I know I have been completely horrible on updating this lately. It's a lot different from when I was in Paris. Paris seemed more like a long trip, but it's harder to blog about your actual life. When it comes down to it, being in Korea really isn't that different than being anywhere else. Sometimes I forget that I'm so far away from home. I get up, I go to work, I come home, eat dinner, work out, catch up on Glee, Modern Family, read, and look forward to the weekends. So sometimes blogging seems unnecessary since it's not like anyone updates their family what they do every week in the states! I will keep blogging though and I'll try and pick up the pace!
Since it has been so long, I don't remember the day to day stuff to write about but I'll write about a couple changes since the last time I wrote.
First, the free lunch we had at school ended. Apparently the school wasn't following regulations or something and so they have to use a catering service now instead of making everything themselves at the school. Not only was I really upset at having to spend more money on food for lunches, but also that was really the only real Korean food I got. I've gotten used to it now and I think I'm eating healthier now that I'm not eating a ton of rice every day, and it's not that much more expensive at all. I guess I'll just have to try and eat at Korean restaurants more often on the weekends or something!
Next, we had a Korean Thanksgiving celebration last weekend. No one has an oven in their apartment so we had to improvise. Instead of doing a traditional dinner, we just had a potluck at one of the other teacher's apartments. We had quesadillas, mashed potatoes, potato salad, guacamole and chips, and pumpkin pie (thanks to Costco!). It was a really great evening and we all went around saying what we were thankful for to keep with tradition. It wasn't as hard to miss Thanksgiving as I thought. We didn't get work off (obviously since it's only an American holiday) and we are so busy anyway I didn't have time to really be homesick. When it came to my turn to say what I was thankful for, I said even though I miss them, I'm thankful to have such great friends and family TO miss while I'm here.
The weather is getting colder finally. My friend Christine and I got one last hike in the weekend before Thanksgiving. A car actually pulled up right when we were starting our hike, rolled down their windows, and handed us clementines and said, "this is for Thanksgiving" so I guess Koreans still know about the holiday even if they don't celebrate it! It was really nice though and they seemed so happy to give them to us! I'm trying to get one last week in of running outside before I have to join a gym.
Work has been pretty much the same. I can say after three months I'm finally into the swing of things and the job has gotten a lot easier. I found out this week that one of my kindergartner's mom has cancer. She told me in the morning, "I am not happy today" and when I asked why she said, "My mom is very very ouch" and started crying. It wasn't until later that I discovered her mom has thyroid cancer. I know it is one of the more treatable kinds but still, I don't think a 7 year old really understands that :(
On a lighter note, I started a new class this week for the rest of the year (their school year, so until March). It's a newspaper class instead of social studies now. My Tuesday/Thursday social studies class finished and so a different teacher is going to teach them science, and I switched to a new class with 8 girls. I LOVE the new class. The subject is way more interesting and the girls are really fun to teach so I'm excited about that. Otherwise, work is the same old same old! We started decorating for Christmas which is exciting. I actually learned how to make a paper snowflake and so my kindergartner's and I did that the other day. It took them a while to figure out that the MORE you cut, the better. Some of them just look like white pieces of paper still, oh well.
I haven't done any real exciting "Korean" things (as in touristy) lately and don't know how much more stuff I will while it's cold out but right now I'm just counting down the days until the Philippines and finally a vacation after 11 straight weeks of work. Ick. Is this really what the real world is like??
Have a good week/weekend.
Love, Meghan
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Mid-November
Well, it's that time of year. The leaves are almost officially gone from the trees, you need a coat to walk outside, and everyone is getting sick! The first two aren't so bad, but the consistent stuffy nose is getting old.
I discovered working in a school, you're never going to be 100% healthy, for the most part. I'm lucky I haven't been super sick, to the point of staying in bed (which is good because you don't get sick days as an English teacher) but I also can't seem to get rid of an always a little bit stuffy nose, and daily slightly sore throat. I guess I should invest in more tea and honey.
The fall has been nice here, especially from someone coming from Minnesota. Last weekend, November 4th and 5th, it was beautiful. Friday night, a bunch of just went to a bar in Suji just for a quieter night. I was exhausted from the week (as usual) and most of us ended up leaving before midnight even. Saturday, it was in the 70s so I took advantage by going on a walk, then a run, and more walking. It was so beautiful out. Of course the Koreans were still wearing long sleeve shirts and pants because they don't like the sun. I need to take a picture one of these days of the ridiculously large visors they wear on their heads to prevent sun burn. And yes Mother, I know I should probably be wearing one myself but I'm going to stick to the sunscreen for now :)
Saturday (Nov. 5th) there were four of us that went to an Orchestra concert. One of the Korean supervisors at our school plays the cello and was performing in a city a couple subway stops away and it was free. The first songs were played by younger kids playing the trumpet and I was concerned we agreed to go an amateur band concert type thing. Luckily, it was the students of the teachers in the orchestra or something so they had separate songs by each instrument first with the students, and then afterward the actual orchestra played. It was really fun to listen to. They played "The Phantom of the Opera" and then as an encore to the first "encore", they played "Pirates of the Caribbean" so it was fun to hear songs I was familiar with.
Sunday, my day to really do nothing, I did just that; nothing... Unless you count watching episodes of Glee that you've already seen as doing something!
Work this past week seemed to go pretty slowly and I'm not sure why, everything was pretty much the same. Maybe it was my cold and therefore lack of energy or what, but I was ready for the weekend by Wednesday. On Friday, it was "Pepero Day" which is a made up holiday by the Lotte company that makes Pepero. Pepero are cookie sticks dipped in chocolate on the end. It's Pepero day on 11/11 because of the shape of the sticks as 1, pretty lame and pretty ingenious I think for a company to get tons of people to buy their product just because it looks like a date! Also the kids brought Pepero for all the teachers and I'm not going to complain about any holiday that gets me free chocolate!
This last weekend wasn't too eventful. My only goal for the weekend was to finally buy a winter coat since I didn't bring mine with me. I decided to go to Dongdaemun which is a whole area full of different shopping places and vendors with pretty much any product you can buy. I was able to find a decent coat pretty quickly so I was happy about that. Then, Rachel, Christine and I hung out in Seoul for a while to see the lantern festival that was on the Cheonggyecheon River. I also had my first cheeseburger in Korea at a chain called Kraze burger. It was delicious and reminded me of Culvers. After dinner we headed to see the lanterns. The river is more like a stream and it runs through Seoul. It actually used to be covered up by roads and highways and they finally tore it up and opened up the stream again (or something like that!). The lanterns were cool but there were sooo many people that it was almost too frustrating to stay long and look at them. We headed home from Seoul and then went out to Suwon to watch our co-teacher Tom perform at a bar called "The Big Chill". Suwon is about a 30 minute bus ride from Suji. It was the bar's 2nd anniversary so that's why Tom was playing and a couple other people.
Sunday (today) has been another day of nothing. I cleaned my apartment, caught up on emails and messages with friends and relaxed. I did go grocery shopping because we found out Friday that the teacher's no longer will get free lunches. As it turns out, our school was doing something illegal and they had one cook making all the meals for the kindergarten classes which apparently you can't do? So now the school has to get it catered and the teachers and the staff aren't included. I'm really bummed about it because the food was really good, it saved me money, and it was my only real Korean food I ate ever. At least I took advantage of it and got to try lots of stuff the first 2 and a half months I was here!
So, life continues on here. We are going to start decorating our classrooms for Christmas and I think that will make a little homesick not being home around Christmas. I leave for the Philippines in about 40 days though so that will help! On a random note, I got new glasses here the other week for only 40,000 won (about 40 dollars!) For anyone that wears glasses, they know that is incredibly cheap and super exciting. I might have to get another pair before I leave!
Hope everyone is staying healthy back home.
Tootles, Meghan
I discovered working in a school, you're never going to be 100% healthy, for the most part. I'm lucky I haven't been super sick, to the point of staying in bed (which is good because you don't get sick days as an English teacher) but I also can't seem to get rid of an always a little bit stuffy nose, and daily slightly sore throat. I guess I should invest in more tea and honey.
The fall has been nice here, especially from someone coming from Minnesota. Last weekend, November 4th and 5th, it was beautiful. Friday night, a bunch of just went to a bar in Suji just for a quieter night. I was exhausted from the week (as usual) and most of us ended up leaving before midnight even. Saturday, it was in the 70s so I took advantage by going on a walk, then a run, and more walking. It was so beautiful out. Of course the Koreans were still wearing long sleeve shirts and pants because they don't like the sun. I need to take a picture one of these days of the ridiculously large visors they wear on their heads to prevent sun burn. And yes Mother, I know I should probably be wearing one myself but I'm going to stick to the sunscreen for now :)
Saturday (Nov. 5th) there were four of us that went to an Orchestra concert. One of the Korean supervisors at our school plays the cello and was performing in a city a couple subway stops away and it was free. The first songs were played by younger kids playing the trumpet and I was concerned we agreed to go an amateur band concert type thing. Luckily, it was the students of the teachers in the orchestra or something so they had separate songs by each instrument first with the students, and then afterward the actual orchestra played. It was really fun to listen to. They played "The Phantom of the Opera" and then as an encore to the first "encore", they played "Pirates of the Caribbean" so it was fun to hear songs I was familiar with.
Sunday, my day to really do nothing, I did just that; nothing... Unless you count watching episodes of Glee that you've already seen as doing something!
Work this past week seemed to go pretty slowly and I'm not sure why, everything was pretty much the same. Maybe it was my cold and therefore lack of energy or what, but I was ready for the weekend by Wednesday. On Friday, it was "Pepero Day" which is a made up holiday by the Lotte company that makes Pepero. Pepero are cookie sticks dipped in chocolate on the end. It's Pepero day on 11/11 because of the shape of the sticks as 1, pretty lame and pretty ingenious I think for a company to get tons of people to buy their product just because it looks like a date! Also the kids brought Pepero for all the teachers and I'm not going to complain about any holiday that gets me free chocolate!
This last weekend wasn't too eventful. My only goal for the weekend was to finally buy a winter coat since I didn't bring mine with me. I decided to go to Dongdaemun which is a whole area full of different shopping places and vendors with pretty much any product you can buy. I was able to find a decent coat pretty quickly so I was happy about that. Then, Rachel, Christine and I hung out in Seoul for a while to see the lantern festival that was on the Cheonggyecheon River. I also had my first cheeseburger in Korea at a chain called Kraze burger. It was delicious and reminded me of Culvers. After dinner we headed to see the lanterns. The river is more like a stream and it runs through Seoul. It actually used to be covered up by roads and highways and they finally tore it up and opened up the stream again (or something like that!). The lanterns were cool but there were sooo many people that it was almost too frustrating to stay long and look at them. We headed home from Seoul and then went out to Suwon to watch our co-teacher Tom perform at a bar called "The Big Chill". Suwon is about a 30 minute bus ride from Suji. It was the bar's 2nd anniversary so that's why Tom was playing and a couple other people.
