Ajuma Naptime!

Looks like business is slow today! Nobody wants to buy peanuts or garlic... :(

I wrote a book!

I've done a lot of things in my life, but this is something that I am extremely proud of!

On March 8th, Aaron told me that for my 29th birthday present, he was going to finance the printing of my blog into a coffee table style 11x13 hardback picture book and that he had already found a company that would do it! He had even downloaded the program, so I would be ready to start right away! (www.blurb.com) If you know me at all, you can imagine my unbelievable excitement! I think I may have even jumped and let out a yelp! What an incredibly thoughtful gift, huh?!

So, after probably 300 hours of text formatting, placing 1895 individual pictures (HOLY CRAP!), adding dates, and spell checking the entire thing, the book is finished!!! ALL 286 PAGES of it! I am so excited to send it off to the printer tonight! Here are a couple sneak peaks for ya! (I did screenshots of my laptop screen!) This is the front of the book!

and these are some of the inside pages!

Aaron, Thank you for my extremely thoughtful birthday present and for always encouraging me to continue writing my blog! You have given me an awesome memoir of my 1st year here, and for that, I am super greatful!

Children's Day!

Yesterday, May 5th, was Children's Day in Korea, so school was cancelled! ... hich meant that Aaron and I were going on an adventure! Location choice: Grand Children's Park in Busan-jin! What better way to celebrate Children's Day than to be surrounded by, well... Children! Makes sense, right?!

The park is ginormous (I realize this isn't a word, but it accurately describes it's size), and was filled with thousands of Korean families! First stop was the welcome table where I was given a pin to write my name and phone number on... just incase I got lost in the park! haha! I was also given a fun red balloon and a computer video game! :)

There were all kinds of different booths lining the entrance to the park! This woman was an incredible artist and quickly drew this girls portrait!

Parents layed out picnic mats, throughout the park, to sit and eat their lunch on and relax while their kids frolicked around with their free balloons, enjoying nature!

We found a dirt pathway that was "off the beaten path," and followed it around the river bend until no one was in sight, except for 3 middle school aged Korean boys playing near the river, skipping rocks, and holding this turtle that they found! They let me play with him for a little while too...

and check out this picture of his face that Aaron took with his new lens! Talk about an up close and personal look!

We kept walking along the river until we reached this bridge that took us to the other side of the water... Who knows how old this thing is! Aaron was jumping on it behind me, and the mom inside me yelled, "Aaron, Hajima!" (Dont' do that!) Please God, give me girls when I have babies one day!!

Aaron was trying to find small insects and creatures to practice his new lens on, so we ended up wandering into the forest a bit. I found this gorgeous tree right in the middle of a forest of all straight trees!


After we had had enough of nature, we wandered back over to the main path to do some people watching... But first we grabbed some ice cream! This was the closest thing to an ice cream sandwich that I've seen here! It was delicious!

It wasn't long before we realized that we were definitely the only foreigners in the whole place (amongst thousands of Koreans)! We had A LOT of stares, a lot of "Omma, Migook!" (mom, look an American!), one kid had a mouth full of banana and yelled "Migook!" You'd think we were circus monkeys or something the way they stared at us! There were tons of parents pushing their kids in our direction to practice their english skills, and one mom and dad sat their daughter on our laps to get her picture with us! Aaron saw 4 of his students, and at one point we had about 25 people crowded around us, watching us talk with the kids! Aaron said we should have put a hat out to make some cash... not that we don't already make a ton and have holidays all the time! (That's just another plug for Korea so some of you will come teach here!)

Here's Aaron with his student "Isaac"! When Isaac saw him, he yelled, "Omma, Aaron sun seng neim!" (Mom, Aaron teacher!) Aaron only teaches him for 1 hour a week, but he recognized him right away! Aaron has an incredible memory when it comes to his kids! Isaac was adorable!

There were hundreds of families dressed in matching T-shirts and couples dressed in matching outfits! This couple took it a bit far though, in my opinion! I'm not sure how she got him to wear that bow on his head... for all I know, it could have been his idea! Korean boys are SUPER effeminate! (That's ice cream they're eating by the way! You squeeze it through the top of the package!)

It was definitely a beautiful day to be out in nature! Notice, we both have short sleeve shirts on! This was the first time in about 6 months! Woohoo, Spring is FINALLY here!

We made our way over to the Amusement Park area of the park. These little cars are on a roller coaster track, but you have to pedal them like a bike! A genius way to save on electricity!

The lines were outrageously long... The roller coaster line was probably 6 hours long and while it looked really fun, there was no way we were waiting in line that long to find out!!

But we were determined to ride something! So, we decided on the huge white Ferris Wheel! (Not sure how this happened, considering extreme heights make me panic!) We waited about 30 minutes, and wala, we were at the front of the line!

