Can't believe it!

In the next day or so, I will have had  

50,000 

hits on this little blog of mine! 

Who woulda thunk, huh?!  Thanks for reading along and checking in with my life in Korea!  It's been fun to share my experience with you all and nice to know that I've been thought of 50,000 times in the last 3 years!

Spelling Bee!

This afternoon is the city wide 5th grade English Spelling Bee!  This is 대현 David and 규은 Michelle, also known as the 2012 English Spelling Bee champions!  Or at least they will be known as that later this afternoon!  I've been working with them for the past week and a half and they're incredible!

These may not look like difficult words to spell, but I didn't just say the word and have them spell it.  I read the definition of the word in English.  They then had to figure out what I was talking about AND write it correctly!  I'm telling you!  They're gonna win it! 

...and when they do, I'm going to treat us all to a little ice cream! :)


*** UPDATE: Michelle went further than David, but neither won.  SAD.  To rub more salt on the wound, Aaron's student won 2nd place!  Way to go A!

Things that made me laugh this week!

1. I had a chest X-ray done for a medical check to renew my E-2 VISA and when I was finished, I asked to the technician, "Ta Desayo?" (Am I finished?) His broken English response came out as a simple, "Go home." 

2. I asked Aaron to pick up a thermometer from the store before he came over last Monday to take care of me.  When he got to my place, he told me the store only had rectal thermometers, but he bought one for me anyway.  I was mortified and kept asking if he was serious!  He kept a straight face for a good 5 minutes as he opened the package and kept saying that he was so sorry, but it was all they had.  LIAR!

3. Aaron gave me his best rendition of Marcel the shell with shoes on.

(check www.youtube,com if you've never seen it!)  It was dead on!

4. My co-teacher told me her skin is really white because she eats a lot of vegetables.  hmmm?!

5. My other co-teacher asked me if it's common for Americans to give presents at Christmas time?! This just made me laugh for some reason.  She's obviously never seen an American mall during the month of December!

6. Text conversation between Aaron and I at 7:30pm on Wednesday:

A: Wanna meet me at the casino?

J: I'm in the middle of a project.

A: What project?

J: I'm making a snow globe.

A: Don't be a stick in the mud!

J: I'm not even close to being a stick in the mud!

A: You are at home making a snow globe. That is the epitome of stick in the mud.

What are you 65 years old?

J: Touché. I'm on my way.

7. I was standing in line in the school cafeteria and a first grader called me "Pinocchio" because I have a "long nose!"

8. Conversation between Aaron and I Thursday after Thanksgiving dinner:

J: Oh, I wanna see if I can find a video of Justin Beiber performing on the Today Show.

A: I already watched it.  It wasn't very good.

*** Yes, my 29 year old boyfriend searched for and watched a Justin Beiber concert online!  LOL

It's always nice to have a good laugh, isn't it?!

Turkey dinner for two.

,,, and by turkey, what I really mean is chicken. :( Seriously, why don't Koreans eat turkey?!  It's been over 4 years now since I've had a slice and whenever thanksgiving rolls around I'm reminded of it's faint memory.

Regardless, Aaron and I had a nice little Thanksgiving dinner for two with 3 dishes: baked chicken (thanks to the little chicken place down the street), mashed potatoes, and home made stuffing (thank you Pinterest)!

and for desert, a home made chocolate cake.  This one was shared between the two of us!  The rest of it is coming to school with me tomorrow to be shared! :)

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving Day was filled with thankfulness, football, good weather, family, friends, laughter, relaxation, and lots and lots of chicken turkey! 

Just doesn't feel...

like the holidays around here. :(

Maybe it's because my family is thousands of miles away, or because I'm at work today!  Maybe it's because my Korean students have never heard of eating turkey or pumpkin pie.  Or maybe because no one really decorates their homes for Christmas here, so the idea of assembling and decorating my 2 foot tall faux Christmas tree tomorrow seems a little out of place. 

To be honest, when I think about having a huge dinner with relatives all around, and then relaxing and watching football while eating leftovers all day, it makes me wanna cry a little.  Just wish that's what my day had in store today.  