Sunday (today) has been another day of nothing. I cleaned my apartment, caught up on emails and messages with friends and relaxed. I did go grocery shopping because we found out Friday that the teacher's no longer will get free lunches. As it turns out, our school was doing something illegal and they had one cook making all the meals for the kindergarten classes which apparently you can't do? So now the school has to get it catered and the teachers and the staff aren't included. I'm really bummed about it because the food was really good, it saved me money, and it was my only real Korean food I ate ever. At least I took advantage of it and got to try lots of stuff the first 2 and a half months I was here!
So, life continues on here. We are going to start decorating our classrooms for Christmas and I think that will make a little homesick not being home around Christmas. I leave for the Philippines in about 40 days though so that will help! On a random note, I got new glasses here the other week for only 40,000 won (about 40 dollars!) For anyone that wears glasses, they know that is incredibly cheap and super exciting. I might have to get another pair before I leave!
Hope everyone is staying healthy back home.
Tootles, Meghan
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Happy Halloween!
I keep forgetting to write each week! I will try and do better in November!
The last two weeks of October went so fast. At work, we were busy decorating for Halloween and the kids were really excited about the Halloween festival we had planned so work was really busy, making it go even faster than usual.
Two weekends ago (the 21st and 22nd) a lot of my co teachers went out of town, some to Seoraksan, and some to visit some friends they had from home in another city so it was a pretty low key weekend for me. It was nice though, especially after a busy week. I did go into Seoul one day with Heather, who I also work with. We went to an area called Insadong which I had never been to before. It had a lot of great knick knack stuff and a lot of traditional Korean items which was cool to see. It was a fun area and it was a beautiful day to be out walking around. We also walked to this traditional village, where people still live today but their homes are still like the ones in the past. I guess they could only make so many changes to the houses, and if they did, they had to keep a certain appearance. It was really pretty and I wish more of Korea looked like that!
To cap off the day in Insadong, we went to a tea house where I tried "shaved ice" which I had heard a lot about. Here is what was in it: shaved ice, tomatoes, corn flakes, dried fruit, real fruit, red beans, ice cream, hot fudge, and a cherry. It sounds absolutely disgusting but it was delicious! The mixture of everything was so good, even if it sounds like a five year old came up with the ingredients.
This past week at school was really fun. We had "Spirit Week" for our kindergartners, so Monday was Pajama Day, Tuesday was Backwards Day, Wednesday was Sports Day, and Thursday was Crazy Hair Day. The teachers got to dress up to so that was fun! On Wednesday we got to carve a pumpkin with our class! It made me a little homesick when I thought about how I used to carve pumpkins with my family and how fun it was to go pick out your pumpkin and roast the pumpkin seeds and get ready for Halloween. I had a minor accident too and cut my finger. It actually was bleeding a lot and the kids were so concerned if I was ok. On Thursday morning, before class started, one of my kindergartners, Christina, came into the teacher's room just to ask if I was ok! She's so adorable.
After school on Wednesday, Christine, Rachel and I went to Costco since Christine's mom sent her their membership card! We left right after work at 6:30 and it took us about 2 hours to find it...We asked about 5 people, some who tried to help, but we still couldn't find it, and others who had no idea what "Costco" was. Luckily, with the help of some bus drivers, we got there and it was worth it. I wanted to buy a lot more but had to tell myself I didn't need a 16 dollar thing of chocolate covered almonds... I did end up buying real cheese, which was the most exciting thing I got, some deli meat (the kind I get at home even!) and then some oatmeal which was actually pretty cheap. I don't think I'll be going there a lot, but every once in a while when I need a sandwich and want real cheese!
We celebrated Halloween on Friday at school, so all the teachers stayed late Thursday to finish the decorations. We had a haunted house in our play gym, and then random games in "Big Gym" but the school looked really cool! The kids went through a rotation then the whole day, playing games, face painting, snacks, and decorating trick or treat bags. It was really fun! Then, in the afternoon we had our song contest. My class sang "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" the glee version. They were so good at it when we practiced in our room by ourselves but they were so shy on stage! It was still really cute even if they forgot half the words. I'm going to try to upload the video to my flickr if I can figure that out!
This past weekend I went out to celebrate Halloween Friday, then just hung out Saturday. Sunday, Rachel, Christine, and I went into Seoul to do a little shopping. I got some little gifts I wanted to get, but really wanted a winter coat but wasn't able to find one that was under 200 that I liked. I'll have to figure that out quickly before it starts to get really cold!
This next week should be busy with starting a new month and everything but it is already November this week! I'm counting down the days until Danny is here and the Philippines! Hopefully this month goes quickly!
Hope everyone had a good Halloween!
Love, Meghan
updated pictures!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/sets/
The last two weeks of October went so fast. At work, we were busy decorating for Halloween and the kids were really excited about the Halloween festival we had planned so work was really busy, making it go even faster than usual.
Two weekends ago (the 21st and 22nd) a lot of my co teachers went out of town, some to Seoraksan, and some to visit some friends they had from home in another city so it was a pretty low key weekend for me. It was nice though, especially after a busy week. I did go into Seoul one day with Heather, who I also work with. We went to an area called Insadong which I had never been to before. It had a lot of great knick knack stuff and a lot of traditional Korean items which was cool to see. It was a fun area and it was a beautiful day to be out walking around. We also walked to this traditional village, where people still live today but their homes are still like the ones in the past. I guess they could only make so many changes to the houses, and if they did, they had to keep a certain appearance. It was really pretty and I wish more of Korea looked like that!
To cap off the day in Insadong, we went to a tea house where I tried "shaved ice" which I had heard a lot about. Here is what was in it: shaved ice, tomatoes, corn flakes, dried fruit, real fruit, red beans, ice cream, hot fudge, and a cherry. It sounds absolutely disgusting but it was delicious! The mixture of everything was so good, even if it sounds like a five year old came up with the ingredients.
This past week at school was really fun. We had "Spirit Week" for our kindergartners, so Monday was Pajama Day, Tuesday was Backwards Day, Wednesday was Sports Day, and Thursday was Crazy Hair Day. The teachers got to dress up to so that was fun! On Wednesday we got to carve a pumpkin with our class! It made me a little homesick when I thought about how I used to carve pumpkins with my family and how fun it was to go pick out your pumpkin and roast the pumpkin seeds and get ready for Halloween. I had a minor accident too and cut my finger. It actually was bleeding a lot and the kids were so concerned if I was ok. On Thursday morning, before class started, one of my kindergartners, Christina, came into the teacher's room just to ask if I was ok! She's so adorable.
After school on Wednesday, Christine, Rachel and I went to Costco since Christine's mom sent her their membership card! We left right after work at 6:30 and it took us about 2 hours to find it...We asked about 5 people, some who tried to help, but we still couldn't find it, and others who had no idea what "Costco" was. Luckily, with the help of some bus drivers, we got there and it was worth it. I wanted to buy a lot more but had to tell myself I didn't need a 16 dollar thing of chocolate covered almonds... I did end up buying real cheese, which was the most exciting thing I got, some deli meat (the kind I get at home even!) and then some oatmeal which was actually pretty cheap. I don't think I'll be going there a lot, but every once in a while when I need a sandwich and want real cheese!
We celebrated Halloween on Friday at school, so all the teachers stayed late Thursday to finish the decorations. We had a haunted house in our play gym, and then random games in "Big Gym" but the school looked really cool! The kids went through a rotation then the whole day, playing games, face painting, snacks, and decorating trick or treat bags. It was really fun! Then, in the afternoon we had our song contest. My class sang "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" the glee version. They were so good at it when we practiced in our room by ourselves but they were so shy on stage! It was still really cute even if they forgot half the words. I'm going to try to upload the video to my flickr if I can figure that out!
This past weekend I went out to celebrate Halloween Friday, then just hung out Saturday. Sunday, Rachel, Christine, and I went into Seoul to do a little shopping. I got some little gifts I wanted to get, but really wanted a winter coat but wasn't able to find one that was under 200 that I liked. I'll have to figure that out quickly before it starts to get really cold!
This next week should be busy with starting a new month and everything but it is already November this week! I'm counting down the days until Danny is here and the Philippines! Hopefully this month goes quickly!
Hope everyone had a good Halloween!
Love, Meghan
updated pictures!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/sets/
Sunday, October 16, 2011
HBC and a Relaxing weekend...
Wow, I hadn't realized how long it had been since I wrote last... I'm sure it was killing everyone with anticipation for me to write again (kidding...) but I will try and recall what the last two weeks entailed!
The week after Seoraksan was not eventful. The weeks are blurring together and they fly by. We have a ritual of "Movie Mondays" at my co-teacher Chad's apartment so that's always fun to look forward to. I've seen a lot of good films, some Korean, one French one, and some American films I had never heard of. We did have a field trip for our kindergartners on Friday but it was walking up a mountain, pretty boring but oh well. The field trip was supposed to be to a farm but it had to be canceled because the day we were supposed to go it rained so the mountain it was. Anyways, last weekend I didn't do much Friday night, just hung out with some of the other teachers and we went to the bar Underground which is just in Suji, so within walking distance. Saturday, we went to HBC festival. HBC stands for Hae Bong Chon which is an area in Seoul. The festival was basically non stop bands in a handful of bars in the area from about 1:00pm all through the night. We got there about two and just wandered from bar to bar listening to different types of music and then one of my co-teachers, Tom, played at 8. It was a fun night and I got to hear some good (and some pretty bad) music.
Last week at the school we started decorating for Halloween! It was really fun to go back and recreate crafts and ideas that we did in elementary school. There's a contest for who can decorate their room the best and although I'm 99% positive I won't win, it's still fun to make. I'm going to try and finish this week, so I'll have two weeks to enjoy the full effect.. and then I'll put up pictures. So far I've made some window coverings, some spiders to hang, paper bats, and my favorite, a graveyard where all the kids have their own tombstone! All my kindergartners, not ALL my students but its mainly for the kindergartners and its basically their classroom.
This past weekend I didn't do anything, literally. I had a weird headache kinda thing all week and with ten weeks ahead of me with no vacation I didn't want to risk getting sick. So the weekend consisted of skyping, watching Modern Family episodes online, eating, and reading my kindle. It rained a lot on Saturday so it was a perfect day to sit around and do nothing. I read all three books of the series "The Hunger Games" and I recommend them to anyone looking for something to read. I actually read the first one on Tuesday, the second one on Wednesday, but saved the third for the weekend because finishing the two books in the two days meant I had sacrificed sleep to do so and again, I don't want to get sick!
This is an extremely boring entry and I'm trying to think of anything that happened to add something worth reading about but nothing comes to mind really... I did get paid for the first time! But that's really only exciting to me haha but it was more money than I thought so that's always a pleasant surprise.
The next week ahead should be busy trying to finish Halloween stuff but it's making October go by really fast, as all the weeks do here. The weather is still in the upper 60's here so I can't complain about that. The trees haven't even really started to change yet so I'm hoping winter is still a ways away!
Have a good week everyone!