We jumped into the ferris wheel cart and the door closed and locked behind us. I immediately started to panic (mind you, we were at ground level at this point!) and I screamed, "I can't do this" and started banging on the window to get out! Aaron's face was classic! He didn't know what to do and I probably completely freaked out the young girl working there. He said, "No Jillers, you can do this!" and he was right! After about 2 minutes, I started to relax and was able to enjoy the ride! Here's the view from the top!

There were kids, throughout the park, with these bubble blower deals, and I knew I had to have one! As soon and I saw one, I immediately started thinking of ways I could use it in the classroom to incorporate counting and ABC's! I really am an elementary teacher aren't I?! :)

We called it a day at the park after about 3 1/2 hours and headed over to Nampodong. Aaron has been working on a really big goal, and finally reached it this week! I was so proud of him and told him a while back that I would take him out to a really nice dinner when he reached it, so tonight was the night! He decided he wanted to celebrate at Outback Steakhouse! (which was fine with me!) Congrats A!

What a wonderful way to spend Children's Day!

Yay Field Day!

Today was Field Day, one of my favorite days of the school year! It's done at every elementary school in S. Korea this month! The kids all came to school in their PE uniforms and competed against each other in all types of field games and funny relays! Last year I posted pictures of Field Day, but this year I've decided to post some videos for you! (Thanks to Aaron for letting me borrow his handy dandy video cam!) It gives you a chance to feel like you were there with us!

In Korea, students don't recite the pledge of allegiance to a flag, instead, they sing their national anthem! Yep, every morning, after the announcements, 270 elementary students fill the halls with their adorable off key singing voices! It always makes me smile! Here they are singing the national anthem before the games began!

This was the 2nd grade race! The students raced with their moms in hand and were absolutely adorable! The kids start off blindfolded and the mom's have to tell them where to walk, then they throw their blindfold off and jump together, like frogs, then squeeze through hula hoops and then run to the finish line!

This was the 5th and 6th grade boys race! It's fairly self explanatory - and no one got hurt! AMAZING!

This was the 3rd grade race! They had to run 1/2 way around the track, jump through a hula hoop, do a sommersault (sp?) on these mats, and then run to the finish line! Believe it or not, no one got hurt this year!

This was the kindergarden race! Each kid sat in this cart while their moms or dads pulled them by a rope around a cone! The team to finish first won! Ahh, to be in kindergarden again! That was the life, wasn't it?!


This was the 3rd and 4th grade race! They had to run, in groups of 4, to the center, roll the dice, jump rope that many times, then run back and tag the next group of 4!

After that game, the 2nd graders came back out for another relay with their moms. My sweet student, Lily, was all alone out in the line (her mom couldn't come today) so I ran out, grabbed her hand and asked, "You and sun seng neim?" and she had the biggest smile and nodded yes! It made my day! We ran out to the middle of the field, hand in hand, rolled the dice, and hula hooped that many times! Lily rolled a 6! Good thing I know how to hula hoop just long enough to make it go 6 rounds! Whew! (Sorry, there's no video)

Taekwondo is extremely popular in Korea, and according to Aaron, it's the #1 sport in the country! Here are some of my students doing their Taekwondo routines! (Watch, at the end of this video, when the 2 boys come running from the back... Carlos (the 1st one) eats it, big time! OUCH!)

This game was for the moms! There were 2 teams of moms... At the "bang" of the gong, they all had to kick one of their shoes off! The team with the most shoes in the circle won! They tied 2 times in a row, so we decided to give prizes to all of them - laundry detergent! :)

This was a big crowd pleaser! A good ole' game of Tug of War between the 5th and 6th graders! (Notice they're all in order of height!)

Last but not least... This video is of the country-wide Warm-Up Routine! Ella said Koreans have been doing this warm up routine for close to 100 years and every Korean knows it! (It's almost 5 minutes long, so feel free to stop it when you've seen enough... I really just posted the entire thing for my own form of remembrance!) They do this at the beginning and end of field day, and before every PE class!

This is just a small glimpse into what field day is all about! There were lots of other games and relays, tons of parents and grandparents cheering on their kids from the sidelines, teachers racing (Yes, I was part of this!), yummy food, lots of smiles, and awesome gift bags for each kid at the end of the day, courtesy of the parents! Yes, every kid is a winner at Gamjung Elementary! There was a treat for the teachers too... We all had lunch together at a fancy restaurant in Jagalachi Fish Market (FREE!) and went home around 3:30pm! Oh, and I think it's worth mentioning that I have the day off tomorrow because of Children's Day! :) What a great week!

Mmm, coffee sticks!

I'm not sure if they have these "coffee sticks" in the US, but if you're a coffee drinker, and you like it with sugar and cream, this needs to go on your grocery list! I can't tell you how delicious and easy these are to make! Infact, I just had my 2nd cup of the day! :)


Thanks to my mom, you can order "FREE SAMPLES" on this website! :) http://www.tasterschoice.com/varietysample.aspx