On the other hand, Thanksgiving is all about being thankful...  So, with that said, I'm thankful I have a job I love that allows me to save money and travel around the world.  I'm thankful that even though it's a holiday and I'm at work, I'm only teaching a total of an hour today and have 7 hours to do whatever I want in my classroom.  I'm thankful that I have a boyfriend who is leaving work early to start cooking a special dinner for us.  I'm thankful for the hour long skype sesh I had with my mom and dad this morning, and I'm thankful for my family and friends... just wish I were a lot closer today to be thankful with you and stuff my tummy full of all that yummy thanksgiving food!

Talent Show Extravaganza!

Last Friday was the annual Dae Gyo Elemenetary School Talent Show! It's hands down, one of my favorite days of the year as an elementary teacher. There's nothing better than getting to see your adorable kiddos dancing about on the stage, singing cute songs, and banging on traditional drums!

Like clockwork, vendors had set up tables outside my school to sell chinsy fake flowers and lollipop gifts for the parents to give to their kids after the show.

The teachers had worked really hard to creatively display their student's best work on the school walls leading to the auditorium...

The show started at 9:30am sharp with an introduction from the Vice Principal, Principal, and head teacher.

Then, it was time!!!  The kids were hyped up, behind the stage, ready for their debut!

1st grade was up first!  How awesome are these costumes!  Korean teachers are given a budget to buy custom fit costumes for each of their students for the annual talent show.

The other half of the 1st grade class came out in black, waving their gold glittery pom poms and prancing around like little butterflies!

The 2nd graders sang and did a traditional dance about Korean playground games.

6th grade boys did their own rendition of a pop music video! 

But their female counterparts definitely stole the show when they came out with GIGANTIC shimmering bows on their heads and dancing to Roly Poly, one of the most popular pop songs in Korea right now!

6th grade girls...

The audience was full of cheering moms and smart phones held in the air to record their kids performances!

4th graders singing an adorable Korean song...

The 3rd graders dancing their hearts out!

Here's a little video to help you feel like you were there :)

Good ole' danso performance!

4th graders doing a traditional drum performance...

Koreans love the recorder! 

5th grade girls doing a cute tap dance...

5th grade Taekwondo performance!

She is a fantastic singer and has sung for the Korean news stations...

6th grade

6th grade

5th grade puppet show

6th grade dance team performance

3rd and 4th grade dance team performance

3rd grade dance team...

The 3rd grade teacher loves to swing dance, so she choreographed an entire swing dance performance!  Super impressive!

2nd grade band

1st graders are so awesome!

While all of the acts were great, this 5th grade class's dance routine was my absolute favorite!  ENJOY!

This week we're back to studying and homework... but Friday sure was a nice break from the stress of teaching and learning! :)

Careful what you eat!

I started feeling a little nauseous around 7:00pm on Saturday, and by midnight I was waking up every hour to hug the toilet. I knew right away that it was food poisioning!  Probably that darn Eel they made me eat at the staff dinner!  I knew that thing looked sketchy!  By the morning I was exhausted and completely dehydrated.  Aaron helped me walk over to the hospital (2 mins walk from my apartment) and checked me into the ER where they gave me a shot in the butt (ouch) and hooked me up to an IV for a couple hours.  Aaron absolutely hates hospitals... but he was a champ and stayed by me the whole time.   Made me love him that much more! :)

I'm feeling much better today, but took the day off work to fully recover!  It's a big no no to take sick days in Korea, even though we're allotted 11 sick days on our contracts.  Go figure!  Monica, my co-teacher has been teaching for over 30 years and has NEVER taken a sick day!  I felt kinda bad calling in today, but decided that ultimately my health is more important than my attendance record.  With that said, I'm going back to nap # 3 for the day!

Lucky Seven!

Aaron and I decided to have a little date night at Seven Luck Casino in Seomyeon tonight... Glad we did, because I won $100.00, A won $190.00 and we both got a free dinner! I'd say that makes for a pretty sweet AND LUCKY date night!

Tonight's Menu-- Eel

Tonight was a special school staff dinner to celebrate the completion of the school talent show, which was awesome!   But, you'll have to wait to hear about that until sometime next week (I have about 300 pictures to look through, edit, and chose for the blog!).

With that said, after school today, all of the staff went to a beachfront restaurant in Taejongdae

(on the island) and ate... ready for it?? 