Love, Meghan
The week after Seoraksan was not eventful. The weeks are blurring together and they fly by. We have a ritual of "Movie Mondays" at my co-teacher Chad's apartment so that's always fun to look forward to. I've seen a lot of good films, some Korean, one French one, and some American films I had never heard of. We did have a field trip for our kindergartners on Friday but it was walking up a mountain, pretty boring but oh well. The field trip was supposed to be to a farm but it had to be canceled because the day we were supposed to go it rained so the mountain it was. Anyways, last weekend I didn't do much Friday night, just hung out with some of the other teachers and we went to the bar Underground which is just in Suji, so within walking distance. Saturday, we went to HBC festival. HBC stands for Hae Bong Chon which is an area in Seoul. The festival was basically non stop bands in a handful of bars in the area from about 1:00pm all through the night. We got there about two and just wandered from bar to bar listening to different types of music and then one of my co-teachers, Tom, played at 8. It was a fun night and I got to hear some good (and some pretty bad) music.
Last week at the school we started decorating for Halloween! It was really fun to go back and recreate crafts and ideas that we did in elementary school. There's a contest for who can decorate their room the best and although I'm 99% positive I won't win, it's still fun to make. I'm going to try and finish this week, so I'll have two weeks to enjoy the full effect.. and then I'll put up pictures. So far I've made some window coverings, some spiders to hang, paper bats, and my favorite, a graveyard where all the kids have their own tombstone! All my kindergartners, not ALL my students but its mainly for the kindergartners and its basically their classroom.
This past weekend I didn't do anything, literally. I had a weird headache kinda thing all week and with ten weeks ahead of me with no vacation I didn't want to risk getting sick. So the weekend consisted of skyping, watching Modern Family episodes online, eating, and reading my kindle. It rained a lot on Saturday so it was a perfect day to sit around and do nothing. I read all three books of the series "The Hunger Games" and I recommend them to anyone looking for something to read. I actually read the first one on Tuesday, the second one on Wednesday, but saved the third for the weekend because finishing the two books in the two days meant I had sacrificed sleep to do so and again, I don't want to get sick!
This is an extremely boring entry and I'm trying to think of anything that happened to add something worth reading about but nothing comes to mind really... I did get paid for the first time! But that's really only exciting to me haha but it was more money than I thought so that's always a pleasant surprise.
The next week ahead should be busy trying to finish Halloween stuff but it's making October go by really fast, as all the weeks do here. The weather is still in the upper 60's here so I can't complain about that. The trees haven't even really started to change yet so I'm hoping winter is still a ways away!
Have a good week everyone!
Love, Meghan
Monday, October 3, 2011
Seoraksan National Park!
Happy October!
It is Monday night here in Korea and I'm finally home, showered, and have time to rest after a long and tiring weekend at Seoraksan National Park!
Friday night, I didn't do much after class. I had to pack still, do some laundry, and clean my apartment so I didn't have to do it all when I got back later Monday. I also wanted to get to bed early because we had to wake up very early to get to the bus on time.
Saturday, I woke up at 5:15 and just finished getting everything together and walked with Rachel and Christine to the subway station. On our walk over, I just kept thinking of my dad telling me, "Morning is the best time of the day" which I'm still not sure if I agree with at 6:00am and it's cold out! We met another teacher, Heather, at her subway station and proceeded to our Adventure Korea group meeting spot in Seoul. It was about a 4 hour bus ride to Sokcho, which is on the East coast. We had Bibimbap for lunch, which is rice mixed with a bunch of other stuff. I like our school's version better, but it's still a good dish. After that, we entered the park. There a ton of different trails to do and so our group split into 3 groups, one group that would do a 5 hour hike, one that would do a 3 hour hike, and one group that would do about an hour and a half hike to a waterfall and then have time to take the cable car up to one peak. All four of us decided to do the cable car so we'd be able to see the top and have time for the waterfall. It was pretty easy and the weather was really nice out. At the top of the cable car, it was a 15 minute walk to the highest point which involved basically climbing on all fours to get up there. We were so high that at one point I thought it was getting foggy out, until I realized it was actually a wispy cloud that was moving past us! After everyone was finished, we headed to our hotel to shower and eat dinner. By this time it was really cold and the heat wasn't on in our hotels (which consists of just floor heating) but luckily after dinner they were on. That's pretty much how you heat your apartment here, is under the floor heaters since its common for Koreans to sleep on the floor just on mats. We went to bed pretty early because Sunday was the day we were hiking for 11 hours!
On Sunday, Heather, Christine and I had to get up at 6 to have breakfast and then had to drive to our starting hiking point. We started hiking about 7:30. The tour guide guy said it would be about 4 hours to the top, and 6 hours down, since we were a different way back than the way up. The "top" was the highest peak called Daecheongbong. The first twenty minutes was all completely uphill but then it actually wasn't that bad, it was a lot of horizontal than just straight up which was nice. The colors were gorgeous!! I kept taking more and more pictures and none of them could do it justice. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It was so nice to be away from the city and smell natural fresh air and see the fall colors. It ended up taking about 11 hours so we were pretty beat by the time we got back. If you didn't want to go hiking, you had the option of just hanging out at the beach in Sokcho, which Rachel did. We all took nice hot showers, ate the Korean version of ramen in our room, and hung out before going to bed.
Monday was the easiest day, we had the option of going on a 3 1/2 hour hike or a 2 hour hike, so we opted for the 2 hour since our legs were pretty sore (and we got to sleep in more then!). It was only a hike to another waterfall and it wasn't very strenuous so that was nice. It was also a lot warmer by that time! We had lunch and headed out around 1:00pm. Since it was the end of the long weekend, there was more traffic on the way home so it took longer to get home, so we got back around 7:00ish or so. Now, I'm writing this after reorganizing everything and unpacking. I think I'll take it easy with going running the next couple days while my legs rest up (especially my calves and knees).
I think Sunday was my favorite day so far in Korea. The Seoraksan mountains were unbelievable and the leaves were extremely pretty. I had a lot of fun and it was definitely worth it. I have to take advantage of doing things in the fall before it gets too cold because this is the only fall I'll see in Korea.
So, a four day week ahead which will be nice! I updated my flickr, I couldn't put up all the pictures I took because I'd reach my maximum limit for the month just in this one weekend (unless I want to pay and upgrade my account but I don't plan on doing that!). Again, the pictures don't do it justice, but there are still some pretty good ones in there!
Have a good week,
Love, Meghan
It is Monday night here in Korea and I'm finally home, showered, and have time to rest after a long and tiring weekend at Seoraksan National Park!
Friday night, I didn't do much after class. I had to pack still, do some laundry, and clean my apartment so I didn't have to do it all when I got back later Monday. I also wanted to get to bed early because we had to wake up very early to get to the bus on time.
Saturday, I woke up at 5:15 and just finished getting everything together and walked with Rachel and Christine to the subway station. On our walk over, I just kept thinking of my dad telling me, "Morning is the best time of the day" which I'm still not sure if I agree with at 6:00am and it's cold out! We met another teacher, Heather, at her subway station and proceeded to our Adventure Korea group meeting spot in Seoul. It was about a 4 hour bus ride to Sokcho, which is on the East coast. We had Bibimbap for lunch, which is rice mixed with a bunch of other stuff. I like our school's version better, but it's still a good dish. After that, we entered the park. There a ton of different trails to do and so our group split into 3 groups, one group that would do a 5 hour hike, one that would do a 3 hour hike, and one group that would do about an hour and a half hike to a waterfall and then have time to take the cable car up to one peak. All four of us decided to do the cable car so we'd be able to see the top and have time for the waterfall. It was pretty easy and the weather was really nice out. At the top of the cable car, it was a 15 minute walk to the highest point which involved basically climbing on all fours to get up there. We were so high that at one point I thought it was getting foggy out, until I realized it was actually a wispy cloud that was moving past us! After everyone was finished, we headed to our hotel to shower and eat dinner. By this time it was really cold and the heat wasn't on in our hotels (which consists of just floor heating) but luckily after dinner they were on. That's pretty much how you heat your apartment here, is under the floor heaters since its common for Koreans to sleep on the floor just on mats. We went to bed pretty early because Sunday was the day we were hiking for 11 hours!
On Sunday, Heather, Christine and I had to get up at 6 to have breakfast and then had to drive to our starting hiking point. We started hiking about 7:30. The tour guide guy said it would be about 4 hours to the top, and 6 hours down, since we were a different way back than the way up. The "top" was the highest peak called Daecheongbong. The first twenty minutes was all completely uphill but then it actually wasn't that bad, it was a lot of horizontal than just straight up which was nice. The colors were gorgeous!! I kept taking more and more pictures and none of them could do it justice. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It was so nice to be away from the city and smell natural fresh air and see the fall colors. It ended up taking about 11 hours so we were pretty beat by the time we got back. If you didn't want to go hiking, you had the option of just hanging out at the beach in Sokcho, which Rachel did. We all took nice hot showers, ate the Korean version of ramen in our room, and hung out before going to bed.
Monday was the easiest day, we had the option of going on a 3 1/2 hour hike or a 2 hour hike, so we opted for the 2 hour since our legs were pretty sore (and we got to sleep in more then!). It was only a hike to another waterfall and it wasn't very strenuous so that was nice. It was also a lot warmer by that time! We had lunch and headed out around 1:00pm. Since it was the end of the long weekend, there was more traffic on the way home so it took longer to get home, so we got back around 7:00ish or so. Now, I'm writing this after reorganizing everything and unpacking. I think I'll take it easy with going running the next couple days while my legs rest up (especially my calves and knees).
I think Sunday was my favorite day so far in Korea. The Seoraksan mountains were unbelievable and the leaves were extremely pretty. I had a lot of fun and it was definitely worth it. I have to take advantage of doing things in the fall before it gets too cold because this is the only fall I'll see in Korea.
So, a four day week ahead which will be nice! I updated my flickr, I couldn't put up all the pictures I took because I'd reach my maximum limit for the month just in this one weekend (unless I want to pay and upgrade my account but I don't plan on doing that!). Again, the pictures don't do it justice, but there are still some pretty good ones in there!
Have a good week,
Love, Meghan
Friday, September 30, 2011
My apartment and Korean Birthdays
I finally put up pictures of my apartment, so you can see them on my flckr account... it's very small, but I've become used to it and actually kinda really like it... Besides the plain white wash insane asylum walls, it isn't too bad :)
I also had my first birthday party in my kindergarten class which I was very excited about because I heard that they were pretty intense, and it was! It was Sally's birthday Wednesday, and so her mom brought in a huge cake, cookies, a whole box of tangerines or clementines or whatever they were, juice, and suckers. I got her a little gift thinking it would be so fun for her to get a present from her teacher, but all the other students brought a present and they were way cooler than mine... but hey, I guess it's the thought that counts (probably not though at 7 years old...) Another thing, they celebrate birthdays, but they don't actually become a year older... as good old wikipedia explains it... "Newborns start at one year old, and each passing of a Lunar New Year rather than the birthday, adds one year to the person's age. In other words, the first year of life is counted as one instead of zero, so that a person is two years old in their second year, three years old in their third, and so on" So my class is 7 but they're really like 5 or 6? A little confusing I think!
Regardless of age, we had a lot of fun with the birthday party!
On the next work related topic... I had my first breakdown at the school, luckily not in front of the kids. My first grade has just been really overwhelming and since the supervisor left (who sucked) I've been getting a ton of new stuff, which in the long run will be way easier and way better to teach but when it was all piled on in one day I just started crying in front of my new supervisor. Later, the head supervisor wanted to talk to me because she knew I had cried, so then of course I cried again... shocking, but they were really nice and comforting and actually the other two new teachers had already cried before me so at least I didn't feel as pathetic!
