A (very) Quick Jump Across the Pond

My first trip was a (way too quick) trip home to America for my best friend's wedding. I shared my schedule with her as soon as I got to Korea and luckily my schedule lined up with hers, so I was able to attend. Unfortunately, I was only able to stay for 3 days. But a great 3 days.

It all began on Wednesday night when Kaleena and I went to the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil in Daegu... meaning I couldn't leave for the airport that night... it was an OK show, though I think we spent a little much on our seats, but you live you learn right? The performance wasn't the best in the world, but it was still fun so that's all that mattered...

Comfortable night express bus

Then I went home and finished packing and wasted a few hours before beginning the long journey home. It began with a taxi ride at 3 AM, then a 4 hour bus ride, waiting in Incheon airport, a flight to Tokyo (where I met some really nice Koreans that were visiting America for vacation), a layover in Tokyo, a flight to Houston, another layover, and my last flight to Nashville.

The awesome people I met on the plane

Once in Nashville, I got off the plane and was greeted by my wonderful mom who had taken a few days off from work to come to the wedding with me... I miss my mommy so much! We then went and got my luggage (which was nearly destroyed by the airline), got our rental car, and set off to Murray, with a quick pit stop in Clarksville for Buffalo Wild Wings (YUM) and shopping.

Buffalo Wild Wings!

When we got to Murray, Mom and I stayed up for a bit chit chatting and catching up. I showed her some pictures and talked about life in Korea, then we headed to bed.

The next day I got to spend time with Jen! I missed her so much and was so happy that we got to spend a little time together, even if it was just a few hours. We headed for breakfast and some shopping, and just hung out. Then we met up with Courtney for lunch at Matt B's (YUM AGAIN) then headed out to the lake to help out with the decorations and such. That evening we headed over to Patti's for the rehearsal dinner, then Courtney and I stayed with Jen :)

Matt B's

At the rehearsal dinner

The next day was the day of the wedding. It all went by so fast! Us girls headed to get our hair done and ate lunch at Dumplin's, then headed back to get ready for the wedding. The weather was beautiful (though a little hot) which made for an absolutely beautiful outdoor wedding. After, I got to see my friends, which was tons of fun. I missed them all so much, so we danced the night away.

Lunch at Dumplin's

Beautiful wedding 

My best friend

My favorite picture of the newlyweds 

Always having a good time

Murray Crew

Me and the Burzynskis

Fun times dancing

Sunday, Mom and I packed up and headed back to Nasvhille. We met up with my uncle and Papaw for lunch. It was great getting to see them again, and I know it made my Mom happy to see her dad and brother too. After lunch, we headed to shop for a bit, then ended up hanging out in the hotel room before getting a few hours of rest before our flights.

Lunch at Cracker Barrel with Papaw and Uncle Davey

The trip home was pretty much the same. I got home pretty late and had to work at 8:30 the next day. But surprisingly I didn't really have jet lag. Yeah I was a little tired, but it was the same type of tired that I have any other day in the Daegu heat.

Though some of my friends here would call me crazy for going home for 3 just days, I wouldn't change it for the world. Some people asked me why I didn't stay longer, which makes sense. But my mom had to go back to work and Jen was leaving for her honeymoon. Plus, it left me with some vacation time to spend during the rest of my vacation! I will always remember spending my best friend's big day with her. I love her so much and would do it again in a heart beat (but hopefully that won't be needed because I think David is pretty awesome).

But to all of my friends and family: I love you all and miss you all.

For more pictures from the wedding, click here.

One Semester Down

Well the end of the semester has come and gone. Looking back, I can't believe it went so quickly. 

I finished the second grade speaking tests and they were amazing. Next semester I lose 7 second grade classes, but this also means I'll be teaching 5 new ones. I got to meet the new classes just briefly for their speaking tests and let me tell you, I am pumped! They apparently are the "science majors" of the school- I was told this means they are more driven and smarter. Well, their English levels sure are higher! I was shocked by the difference between my current second grade students and my incoming ones. Given, some of the second grade students in the first 7 classes have wonderful English, and some of the students in the last 5 classes have not so great English, but the overall level is much higher- so I'm excited about that.

Then came the desk warming while my students had self study and their finals. In Korea, they don't have tests in each class multiple times a year like we do in America. They have 2 per semester, a midterm and a final. They also take speaking, listening, reading and writing tests in English (I think just those four) once a semester. The three grades are added together for their overall grade. Then the same is done for the next semester. So essentially, they have grades based on 4 tests (with a few extra things thrown in for English) per year. So I can imagine how stressed they are, so I give them all self study time in my class (which apparently happens in a LOT of the classes) the week before mid terms or finals. Then I got to desk warm the week of finals. Did I get anything done? Actual work? Um, no. 

I can't believe that the semester is over. I can't believe that, for those people staying only 1 year, it is half over. I can't imagine having only 6 more months in this amazing country with my wonderful students. I actually really miss seeing them. I'm also going to REALLY miss some of my second grade classes that I won't have next semester, several students in particular. Hopefully they still drop by to say hello. 

Once the semester was coming to an end, I had a lot to prepare for. I had several big trips planned out, which was going to take a lot out of me. 

