


This was an AWESOME traditional drum/dance performance! Check out the guys doing crazy flips in the air!

I think this picture was the official "We are tourists" picture for the day!

How adorable is this guy, and how funny is his hat?!


The Teeter-Tawter / See-Saw performance!  The park also had a tight rope walking performance, and some guys who did crazy tricks on horses, but I don't have pictures... Sorry!)


I do have pictures of my jump roping extravaganza though!  Who knew Koreans liked jump roping in ancient days!  I hadn't jump roped since 5th grade, but I was pleasantly surprised at my abilities!  I think I might have been a crowd pleaser!   haha

Our new friend Carlos (Mayo) and I showing everyone how it's done!



I'll leave you with these funny anecdotes that I think you'll like. 

1) One of our new friends, Jessica, is allergic to shellfish, so one of the EPIK leaders typed this note for her to laminate and take with her to restaurants while she is living in Korea to tell them what she cannot eat.   Check out the 5th one down! :)

2) We just got another announcement over the PA system that "Sunday worship will be SERVED at 7:30pm in the cafeteria tonight!"  

I LOVE THIS PLACE... what more can I say?!