Anyways, off to Sokcho tomorrow which is on the East side of Korea for Seoraksan National Park for the three day weekend.
Happy October tomorrow everyone!
Love, Meghan
I also had my first birthday party in my kindergarten class which I was very excited about because I heard that they were pretty intense, and it was! It was Sally's birthday Wednesday, and so her mom brought in a huge cake, cookies, a whole box of tangerines or clementines or whatever they were, juice, and suckers. I got her a little gift thinking it would be so fun for her to get a present from her teacher, but all the other students brought a present and they were way cooler than mine... but hey, I guess it's the thought that counts (probably not though at 7 years old...) Another thing, they celebrate birthdays, but they don't actually become a year older... as good old wikipedia explains it... "Newborns start at one year old, and each passing of a Lunar New Year rather than the birthday, adds one year to the person's age. In other words, the first year of life is counted as one instead of zero, so that a person is two years old in their second year, three years old in their third, and so on" So my class is 7 but they're really like 5 or 6? A little confusing I think!
Regardless of age, we had a lot of fun with the birthday party!
On the next work related topic... I had my first breakdown at the school, luckily not in front of the kids. My first grade has just been really overwhelming and since the supervisor left (who sucked) I've been getting a ton of new stuff, which in the long run will be way easier and way better to teach but when it was all piled on in one day I just started crying in front of my new supervisor. Later, the head supervisor wanted to talk to me because she knew I had cried, so then of course I cried again... shocking, but they were really nice and comforting and actually the other two new teachers had already cried before me so at least I didn't feel as pathetic!
Anyways, off to Sokcho tomorrow which is on the East side of Korea for Seoraksan National Park for the three day weekend.
Happy October tomorrow everyone!
Love, Meghan
Sunday, September 25, 2011
One month anniversary!
As of last Friday, I have officially been in Korea for one month! And boy did it go fast, I'm sure the next eleven will be slower as I get more and more into a routine, but still, I can't believe how fast it is going!
The past week at school was by far my most stressful week... With the supervisor leaving and everything, I was getting a lot of feedback and observations from the head supervisor and my new supervisor in my kindergarten and first grade classes. It wasn't anything negative, more just constructive and positive feedback but still, it made for a stressful week! Then on Saturday morning, I met the parents of my first graders during their meeting with the head supervisor. I mainly just had to say positive things about each child, and then they also asked for negative things or the things each child could work on, which I wasn't prepared for so that was a little stressful! But overall I think the meeting went well. Hopefully this upcoming week will go smoother...
A quick funny story...I have been running a lot more now that I'm more comfortable with my schedule but the other night when I was running I fell! As if I didn't stick out enough being a) a runner, and b) a white person... but they have these paths along the river that are almost like sport court material, or indoor track, I don't really know how to describe it, and it's completely flat for the majority of the run, literally... So I'm running into a new direction that I haven't gone before so I look up for literally a split second to read the sign to see what city I'm running towards and all of a sudden my foot hits something and I do an awkward half lunge type thing and use my hands sort of to just push myself back up. I laughed to myself and just kept running faster.. My knee's a little scraped up but I was more just embarrassed!
This weekend I didn't do too much, Friday night I was completely exhausted after the week so just hung out with a couple of the teachers and went to bed relatively early. A lot of people have been getting sick so I'm trying to be smart and not do anything to weaken my immune system either. At the school, you don't get any "sick" days...Saturday, after meeting the parents, we headed into Seoul for the FC Seoul soccer game! It was "Foreigner Night" at the game so almost all of the teachers at my school went, and a bunch of teachers we know from our area. It was only 10,000 won (so a little under 10 dollars) and you got a free beer and free hot dog with it so it was a pretty good deal! They played at the world cup stadium, but it was pretty empty. I don't know if it was because it was a 5pm game or maybe their games just aren't really that popular? Either way, the game was fun to watch, but they weren't very good, at least in my opinion. FC Seoul ended up winning 4-1 against Daejeon. It did really make me miss playing soccer though, and all my teammates back at GAC.
After the game, we headed back into Suji to go to a bar called Gecko's to celebrate one of the teacher's husbands birthday. It was a pretty nice bar and restaurant (and expensive) and since I was still feeling really tired and wary of getting sick, I just hung out, had some birthday cake, and we walked home about 1:00am. Her husband works for Samsung and so a lot of his co-workers were there also, and one of them was french! So I did actually speak french for a little bit, probably not well, but he was from Paris so it was nice to talk to someone about that and dust off my french skills at least a little.
From talking with the Samsung employees and just from other conversations, Koreans work very long hours. A lot of them leave at 8 in the morning and don't get home until after 9pm, except for Wednesdays which is "family day" and they get home around 6 or 7. The teacher's husband's boss even told him once, "Samsung comes before family, Samsung comes before wife..." which I think is pretty extreme! It's also quite hard for someone to work their way from the bottom to the top.
We have a three day weekend this upcoming weekend because of National Foundation day on Monday, so we are headed to Seoraksan National Park for a hiking trip along the different trails! I'm super excited for it especially if the weather stays how it has been this past week. It is still about 75-80 and sunny here, so that's one reason I'm glad I'm not in MN still! Everyone says fall is the best time of the year in Korea so I'm trying to do a lot right away since the winters get pretty cold here and summer is the rainy season, so it's pretty much now or never for some stuff! This is also our last vacation day until Christmas break... I don't know if I'll last! I counted (naturally I had to analyze it to death...) and we have 11 full weeks before Christmas after next's week four day week... That is a longgggg time! At least I'll be counting down to the Philippines which as of Saturday, was 3 months away!
I forgot to bring my camera to the game... so I'm going to get some emailed to me from other people and also put up pictures of my apartment this week hopefully, if not, I'll put up more pictures after our hiking trip :)
Have a good week!
Love,
Meghan
The past week at school was by far my most stressful week... With the supervisor leaving and everything, I was getting a lot of feedback and observations from the head supervisor and my new supervisor in my kindergarten and first grade classes. It wasn't anything negative, more just constructive and positive feedback but still, it made for a stressful week! Then on Saturday morning, I met the parents of my first graders during their meeting with the head supervisor. I mainly just had to say positive things about each child, and then they also asked for negative things or the things each child could work on, which I wasn't prepared for so that was a little stressful! But overall I think the meeting went well. Hopefully this upcoming week will go smoother...
A quick funny story...I have been running a lot more now that I'm more comfortable with my schedule but the other night when I was running I fell! As if I didn't stick out enough being a) a runner, and b) a white person... but they have these paths along the river that are almost like sport court material, or indoor track, I don't really know how to describe it, and it's completely flat for the majority of the run, literally... So I'm running into a new direction that I haven't gone before so I look up for literally a split second to read the sign to see what city I'm running towards and all of a sudden my foot hits something and I do an awkward half lunge type thing and use my hands sort of to just push myself back up. I laughed to myself and just kept running faster.. My knee's a little scraped up but I was more just embarrassed!
This weekend I didn't do too much, Friday night I was completely exhausted after the week so just hung out with a couple of the teachers and went to bed relatively early. A lot of people have been getting sick so I'm trying to be smart and not do anything to weaken my immune system either. At the school, you don't get any "sick" days...Saturday, after meeting the parents, we headed into Seoul for the FC Seoul soccer game! It was "Foreigner Night" at the game so almost all of the teachers at my school went, and a bunch of teachers we know from our area. It was only 10,000 won (so a little under 10 dollars) and you got a free beer and free hot dog with it so it was a pretty good deal! They played at the world cup stadium, but it was pretty empty. I don't know if it was because it was a 5pm game or maybe their games just aren't really that popular? Either way, the game was fun to watch, but they weren't very good, at least in my opinion. FC Seoul ended up winning 4-1 against Daejeon. It did really make me miss playing soccer though, and all my teammates back at GAC.
After the game, we headed back into Suji to go to a bar called Gecko's to celebrate one of the teacher's husbands birthday. It was a pretty nice bar and restaurant (and expensive) and since I was still feeling really tired and wary of getting sick, I just hung out, had some birthday cake, and we walked home about 1:00am. Her husband works for Samsung and so a lot of his co-workers were there also, and one of them was french! So I did actually speak french for a little bit, probably not well, but he was from Paris so it was nice to talk to someone about that and dust off my french skills at least a little.
From talking with the Samsung employees and just from other conversations, Koreans work very long hours. A lot of them leave at 8 in the morning and don't get home until after 9pm, except for Wednesdays which is "family day" and they get home around 6 or 7. The teacher's husband's boss even told him once, "Samsung comes before family, Samsung comes before wife..." which I think is pretty extreme! It's also quite hard for someone to work their way from the bottom to the top.
We have a three day weekend this upcoming weekend because of National Foundation day on Monday, so we are headed to Seoraksan National Park for a hiking trip along the different trails! I'm super excited for it especially if the weather stays how it has been this past week. It is still about 75-80 and sunny here, so that's one reason I'm glad I'm not in MN still! Everyone says fall is the best time of the year in Korea so I'm trying to do a lot right away since the winters get pretty cold here and summer is the rainy season, so it's pretty much now or never for some stuff! This is also our last vacation day until Christmas break... I don't know if I'll last! I counted (naturally I had to analyze it to death...) and we have 11 full weeks before Christmas after next's week four day week... That is a longgggg time! At least I'll be counting down to the Philippines which as of Saturday, was 3 months away!
I forgot to bring my camera to the game... so I'm going to get some emailed to me from other people and also put up pictures of my apartment this week hopefully, if not, I'll put up more pictures after our hiking trip :)
Have a good week!
Love,
Meghan
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Muuido.
After Chuseok last weekend we only had a three day week at school so that was a nice break. One of the Korean supervisors left this week, I'm not quite sure what the deal was, if she was fired or what not but I'm quite happy she is no longer there. A little background, there are five supervisors and they are the ones who make the lesson plans for us and act as the liaison basically between the parents and the teachers if there is something lost in translation or the parents have any concern. There are three that I really really like, two that are younger and sometimes are with us on the weekends and then the head supervisor who is older and really nice. The actual owner of the school I don't know very well and I don't see her much. So my kindergarten and first grade classes supervisor is the one that left, and so we got a new one on Thursday and I can already tell I'll like her so much better! The old one basically didn't do anything, and I would ask her for something and she would just say yeah, ok or something completely not assuring and then forget, so I'd have to ask her three more times...very frustrating to say the least! Other than that there is really nothing new at work.