EEL!

Oy vey!

Well, that was the main dish.  I had never eaten Eel, so it was a bit interesting to me. (top left and bottom left picture). It came out raw and chopped up, and was then cooked at our table.  Then we dipped it in a red sauce and wrapped it in some lettuce. The grossest part about tonights Eel was the fact that the men sitting at my table not only cooked and ate the entire eel heads, they cooked and ate the stomach and intestines too.  Uuuuggghhh!

(photo's take with my phone)

When you need something at a restaurant in Korea, you don't raise your hand or try to motion for your server to come over... you simply yell "Emo!" or "Chogio!"  etc... During the dinner I heard another teacher yell "Sajang neem" to an older man working in the restaurant.  I asked Okk what it meant and she said it meant "owner."  Perfect, I thought, I'll have to remember that and use it in other situations.  Later in the night I was thirsty, so I yelled "Salang neem" to that same old guy.  When he didn't look my way I yelled it again, "Salang neem!"  When he realized I was calling for him, he looked over and gave me a really strange look.  Simultaneously, Okk was doubled over laughing next to me.  Turns out I said "salang neem" instead of "sajang neem," which directly stranslates as "My love", "darling", "sweartheart," etc... 

You get the idea!  LOL

After dinner, my principal set up an entire Karaeoke machine in the restautant and made almost everyone sing while he played his saxophone... including me!  Luckily Okk joined me and we sang a random English kids song... turned out to be a big crowd pleaser - thank goodness!  Could have gone either way.

Okk and I snuck out before everyone else left and ran in the rain (without umbrellas) about a mile to the bus stop, laughing the whole way with our scarves wrapped around our heads!  Luckily, another teacher had left after us and picked us up as we were almost to the bus stop and ended up driving us both all the way home... so nice!   It's great to have good co-workers... I just wish they liked going to eat Mexican food instead of Eels!  Can't have it all!

My friend Jess...

My friend Jess is awesome...  let me count the ways!  She's creative, beautiful, smart, compassionate, fun, adventurous, inventive, funny, authentic, devoted, inspirational, and just plain awesome!  How could you not love her?

 

With that said, I think she's actually become even more awesome in the last 10 minutes, if that's even possible!  

Why you ask?

Because I just received a package from her, and inside was a copy of her very first official cookbook, a longtime dream of hers!  I'm so proud of her!  Her and a friend/co-worker named Danielle created, wrote, designed, photographed, and published their very own cookbook full of healthy and sometimes even vegan foods!  It's going to be a quarterly, 

and I have the 1st one - Fall/Autumn, entitled SHARE.  

You can buy it here on etsy!

It's full of healthy and yummy recipes... a mix of Asian, Spanish, and all around health foods.  I'm especially looking forward to making Arroz De Leche, which Jess has made a bunch of times for me for breakfast!

I am so proud of her, and can not wait to cook up some of her special recipes!

Congratulations on making your dreams come true Jess!

Practice makes perfect!

As I stated in my last post, http://www.pinterest.com/ has completely inspired me to get creative again and shut my computer down in exchange for some creating... in this case; baking!  This was my 3rd baking adventure in the last 2 weeks, and finally, I got it right!  As they say, "practice makes perfect!"  I found a recipe for delicious looking red velvet and cream cheese cupcakes and absolutely HAD to make them I.M.M.E.D.I.A.T.E.L.Y!

1 hour later and 2 trips to the store for more ingredients, they were complete!  All 5 of them!  haha!  The recipe only makes 8-9 regular sized cupcakes, but since my holders are ginat sized, I only made 5... One isn't pictured because it was already settling into my tummy!

They may not look perfect in appearance, but close your eyes and take one bite and you'll agree that they're the most moist, creamy, delicious cupcakes you've ever tasted... and from SCRATCH! 

I was determined to conquer baking and I think I just might have done it with these red velvet delights!

Recipe credits go to Lick the Bowl Good!!

I love us!