Onto the fun part of the week... Friday night we just went to a bar called "The Underground" where one of the teachers was playing a show at (guitar and singing) so that was fun. It's usually a bar full of foreigners and some Koreans but the guy who owns it is really nice and knows the teachers from our school really well. I think its pretty safe to say that everyone's a regular there. On Saturday, we decided to go an island called Muuido which is just off the west coast right by Incheon (where the airport is). We left Saturday about noon, had to take one bus to the airport, another bus from the airport to the ferry, the ferry across literally 300 yards (I don't get why a bridge wouldn't be easier?) and then another bus from the ferry to the other side of the island to get to Hanagae Beach. It only cost about 20 bucks round trip though and maybe took about an hour and a half to get there? It was about 80 degrees in Suji (where I live) and sunny, but on the island it was a lot more overcast but still pretty warm. We went swimming but first you had to walk about 5-10 minutes just to get to the water from the beach because the tide was out. It was crazy! So basically all we did for the whole day was swam for a bit, got dinner, and drank and had a bonfire. We rented a little hut to sleep in which are only 30 bucks a night and they have pillows and blankets to use in them. There were some exchange students that we met on the bus so they stayed with us (girls in one hut and guys in the other) and then we met up with some different exchange students at night with the bonfire so we met a few English people, French, German, and one Australian. I spoke to some of the people from France but got too nervous to speak french! I could understand them sometimes though when they spoke so at least I got a little practice!
Sunday, it was actually sunny and warm so we laid out on the beach for a while before heading home. It may be the last time my face will actually get some color before the long winter so I had to soak it up while I could! Don't worry Mom, I did put sunscreen on my nose like a good child :)
Another full week ahead of teaching so nothing new there! Next weekend, they have a soccer game we're all going to because the tickets were only 10 dollars (I say dollars, but its really 10,000 won, which is about dollars, so I'm just putting everything in American prices)! I'm really excited to watch some soccer, I've been following Gustavus' season and I really really miss playing and everyone from the team. We also get a free beer and a free hot dog for foreigners! AND you can bring in any outside food or drinks, not like the Twins Stadium where a beer alone costs 7 dollars!
I heard it was getting pretty cold again in MN, well cold by my standards of fall weather... so I'm glad Korea is a little bit behind in that department. I haven't needed my coat yet which is nice!
This Friday the 23rd will officially be one month since I've been living here and it's finally starting to sink in actually, in a good way. Now I only have eleven months to learn more than just "hello" and "thank you" in Korean. We'll see....
Tootles!
Meghan
(pictures are updated also... http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/sets/)
Onto the fun part of the week... Friday night we just went to a bar called "The Underground" where one of the teachers was playing a show at (guitar and singing) so that was fun. It's usually a bar full of foreigners and some Koreans but the guy who owns it is really nice and knows the teachers from our school really well. I think its pretty safe to say that everyone's a regular there. On Saturday, we decided to go an island called Muuido which is just off the west coast right by Incheon (where the airport is). We left Saturday about noon, had to take one bus to the airport, another bus from the airport to the ferry, the ferry across literally 300 yards (I don't get why a bridge wouldn't be easier?) and then another bus from the ferry to the other side of the island to get to Hanagae Beach. It only cost about 20 bucks round trip though and maybe took about an hour and a half to get there? It was about 80 degrees in Suji (where I live) and sunny, but on the island it was a lot more overcast but still pretty warm. We went swimming but first you had to walk about 5-10 minutes just to get to the water from the beach because the tide was out. It was crazy! So basically all we did for the whole day was swam for a bit, got dinner, and drank and had a bonfire. We rented a little hut to sleep in which are only 30 bucks a night and they have pillows and blankets to use in them. There were some exchange students that we met on the bus so they stayed with us (girls in one hut and guys in the other) and then we met up with some different exchange students at night with the bonfire so we met a few English people, French, German, and one Australian. I spoke to some of the people from France but got too nervous to speak french! I could understand them sometimes though when they spoke so at least I got a little practice!
Sunday, it was actually sunny and warm so we laid out on the beach for a while before heading home. It may be the last time my face will actually get some color before the long winter so I had to soak it up while I could! Don't worry Mom, I did put sunscreen on my nose like a good child :)
Another full week ahead of teaching so nothing new there! Next weekend, they have a soccer game we're all going to because the tickets were only 10 dollars (I say dollars, but its really 10,000 won, which is about dollars, so I'm just putting everything in American prices)! I'm really excited to watch some soccer, I've been following Gustavus' season and I really really miss playing and everyone from the team. We also get a free beer and a free hot dog for foreigners! AND you can bring in any outside food or drinks, not like the Twins Stadium where a beer alone costs 7 dollars!
I heard it was getting pretty cold again in MN, well cold by my standards of fall weather... so I'm glad Korea is a little bit behind in that department. I haven't needed my coat yet which is nice!
This Friday the 23rd will officially be one month since I've been living here and it's finally starting to sink in actually, in a good way. Now I only have eleven months to learn more than just "hello" and "thank you" in Korean. We'll see....
Tootles!
Meghan
(pictures are updated also... http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/sets/)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Chuseok!
This last week was my first full week of teaching! It went really well, the week flyssss by so fast especially with my slower days being Tuesday and Thursday! I left already 3 weeks ago today and I can't believe how fast it's gone.
We had a four day weekend because of the Korean holiday Chuseok, which is similar to our own Thanksgiving. At school on Friday we made Songpyeon with our kindergarten classes. Songpyeon is a rice flour dough that has semi sweet stuff in the middle, hard to explain but were pretty good! The Kindergartners also wore their traditional clothing called Hanbok, they all looked so adorable! I took quite a few pictures of them. I also got my first presents from the parents! The only boy in my Kindergarten's mom met me outside of my classroom and introduced herself, she handed me a bag and just kept saying its not much, its not much. I opened it right when I got into the office I was so excited, and it was a beautiful scarf. I'm already excited for winter (kind of...) but at least to just wear the scarf. My second present was from one of my first graders, a girl brought in these little cookie treats for me from the shop Paris Baguette. Such nice and thankful parents!
Friday after class, I didn't do much, just hung out with some of the other teachers and laid low because I had plans for all day Saturday and was really exhausted from our first full week at school.
Saturday, Rachel and I ventured into Seoul by ourselves, without any veteran help! We first went to Myeongdong which is a huge shopping area. I had such good self control for once and didn't buy anything! Even though a lot of their shops were full of cute clothing. We'll see how long that lasts. After Myeongdong, we pulled out our tourists maps and walked from there to Namdaemun street market. This is the place we originally wanted to go but got confused at first! The market had EVERYTHING, food, clothes, accessories, household items, everything. It was very overwhelming, and again I had very good self control and just bought some decorative chopsticks and a present for Molly that I'll send home for Christmas once I figure out what to buy everyone else! Lastly, we went to Namsangol Hanok Village, which is a village set up to show what traditional way of life in Korea is like. They had a lot of activities going on there because of the holiday, like painting masks or making a flute. I wanted to make a flute, but they were closing down when I got there... which is probably a good thing because what really would I have done with it? After our long day, Rachel and I got dinner with a couple of teachers that were in Seoul to go to a concert that night then we made our way back home. Our first trip to Seoul and back alone was a success! We had a little trouble finding the subway but everyone was super nice whenever we asked for help. Even when we were waiting to meet our friends in the subway, people asked where we needed to go, thinking we were lost! We left for Seoul around 11 and got back around 10:30pm so I was pretty exhausted and went to bed!
Sunday, after sleeping in for quite some time, we had a movie day at Chad's apartment. We watched a french movie called Un Prophete, about this guy in prison that was really good, and also In Bruges, with Colin Farrell, which I had never heard of but really liked it. I also tried Spam for the first time, or the Korean brand of it. They have a lot of Spam here. It actually wasn't that bad, but I don't think I'll be running out to buy more. Another laid back day, and after dinner, went to bed again.
Monday, we woke up and went hiking again, this time up a much less intense mountain, that was just in Suji, so only about fifteen minutes away. It wasn't as nice of a day and with this mountain significantly smaller, it wasn't busy at all so it was nice to be in a more serene place than the city all the time. After hiking, everyone took a nap and met up later for dinner and to celebrate one of the teacher's, Laura, birthday. She turned 30 so it was a "Death to my Twenties" party and everyone had to wear black. We went out in Hongdae which is in Seoul. It was really fun, and luckily this time we took a taxi back instead of waiting for the bus at 6am!
Now it is Tuesday, and I'm preparing for a nice short 3 day week! I made fried rice today for lunch/dinner and for a first attempt it wasn't so bad! I needed to switch it up from cereal and spaghetti. Otherwise, I haven't done much at all, and at 4pm am still wearing my pajamas! We get so little vacation time throughout the year, I need to take advantage of it. Our next day off is October 3rd, for a 3 day weekend, but then we have full weeks until Christmas break! Which is only 3 months and a week away until the Philippines and Danny is here! So exciting...
I added more pictures to my flickr account too, you can see my adorable children celebrating Chuseok!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/
Missing everyone!
Love, Meghan
We had a four day weekend because of the Korean holiday Chuseok, which is similar to our own Thanksgiving. At school on Friday we made Songpyeon with our kindergarten classes. Songpyeon is a rice flour dough that has semi sweet stuff in the middle, hard to explain but were pretty good! The Kindergartners also wore their traditional clothing called Hanbok, they all looked so adorable! I took quite a few pictures of them. I also got my first presents from the parents! The only boy in my Kindergarten's mom met me outside of my classroom and introduced herself, she handed me a bag and just kept saying its not much, its not much. I opened it right when I got into the office I was so excited, and it was a beautiful scarf. I'm already excited for winter (kind of...) but at least to just wear the scarf. My second present was from one of my first graders, a girl brought in these little cookie treats for me from the shop Paris Baguette. Such nice and thankful parents!
Friday after class, I didn't do much, just hung out with some of the other teachers and laid low because I had plans for all day Saturday and was really exhausted from our first full week at school.
Saturday, Rachel and I ventured into Seoul by ourselves, without any veteran help! We first went to Myeongdong which is a huge shopping area. I had such good self control for once and didn't buy anything! Even though a lot of their shops were full of cute clothing. We'll see how long that lasts. After Myeongdong, we pulled out our tourists maps and walked from there to Namdaemun street market. This is the place we originally wanted to go but got confused at first! The market had EVERYTHING, food, clothes, accessories, household items, everything. It was very overwhelming, and again I had very good self control and just bought some decorative chopsticks and a present for Molly that I'll send home for Christmas once I figure out what to buy everyone else! Lastly, we went to Namsangol Hanok Village, which is a village set up to show what traditional way of life in Korea is like. They had a lot of activities going on there because of the holiday, like painting masks or making a flute. I wanted to make a flute, but they were closing down when I got there... which is probably a good thing because what really would I have done with it? After our long day, Rachel and I got dinner with a couple of teachers that were in Seoul to go to a concert that night then we made our way back home. Our first trip to Seoul and back alone was a success! We had a little trouble finding the subway but everyone was super nice whenever we asked for help. Even when we were waiting to meet our friends in the subway, people asked where we needed to go, thinking we were lost! We left for Seoul around 11 and got back around 10:30pm so I was pretty exhausted and went to bed!
Sunday, after sleeping in for quite some time, we had a movie day at Chad's apartment. We watched a french movie called Un Prophete, about this guy in prison that was really good, and also In Bruges, with Colin Farrell, which I had never heard of but really liked it. I also tried Spam for the first time, or the Korean brand of it. They have a lot of Spam here. It actually wasn't that bad, but I don't think I'll be running out to buy more. Another laid back day, and after dinner, went to bed again.
Monday, we woke up and went hiking again, this time up a much less intense mountain, that was just in Suji, so only about fifteen minutes away. It wasn't as nice of a day and with this mountain significantly smaller, it wasn't busy at all so it was nice to be in a more serene place than the city all the time. After hiking, everyone took a nap and met up later for dinner and to celebrate one of the teacher's, Laura, birthday. She turned 30 so it was a "Death to my Twenties" party and everyone had to wear black. We went out in Hongdae which is in Seoul. It was really fun, and luckily this time we took a taxi back instead of waiting for the bus at 6am!
Now it is Tuesday, and I'm preparing for a nice short 3 day week! I made fried rice today for lunch/dinner and for a first attempt it wasn't so bad! I needed to switch it up from cereal and spaghetti. Otherwise, I haven't done much at all, and at 4pm am still wearing my pajamas! We get so little vacation time throughout the year, I need to take advantage of it. Our next day off is October 3rd, for a 3 day weekend, but then we have full weeks until Christmas break! Which is only 3 months and a week away until the Philippines and Danny is here! So exciting...
I added more pictures to my flickr account too, you can see my adorable children celebrating Chuseok!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/
Missing everyone!
Love, Meghan
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Teaching and the Weekend!
So I officially started teaching Wednesday, August 31st!
My schedule for the day is...
10-12:30 is Kindergarten. I have five girls and one boy.
12:30-1:30 is lunch
1:30-2:20 is Kindergarten (but depending on the day they have different activities...Monday is a game, Tuesday is song and chant, Wednesday is art, Thursday is "science" (not really...) and Friday they have oral quizzes so pretty much just play time!)
2:30 to 3:50 is first grade
Kindergarten and first grade I have everyday, Monday through Friday. I took a picture of my first grade class but forgot the rest!
Then..
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I teach 3 different classes in the afternoon.
From 4:00 to 4:45, I teach science. It's just a class of four boys.
From 4:50 to 5:35, I teach Social Studies which is one girl and 3 boys.
From 5:40 to 6:20 (my last class) I go back to my class of four boys and do grammar and writing.
Tuesday and Thursday, after kinder and first grade, I actually a free hour from 4:00 to 5:00 which is nice! Then I have class preparation time from 5:00 to 6:00 and then I teach Social Studies and Writing from 6:00 to 6:40 (it's a different social studies text than my class on MWF). This class has four boys and five girls, my biggest of all my classes!
The supervisors at the school gave us all of the materials that we need to teach and go through everyday but it was still pretty hard the first day! The kids are all PRETTY well behaved but still, there is a lot of, "Sit back down please"..."PLEASE". Especially by the end of the day! Korean children go to school wayyy longer than we do in the US. They go to their Korean school in the morning, and then come to our school to learn English. Then most of them have piano, dance, or tae kwon do, or pretty much some other actvity where they aren't done with everything until about 9pm, when they start their homework, go to bed and do it all over again the next day! I don't know how they do it. There is really no punishment for not doing your homework at our school. The only threat or rewards are "stickers". So every class, you put the student's names on the board and then add stars to their name or erase them if they're being bad (or at least threaten to). Then at the end you just mark on a sheet how many stickers they got that class and once they fill up a sheet, they get an ACTUAL sticker. The stickers are traded in for "market day" for money which is only twice a year! Even though I don't really see the motivation to do anything just for some stickers, it somehow works!
Wednesday through Friday went pretty smoothly and actually went by reallyyy fast! I think my first grade is my least favorite... sadly. They seemed great the first day but they are just realllyyyy hyper and one girl just likes to get out of her chair and start doing whatever! It's frustrating but we'll see!
Friday night after class, almost all of the teachers went over to one girl's apartment for fried rice dinner and drinks. It was delicious! We just hung out the rest of the night since we had plans to go hiking Saturday morning.
Saturday, we left at 9:30, and it took about an hour and a half or so to get to the mountain we were hiking by bus and subway. It was a gorgeous day out! I'm SO glad we didn't go out the night before. There were 7 of us hiking and it was sooo hard. My body hasn't been that exhausted in a long time. It was just constant incline for about 3 hours?? Some parts had rockish stairs and other parts I was using my hands to get up, which was nice to give my legs a break! There were a ton of people on the mountain and they were way more prepared! Everyone had legit hiking boots, long legging pants, long sleeve shirts, walking poles and huge visors. They also packed food and you'd see groups resting and eating a full lunch. I didn't think the outfits were necessary but I would have liked a pole once in a while in some spots! Despite the difficulty, it was definitely worth it! The view was absolutely gorgeous (I took a lot of pictures!). We ate lunch at the bottom of the mountain, and finally got back into Suji about 9:00. It was a very long day but a wonderful one. After a much needed shower, we all met up to celebrate one girl's move to a new apartment and went out in Suji. It was a lot of fun with everyone, and the bartender was nice enough to play Justin Bieber for me, not once, but twice at the bar... I may have annoyed everyone else, but I was in a good state not to care.... anyways :)
Sunday, I took it easy and just hung out in my apartment and FINALLY went grocery shopping. It took probably ten times longer to buy ten times less stuff than it would at home! I just kept wandering the aisles not knowing what a lot of stuff was! But at least I can start making some food at home and not spend it on going out to eat! Sunday, one of the other teachers at a different taught a couple of us how to read Korean. It will help but if I don't know what the word means once I sound it out, I'll still be lost! I looked up some free Korean classes and I'm going to try to go to one Saturday though! At least to know how to order food, which is the most important in my opinion!
Monday was just another day at work! The kids were better behaved, they must have just been excited it was Friday which is understandable! And maybe they realize how mean I am now.. haha just kidding, well hopefully. Then after work, one of the teachers, Chad, decided to start "Movie Mondays" at his apartment. So we went over after work, got some pizza, and watched "Oldboy", a Korean movie. It was disturbing and sad but really good. Very similar style as Kill Bill, so if you think of Quentin Tarantino, and put it in Korean, that's what it was like!
Tuesday (today) is my slow day with the break and class prep so it went pretty well! I got home and made my first meal in my apartment...spaghetti, ha. And cleaned and organized some more of my stuff. I finally have internet but I'm STILL waiting on a wardrobe so I'm living out of my suitcase still! They measured my apartment today to make sure it'll fit so I'm hoping this week. When it's all finished I'll finally put up pictures! I have one of the smaller apartments but I guess it'll save on energy costs like heating and cooling, so its ok!
Here are some of my pictures so far... Since I don't know how to add pictures on my blog (all the instructions are in Korean and I can't remember how I did it in France) I thought it'd be better anyway to just make a flickr account. That way I can put way more pictures up anyway! Hopefully this works?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/
Almost forgot, on a very exciting note, I'm going to the Philippines for Christmas break! We really only get two weeks vacation out of the whole year, and Christmas break is one of them. I think 7 or 8 of the teachers are going and I'm also lucky because Danny will be coming with me! I think it'll be a good way to be distracted from not being home in MN during Christmas with everyone if I'm on a beach and swimming and hiking in the Philippines instead! So...something to look forward to!
Have a good week everyone!
Love, Meghan
My schedule for the day is...
10-12:30 is Kindergarten. I have five girls and one boy.
12:30-1:30 is lunch
1:30-2:20 is Kindergarten (but depending on the day they have different activities...Monday is a game, Tuesday is song and chant, Wednesday is art, Thursday is "science" (not really...) and Friday they have oral quizzes so pretty much just play time!)
2:30 to 3:50 is first grade
Kindergarten and first grade I have everyday, Monday through Friday. I took a picture of my first grade class but forgot the rest!
Then..
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I teach 3 different classes in the afternoon.
From 4:00 to 4:45, I teach science. It's just a class of four boys.
From 4:50 to 5:35, I teach Social Studies which is one girl and 3 boys.
From 5:40 to 6:20 (my last class) I go back to my class of four boys and do grammar and writing.
Tuesday and Thursday, after kinder and first grade, I actually a free hour from 4:00 to 5:00 which is nice! Then I have class preparation time from 5:00 to 6:00 and then I teach Social Studies and Writing from 6:00 to 6:40 (it's a different social studies text than my class on MWF). This class has four boys and five girls, my biggest of all my classes!
The supervisors at the school gave us all of the materials that we need to teach and go through everyday but it was still pretty hard the first day! The kids are all PRETTY well behaved but still, there is a lot of, "Sit back down please"..."PLEASE". Especially by the end of the day! Korean children go to school wayyy longer than we do in the US. They go to their Korean school in the morning, and then come to our school to learn English. Then most of them have piano, dance, or tae kwon do, or pretty much some other actvity where they aren't done with everything until about 9pm, when they start their homework, go to bed and do it all over again the next day! I don't know how they do it. There is really no punishment for not doing your homework at our school. The only threat or rewards are "stickers". So every class, you put the student's names on the board and then add stars to their name or erase them if they're being bad (or at least threaten to). Then at the end you just mark on a sheet how many stickers they got that class and once they fill up a sheet, they get an ACTUAL sticker. The stickers are traded in for "market day" for money which is only twice a year! Even though I don't really see the motivation to do anything just for some stickers, it somehow works!
Wednesday through Friday went pretty smoothly and actually went by reallyyy fast! I think my first grade is my least favorite... sadly. They seemed great the first day but they are just realllyyyy hyper and one girl just likes to get out of her chair and start doing whatever! It's frustrating but we'll see!
Friday night after class, almost all of the teachers went over to one girl's apartment for fried rice dinner and drinks. It was delicious! We just hung out the rest of the night since we had plans to go hiking Saturday morning.
Saturday, we left at 9:30, and it took about an hour and a half or so to get to the mountain we were hiking by bus and subway. It was a gorgeous day out! I'm SO glad we didn't go out the night before. There were 7 of us hiking and it was sooo hard. My body hasn't been that exhausted in a long time. It was just constant incline for about 3 hours?? Some parts had rockish stairs and other parts I was using my hands to get up, which was nice to give my legs a break! There were a ton of people on the mountain and they were way more prepared! Everyone had legit hiking boots, long legging pants, long sleeve shirts, walking poles and huge visors. They also packed food and you'd see groups resting and eating a full lunch. I didn't think the outfits were necessary but I would have liked a pole once in a while in some spots! Despite the difficulty, it was definitely worth it! The view was absolutely gorgeous (I took a lot of pictures!). We ate lunch at the bottom of the mountain, and finally got back into Suji about 9:00. It was a very long day but a wonderful one. After a much needed shower, we all met up to celebrate one girl's move to a new apartment and went out in Suji. It was a lot of fun with everyone, and the bartender was nice enough to play Justin Bieber for me, not once, but twice at the bar... I may have annoyed everyone else, but I was in a good state not to care.... anyways :)
Sunday, I took it easy and just hung out in my apartment and FINALLY went grocery shopping. It took probably ten times longer to buy ten times less stuff than it would at home! I just kept wandering the aisles not knowing what a lot of stuff was! But at least I can start making some food at home and not spend it on going out to eat! Sunday, one of the other teachers at a different taught a couple of us how to read Korean. It will help but if I don't know what the word means once I sound it out, I'll still be lost! I looked up some free Korean classes and I'm going to try to go to one Saturday though! At least to know how to order food, which is the most important in my opinion!