To be honest, I've been feeling abnormally bored l in the last couple weeks.  I haven't been inspired to get up and go hiking, explore the city, check out new restaurants, or sip on coffee at hip coffee shops.  Ever get in one of those funks?  I will say though, thanks to http://www.pinterest.com/, I've been slowly being bitten by the creative bug and have been inspired to create once again!  Hallelujiah!  I found this darling sign on pinterest, courtesy, originally, of lovelylittlesnippets!  Darling, right?!  I loved the phrase, loved the look, and knew I could replicate it!

So, I did!

I went to Daiso, Korea's equivalent of the Dollar General back home and picked up a wooden tray ($1.00), which I flipped upside down and painted on the underneath side.  Since Korea's art supplies are limited, I had to get creative and resourceful!  With that said, I bought a white paint board marker ($1.00), 1 small tube of avocado green paint ($1.00), and an eyeshadow brush ($1.00) to double as my paintbrush!  Like I said, you have to be resourceful around here! 

For a grand total of $4.00, I happen to love how my little DIY sign turned out.

And lucky for me, I actually do happen to love us, so it works out quite nicely! (wink, wink) 

Dinner Party

Last night Okk, Craig, Aaron, and our friend Brian came over for a little dinner party at my place!  Aaron played iron chef and whipped up 9 of his delicious pasta muffins!  They're seriously the greatest dinner party idea!  I, on the other hand was the appetizer and dessert chef!  I made yummy pesto and cheese french bread and these cinnamon rolls, FROM SCRATCH! The dough didn't rise like it should have, but the finger lickin' cinnamon and butter filling made up for it's denseness!   I'll definitely give them a try again one day.

(photos taken with my phone)

Craig brought Apples to Apples, so after dinner, we broke it out and played it twice!  We all love that game!  Okk had never played, but won by a landslide the first game!  Sometimes she would throw down cards she didn't even understand the meaning of and they would end up being the perfect play on words, or REALLY funny, which typically always got her card chosen as the winner! 

It was such a fun little party! :)
 Wish I could do it everyday... minus the washing the dishes by hand part!  Oh how I miss having a dishwasher (and a full size oven, 4 burners, and a microwave!)  I'm just saying!

Lunchtime!

I'll start by saying, I brought my iphone to lunch today to snap some pictures of what lunchtime is like around my school.  I picked it up and snapped a picture of my plate.  Okk laughed and said, "Chelsey!  That's not interesting.  Why are you taking that picture?!"  I'll let you decide if you think it's interesting or not!  I, for one, do! :)

So, there are 2 lunch shifts in my school's cafeteria.  The first is for 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders.  The second is for 4th, 5th and 6th graders.  I go to both, depending on the day!  Today was the 2nd lunch:

When we get to the cafeteria, we stand in this long line of students.

Sometimes we cut to the front of the line, because we're teachers and WE CAN!  

It's here that we're greeted by the cooks who dish up our food onto metal trays.  

It's always kimchi, a type of meat or fish, a vegetable, rice, and soup.... 

E.V.E.R.Y.D.A.Y.

Some kids like it while others don't!   Unfortunately they don't have a choice!  ...and every morsel should be eaten before they can get up from the table!

Here it is folks... today's lunch!  Eeekkk...  

Top left: Duk Bokgi (rice cakes, small bird eggs, and fried fish powder in red sauce) YUK!

Middle: Hard beans mixed with pecans in a brown sugary sauce.  Strange, but edible! 

Top right: It's where the kimchi goes.  The teachers have their own bowl of kimchi that tastes better than the students, and I hadn't dished up yet... hence the empty bowl.

Bottom left: Sticky white rice with yellow seeds.  Goes right to the thighs!  Ugh!

Bottom right: Soup with tiny mushrooms, green onions and garlic. Today's saving grace!

American teachers, be happy you're not a Korean teacher!  

Teachers here HAVE TO SIT AND EAT LUNCH WITH THEIR CLASSROOM STUDENTS!

  Heyran (front left) is one of the 5th grade teachers at my school.

When you're all finished, you bring your tray here where you dump any last pieces of food into this metal funnel. Then you stack your tray, throw your spoon in a bowl, and place your chopsticks in the buckets.

Then it's off to the barley water station where you fill up a metal cup with hot barely water, swish it around in your mouth to loosen the food stuck in your teeth, swallow and stack your cup in the bin.

...and that's how it's done over here at good ol'e Dae Gyo Elementary School!