Monday was just another day at work! The kids were better behaved, they must have just been excited it was Friday which is understandable! And maybe they realize how mean I am now.. haha just kidding, well hopefully. Then after work, one of the teachers, Chad, decided to start "Movie Mondays" at his apartment. So we went over after work, got some pizza, and watched "Oldboy", a Korean movie. It was disturbing and sad but really good. Very similar style as Kill Bill, so if you think of Quentin Tarantino, and put it in Korean, that's what it was like!
Tuesday (today) is my slow day with the break and class prep so it went pretty well! I got home and made my first meal in my apartment...spaghetti, ha. And cleaned and organized some more of my stuff. I finally have internet but I'm STILL waiting on a wardrobe so I'm living out of my suitcase still! They measured my apartment today to make sure it'll fit so I'm hoping this week. When it's all finished I'll finally put up pictures! I have one of the smaller apartments but I guess it'll save on energy costs like heating and cooling, so its ok!
Here are some of my pictures so far... Since I don't know how to add pictures on my blog (all the instructions are in Korean and I can't remember how I did it in France) I thought it'd be better anyway to just make a flickr account. That way I can put way more pictures up anyway! Hopefully this works?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanfaricy/
Almost forgot, on a very exciting note, I'm going to the Philippines for Christmas break! We really only get two weeks vacation out of the whole year, and Christmas break is one of them. I think 7 or 8 of the teachers are going and I'm also lucky because Danny will be coming with me! I think it'll be a good way to be distracted from not being home in MN during Christmas with everyone if I'm on a beach and swimming and hiking in the Philippines instead! So...something to look forward to!
Have a good week everyone!
Love, Meghan
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
One week down...
So I’m writing this Sunday, I haven’t had time to update and no internet in my apartment still to put it online! I know this is long overdue but I will try to recap the best I can!
Tuesday- Tuesday morning I left, and it actually went pretty smoothly. I had two 50 pound suitcases, a laptop bag and another bag, all packed to the brim. It was a long day of travel but it went pretty smoothly, we had no delays or extra waiting so it went about as quickly as possible which was nice. It was hard saying goodbye to my family and Danny, who came with me to the airport… but at least there is lots of email and skype! I went to Denver first, on a two hour flight, then an hour layover, 2.5 hour flight to California, then a four hour layover in California and a 12 hour flight to Seoul. I slept on all three but not very much. I had a window seat for the first two and an aisle seat for the last one so that was nice. I watched three movies during the flight that we didn’t get to choose, they just kept replaying on different channels but I watched Source Code, The Adjustment Bureau, and Beastly… none of which were that good but oh well!
Wednesday- We got into the airport about 6:30pm but by the time we got to baggage claim, and customs and everything it was probably almost 7:30. Luckily, we got picked up by someone from the school who had a sign with our names on it which was pretty fun to have someone do that. We had about an hour car ride to the apartments, which at the time we didn’t know that’s where we were going, but we got let off at a corner with a gas station and two girls were waiting for us that are other teachers at the school. My apartment was not even a block away, and luckily I got to move in right away instead of going to a “Love Motel” which I had been warned about (I’ll let you figure out what they are…). So after a long exhausting day, the other teachers took me and Rachel (the other teacher I flew out of MN with) to eat dinner. It was my first experience eating Korean and it was pretty good! They have these big heater things in the middle of the tables and so it cooks the food right in front of you and then you make lettuce wraps with the cooked meat and then the tons of little sides they bring too. After dinner I was exhausted so I chose to go home while the others just went to get a drink. I was lucky since I could move in to my apartment right away, but it wasn’t furnished besides a bed with a bedspread and a pillow and then the kitchen appliances. I got home and immediately started crying, wishing I could go home. I was missing everyone terribly. I hated not having stuff in the apartment, didn’t know what to expect at the school and just felt completely homesick. I’m sure the long day of travel didn’t help things but I unpacked some stuff and went to bed.
Thursday- Today was my first day at the school. We don’t start school until 10am so although I could sleep in, my body was still pretty messed up from the flight that I woke up about 6, and couldn’t really fall back asleep. The school is only about a 15 minute walk from our apartments so that’s nice we don’t have to take any public transportation (sorry Danny, no busesJ). I had no idea what we would be doing that day but we just shadowed the other teachers and their classes. There are 3 teachers leaving this August, two of them have been here two years, and the other girl just finished her first year. I’m taking a girl named Maria’s kindergarten class so I met her students the first day. They are sooo adorable! There are two boys, and I think five or six girls. My name at the school is “Meghan Teacher” and the kids were so excited to have me sit in their class. I think this was honestly the first time I was excited about being here, seeing the kids’ faces and that I’d be teaching them! I also met my first graders that day…. So the schedule is everyone has Kindergarten in the morning, but some are different levels, mine have had English for a year or so but some other classes are literally just starting and they know zero English. Kindergarten goes from 10:00 to 12:30, then lunch, then Kindergarten from 1:30 to 2:50 I think? Then the afternoon schedule I’m still confused about. I have my first graders every afternoon for about an hour and a half everyday, but after that it gets confusing. Some teachers teach science (which has different levels) and then same with social studies, or “Story Town” which is just a book that has different stories in it and they pretty much just read it in class. Some of the kids have very high proficiency, and the higher classes even write essays and everything. We have some students that come only Tuesday and Thursday, but yeah I’m still figuring out what classes are when and who comes on what day. When I got home from school that day, they had put some furniture into my apartment, a desk that has a lid you can lift up and it has a mirror, a table in the kitchen, a chair, and a tv stand. I’m still waiting on the wardrobe though, which is the more important thing! I’ll remind
Friday- Today I just shadowed more teachers and more classes. I’m still not sure of the schedule! Then after work, we had an all staff dinner, well an all “foreign” staff dinner at least. There are 10 teachers at the school, and one guy who is starting tomorrow who is only part time. The teachers we are replacing leave on Tuesday or Wednesday. We went to anther Korean BBQ style place, I’m still not sure at all what anything is called or what it is we ate, but it was good! I’m getting way better at using chopsticks, especially for never having used them in the states. After that we just went out to a couple bars in Suji, where we live. A lot of English schools are in the area, and most of the teachers know the other teachers that work at the other schools, so it was pretty much all foreign people where we were. Everyone kind of bonds since it’s very obvious who is American (or Canadian, there are quite a few here too) and Korean! It’s not very easy to blend in, like in Paris when I wanted people to think I was French!
Saturday- Saturday I got up and walked to Lotte Mart, a store much like our Target. I had to get a couple critical things, like toilet paper, and some towels. We had passed the Lotte on our way to dinner the night before so I decided to make the trek by myself and see what it was like. It’s only about a 10-15 minute walk away, and its pretty much a straight shot there, otherwise I probably would have waited for someone…I’m not very good ad directions! Beauty products were pretty expensive, about 12 dollars a bottle! Luckily, they had Pantene Pro V on sale for 6, see Mom, I’m still being a smart shopper… It did take me a while to understand what the sales lady was trying to say and to figure out which one was shampoo and which one was conditioner! I brought everything home and felt a lot better about my apartment now that it’s a little more liveable in! I still need silverware and more dishes but I’m waiting for the other teachers to leave to see what they have they can give before I buy anything new. Afterwards, I went and got lunch (Subway… sad I know) and then went to an internet café with some of the other teachers and was able to talk to my parents and Danny for a while. So they officially do know I made it to South Korea safely! I did have quite a technology breakdown though… my blog had apparently disappeared, my email wouldn’t let me log in, and everything was in Korean on the pages so I had no idea why! I think it’s all figured out now though (finally) but it was a stressful experience! We walked to Lotte Mart again after the café, and bought some bottled water. The water isn’t safe to drink, and you can get a huge bottle at “Family Mart” or convenient stores for about 1000 won, which is 1 dollar, but at Lotte you can buy 6 bottles for 4 dollars. It wasn’t fun to carry it back, but it’s way cheaper that way. I find it so baffling that a country that is so modern with everything else, like computers and technology, doesn’t have a clean water system. I’m completely anti-bottled water since it’s such a waste of resources, and they rarely get recycled, but we’re forced to have them here. Luckily, our school has a water bottle filler there so I’m just going to try and fill them up there until the bottles go bad. It’s quite frustrating though, especially when I’m used to drinking out of tap. Later, we all got ready and some of us went to get dinner and then made the trek to Seoul. It’s very cheap to get to Seoul by bus, not even 5000 won (5 dollars) but it can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on traffic. We were going out in Seoul to celebrate one of the teachers last weekend here. We went to an area that I guess is the more artsy side of Seoul. I guess art isn’t very recognized here, with such an emphasis on math and science. We were drinking outside in this park, and there is a silent rave going on. So everyone has headphones and are listening to the same song, but no one else can hear the music without the headphones, so it’s kind of funny to see people dancing and not really sure why! It was a really fun area, reminded me a lot of Paris. We just went out to a couple bars that night, but stayed out until 6am because that’s when the buses start running again to get back, and a taxi is much more expensive to take. I was exhausted by the time we left… and I’m sure staying up all night is not going to help me adjust to the jet lag, oh well!
Sunday- Today when I woke up, after about 3 hours of sleep, I walked to another internet café, but couldn’t find my adaptor and didn’t get much time on my computer to do anything… I did find it when I got back but I feel pressured to buy things in cafes and since I don’t like coffee I try and avoid having to waste money on stuff just to use their internet! When I came back, I organized my room a bit more, combined suitcases since they were taking up way too much space and then took a long long nap. I finally got up to go buy some milk and cereal for tomorrow’s breakfast, but then I realized I don’t have any spoons! So hopefully the teacher across the hall will let me borrow one. I also need to buy dish soap still… so much stuff to buy! And now I’m here writing this blog J
So after a couple of hard first days, I’m starting to feel a lot better about Korea. I now know how to walk to the school, a café, Lotte Mart, and another tiny grocery store. I still have no idea where anyone is talking about when they say city names or places, but I’m sure that will come in time. We don’t get our bank set up until a couple more weeks, once we get a physical and everything for our visa so I’m trying to spread out the money I brought which is hard when I have to buy a lot up front, like the beauty products and stuff for the apartment. I’m trying to postpone some of it as long as possible. The school will give us a cash advancement if we need to though, so it really isn’t a big deal if I run out this first month before I get paid. One thing that is kind of hard is I find myself comparing everything here to Paris and it’s very very different. I don’t really think any city will ever compare to Paris, at least that I’ve seen yet, and Korea isn’t exactly “pretty” in its architecture or anything and it’s a lot dirtier than Paris. I guess there a lot of good hiking trails around here though so I’m excited to see those and do that. I feel like I’ve been here longer than 5 days, which is good, and I’m really excited to start teaching! My first day is Wednesday, so tomorrow and Tuesday I’ll be shadowing and doing more orientation stuff so I’ll hopefully get internet this week and can update Wednesday how it goes!! Wish me luck!
Hope everyone is doing well back home, or wherever you are reading this! I can’t believe it’s almost September, this year is going to fly by, I can already tell!
Love,
Meghan
Tuesday- Tuesday morning I left, and it actually went pretty smoothly. I had two 50 pound suitcases, a laptop bag and another bag, all packed to the brim. It was a long day of travel but it went pretty smoothly, we had no delays or extra waiting so it went about as quickly as possible which was nice. It was hard saying goodbye to my family and Danny, who came with me to the airport… but at least there is lots of email and skype! I went to Denver first, on a two hour flight, then an hour layover, 2.5 hour flight to California, then a four hour layover in California and a 12 hour flight to Seoul. I slept on all three but not very much. I had a window seat for the first two and an aisle seat for the last one so that was nice. I watched three movies during the flight that we didn’t get to choose, they just kept replaying on different channels but I watched Source Code, The Adjustment Bureau, and Beastly… none of which were that good but oh well!
Wednesday- We got into the airport about 6:30pm but by the time we got to baggage claim, and customs and everything it was probably almost 7:30. Luckily, we got picked up by someone from the school who had a sign with our names on it which was pretty fun to have someone do that. We had about an hour car ride to the apartments, which at the time we didn’t know that’s where we were going, but we got let off at a corner with a gas station and two girls were waiting for us that are other teachers at the school. My apartment was not even a block away, and luckily I got to move in right away instead of going to a “Love Motel” which I had been warned about (I’ll let you figure out what they are…). So after a long exhausting day, the other teachers took me and Rachel (the other teacher I flew out of MN with) to eat dinner. It was my first experience eating Korean and it was pretty good! They have these big heater things in the middle of the tables and so it cooks the food right in front of you and then you make lettuce wraps with the cooked meat and then the tons of little sides they bring too. After dinner I was exhausted so I chose to go home while the others just went to get a drink. I was lucky since I could move in to my apartment right away, but it wasn’t furnished besides a bed with a bedspread and a pillow and then the kitchen appliances. I got home and immediately started crying, wishing I could go home. I was missing everyone terribly. I hated not having stuff in the apartment, didn’t know what to expect at the school and just felt completely homesick. I’m sure the long day of travel didn’t help things but I unpacked some stuff and went to bed.
Thursday- Today was my first day at the school. We don’t start school until 10am so although I could sleep in, my body was still pretty messed up from the flight that I woke up about 6, and couldn’t really fall back asleep. The school is only about a 15 minute walk from our apartments so that’s nice we don’t have to take any public transportation (sorry Danny, no busesJ). I had no idea what we would be doing that day but we just shadowed the other teachers and their classes. There are 3 teachers leaving this August, two of them have been here two years, and the other girl just finished her first year. I’m taking a girl named Maria’s kindergarten class so I met her students the first day. They are sooo adorable! There are two boys, and I think five or six girls. My name at the school is “Meghan Teacher” and the kids were so excited to have me sit in their class. I think this was honestly the first time I was excited about being here, seeing the kids’ faces and that I’d be teaching them! I also met my first graders that day…. So the schedule is everyone has Kindergarten in the morning, but some are different levels, mine have had English for a year or so but some other classes are literally just starting and they know zero English. Kindergarten goes from 10:00 to 12:30, then lunch, then Kindergarten from 1:30 to 2:50 I think? Then the afternoon schedule I’m still confused about. I have my first graders every afternoon for about an hour and a half everyday, but after that it gets confusing. Some teachers teach science (which has different levels) and then same with social studies, or “Story Town” which is just a book that has different stories in it and they pretty much just read it in class. Some of the kids have very high proficiency, and the higher classes even write essays and everything. We have some students that come only Tuesday and Thursday, but yeah I’m still figuring out what classes are when and who comes on what day. When I got home from school that day, they had put some furniture into my apartment, a desk that has a lid you can lift up and it has a mirror, a table in the kitchen, a chair, and a tv stand. I’m still waiting on the wardrobe though, which is the more important thing! I’ll remind
Friday- Today I just shadowed more teachers and more classes. I’m still not sure of the schedule! Then after work, we had an all staff dinner, well an all “foreign” staff dinner at least. There are 10 teachers at the school, and one guy who is starting tomorrow who is only part time. The teachers we are replacing leave on Tuesday or Wednesday. We went to anther Korean BBQ style place, I’m still not sure at all what anything is called or what it is we ate, but it was good! I’m getting way better at using chopsticks, especially for never having used them in the states. After that we just went out to a couple bars in Suji, where we live. A lot of English schools are in the area, and most of the teachers know the other teachers that work at the other schools, so it was pretty much all foreign people where we were. Everyone kind of bonds since it’s very obvious who is American (or Canadian, there are quite a few here too) and Korean! It’s not very easy to blend in, like in Paris when I wanted people to think I was French!
Saturday- Saturday I got up and walked to Lotte Mart, a store much like our Target. I had to get a couple critical things, like toilet paper, and some towels. We had passed the Lotte on our way to dinner the night before so I decided to make the trek by myself and see what it was like. It’s only about a 10-15 minute walk away, and its pretty much a straight shot there, otherwise I probably would have waited for someone…I’m not very good ad directions! Beauty products were pretty expensive, about 12 dollars a bottle! Luckily, they had Pantene Pro V on sale for 6, see Mom, I’m still being a smart shopper… It did take me a while to understand what the sales lady was trying to say and to figure out which one was shampoo and which one was conditioner! I brought everything home and felt a lot better about my apartment now that it’s a little more liveable in! I still need silverware and more dishes but I’m waiting for the other teachers to leave to see what they have they can give before I buy anything new. Afterwards, I went and got lunch (Subway… sad I know) and then went to an internet café with some of the other teachers and was able to talk to my parents and Danny for a while. So they officially do know I made it to South Korea safely! I did have quite a technology breakdown though… my blog had apparently disappeared, my email wouldn’t let me log in, and everything was in Korean on the pages so I had no idea why! I think it’s all figured out now though (finally) but it was a stressful experience! We walked to Lotte Mart again after the café, and bought some bottled water. The water isn’t safe to drink, and you can get a huge bottle at “Family Mart” or convenient stores for about 1000 won, which is 1 dollar, but at Lotte you can buy 6 bottles for 4 dollars. It wasn’t fun to carry it back, but it’s way cheaper that way. I find it so baffling that a country that is so modern with everything else, like computers and technology, doesn’t have a clean water system. I’m completely anti-bottled water since it’s such a waste of resources, and they rarely get recycled, but we’re forced to have them here. Luckily, our school has a water bottle filler there so I’m just going to try and fill them up there until the bottles go bad. It’s quite frustrating though, especially when I’m used to drinking out of tap. Later, we all got ready and some of us went to get dinner and then made the trek to Seoul. It’s very cheap to get to Seoul by bus, not even 5000 won (5 dollars) but it can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on traffic. We were going out in Seoul to celebrate one of the teachers last weekend here. We went to an area that I guess is the more artsy side of Seoul. I guess art isn’t very recognized here, with such an emphasis on math and science. We were drinking outside in this park, and there is a silent rave going on. So everyone has headphones and are listening to the same song, but no one else can hear the music without the headphones, so it’s kind of funny to see people dancing and not really sure why! It was a really fun area, reminded me a lot of Paris. We just went out to a couple bars that night, but stayed out until 6am because that’s when the buses start running again to get back, and a taxi is much more expensive to take. I was exhausted by the time we left… and I’m sure staying up all night is not going to help me adjust to the jet lag, oh well!
Sunday- Today when I woke up, after about 3 hours of sleep, I walked to another internet café, but couldn’t find my adaptor and didn’t get much time on my computer to do anything… I did find it when I got back but I feel pressured to buy things in cafes and since I don’t like coffee I try and avoid having to waste money on stuff just to use their internet! When I came back, I organized my room a bit more, combined suitcases since they were taking up way too much space and then took a long long nap. I finally got up to go buy some milk and cereal for tomorrow’s breakfast, but then I realized I don’t have any spoons! So hopefully the teacher across the hall will let me borrow one. I also need to buy dish soap still… so much stuff to buy! And now I’m here writing this blog J
So after a couple of hard first days, I’m starting to feel a lot better about Korea. I now know how to walk to the school, a café, Lotte Mart, and another tiny grocery store. I still have no idea where anyone is talking about when they say city names or places, but I’m sure that will come in time. We don’t get our bank set up until a couple more weeks, once we get a physical and everything for our visa so I’m trying to spread out the money I brought which is hard when I have to buy a lot up front, like the beauty products and stuff for the apartment. I’m trying to postpone some of it as long as possible. The school will give us a cash advancement if we need to though, so it really isn’t a big deal if I run out this first month before I get paid. One thing that is kind of hard is I find myself comparing everything here to Paris and it’s very very different. I don’t really think any city will ever compare to Paris, at least that I’ve seen yet, and Korea isn’t exactly “pretty” in its architecture or anything and it’s a lot dirtier than Paris. I guess there a lot of good hiking trails around here though so I’m excited to see those and do that. I feel like I’ve been here longer than 5 days, which is good, and I’m really excited to start teaching! My first day is Wednesday, so tomorrow and Tuesday I’ll be shadowing and doing more orientation stuff so I’ll hopefully get internet this week and can update Wednesday how it goes!! Wish me luck!
Hope everyone is doing well back home, or wherever you are reading this! I can’t believe it’s almost September, this year is going to fly by, I can already tell!
Love,
Meghan
Monday, August 22, 2011
Last Day in MN
Wow...Today is my last day in the US and I can't believe how fast this summer flew by. I finished working Friday at the waterpark, the same job I've done for 5 years.. and will definitely miss everyone there. At least two of my best friends Kim (who left for the Peace Corps a month ago) and Carolyn (who is moving to Chicago) are both done too. We had a lotttt of fun there, but I suppose it's time to move on for all three of us! Over the weekend, I said some more goodbyes and spent time with my family and Danny. Although I am nervous, I think excitement is finally taking over. My flight tomorrow is at 6:45, first to Denver, then to California, and finally to Seoul! It's about 21 hours of travel, but I have my new Kindle (thank you Danny!) an ipod, and the movies on the plane so hopefully it will go quickly, or at least as quickly as 21 hours of travel can go! By the time I get to Korea and with the 14 hour time difference it will be 6:30pm Wednesday... I can only imagine the jet lag I'll experience. I get picked up from the airport by a worker at the school, but that's about as far as I know of what happens when I get there. I'm excited to meet the children I'll be teaching, I bought lots of stickers from target that say things like "Good Job" "Excellent" that sort of stuff for them, and Liz, another manager at the waterpark gave me some too and some name tags for the kids (thank you!). I obviously won't be able to get anything like that in Korea, and since I'm teaching English I think it's fitting to acknowledge the kid's greatness with english words. I'm positive this year will FLY by, but who knows what will have changed here when I come back! Molly will have been moved out for a year almost, Ryan will be done with even more school, and Mom and Dad will be continuing their work on the house (just don't turn my room into anything yet, remember I'm moving home when I'm done!) I hope I can update this often so everyone can see what I'm doing, but I would love to hear from everyone too, so please don't hesitate to email me. I'll write again when I get settled into my apartment and have internet!
Goodbye MN and it's wonderful residents whom I call family and friends :)
Love, Meghan
Goodbye MN and it's wonderful residents whom I call family and friends :)
Love, Meghan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)