My summer vacation schedule was like this:

Wednesday: Cirque du Soleil show with Kaleena at 8pm 

Thursday: Leave at 3am for America, arrive at 7pm local time (taxi, 4 hour bus, 2.5 hour flight to Tokyo, 13 hour flight to Houston, 2 hour flight to Nashville, 2 hour drive to Murray, 6.5 hours worth of layovers)

Friday-Sunday: In America

Monday: Leave at 4am for Korea, arrive to my apartment Wednesday morning at 2am (2 hour flight to Houston, 13.5 hour flight to Tokyo, 2.5 hour flight to Seoul, 4 hour bus to Daegu, taxi home)

School at 8:30 Wednesday and Thursday

Friday: leave for Ansan Valley Rock Festival (7am)

Sunday: leave for Daegu (1 am, arrive at 5:30am)

School at 8:30 Monday and Tuesday

Tuesday: leave for airport right after school and fly to Jeju (1 hour flight, 1.5 hour bus to our hostel)

Sunday: leave for Daegu 7pm, arrive at midnight (1 hour flight to Busan, 3 hour bus to Daegu, taxi)

Monday-Friday: deskwarming at school 8:30 to 4:30

Friday: Leave for Seoul

Saturday: Infinite concert

Sunday: Return to Daegu

Monday: Semester 2 begins

It was a crazy schedule. I definitely learned how to sleep on planes and buses. I don't really know how I was moving, but looking back I really honestly don't think I had much jet lag (there was only one night were I was tired, but it was hot out and it was late, so I think that was just a normal tiredness). But I wouldn't change it for the world. Yes it was go go go go go for a while. Yes I had 3 trips to unpack from once I got back from Jeju, but it was worth it.... 

Now for semester 2!

My new obsession

I. AM. OBSESSED.

Actually, obsessed might not even begin to describe the level I'm on.

Last week, Malia mentioned that she had heard that the KPOP band Infinite was having a concert in Seoul this summer.... I immediately got excited because I knew that Infinite is Adrienne's favorite KPOP band and that we both really want to go to a KPOP concert... unfortunately I was, at the time, not really into KPOP yet... It has been on my bucket list since before I got here, but I just haven't tried getting into it yet... but I figured I like music, and especially live music, so it couldn't be that bad... so I checked out the tickets... SOLD OUT :( boooo so I told Adrienne the next day but she was disappointed that there were no tickets.

But for some reason I just happened to check the website again that following morning and tickets had become available! So I asked her via Facebook if she wanted me to grab tickets, they were selling fast! But nothing. No answer. I waited, more tickets sold, I waited a little more, even more tickets sold. So I decided to buy the tickets anyway :)  The seats are horrible, but who cares... we are going to see Infinite. But what does that really mean to me? I don't know any of their songs, or who they are, heck, they could walk through my door and I wouldn't know the difference.

So Adrienne started educating me. She sent me their songs to listen to first, which I ended up really liking! Then came the challenge: choose a favorite. Well this provided a problem, since I couldn't even tell them apart :S  So I slowly began trying to watch each music video or performance that she sent me and decide if there was one that I liked in particular. It began with me liking one person and sending her the video and a time, "Who is this?". Then I'd send her another video, "where is he in this one?". So slowly I decided that I liked Sunggyu the best, but also liked Woohyun. And I slowly began to learn who each member was, however started off calling them "the tall one", "the little one", "Ding Dong" (instead of DongWoo), "the other rapper", "L" (yay one name correct!), and I called Sunggyu and WooHyun a mixture of random names, usually getting one of the syllables correct. I also thought, for a very long time that "the tall one" looked a lot like "Ding Dong", but then also that "the tall one" looked a lot like L and WooHyun, who I got mixed up all the time.

Sunggyu

Well, a few days later and I've watched just about every YouTube video they have about Infinite. Their music videos, their dance practices, interviews (Eng subbed of course), TV programs they have been on (again, subbed)... I do nothing but watch their videos. I can now tell each one apart... I feel like I know their personalities... and just absolutely LOVE this group... and I stand by Sunggyu being my favorite, by far! And I still think that WooHuyn is the best (he's got it all... he's the best singer, one of the best dancers, and is the best looking)...

Infinite has it all... they have great voices in the group, their personalities are amazing, they are good looking, and their dancing is impeccable. They are known for their amazing dancing, their "Scorpion Dance" in particular. But all of their dances are intricate and tight. They also do a great job of showcasing each of the 7 members, instead of having one or two leads and the rest essentially being backups. Don't get me wrong, some members are in the spotlight more than others, but for the most part, they do a very good job of spreading the love.

Scorpion Dance

Watching these shows has been educational on a different level too, though. Watching how the members interact with one another makes me understand Korean culture better, and respect it more. It has made me catch on to different sayings and has raised questions about Korean language, encouraged me to learn more. It has also made me look at my students differently. I now love watching them interact with one another even more so than I did.

So now I have started branching out... looking into other KPOP groups and trying to expand my horizons. Though, each time I listen to a song or watch a video or dance by another group, it just confirms that Infinite is, in fact, the best... good choice Adrienne, I'll join you on the bandwagon :) I can't wait until August to see them live!!!!!

Wavegookin

This weekend, I went to a Samsung Lions baseball game again, along with 13 other Waygooks. We ended up starting the wave (and by "we" I mean Amanda). The BEST WAVE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. Ok maybe not the entire world, but it was awesome. Amanda stood up at the front and screamed something along the lines of "Hey, look at me!" in Korean, then explained that we were going to start the wave. Now, we knew it would take a few tries. We have seen waves started by Waygooks at the baseball games before, so we figured probably 3 times before it got maybe half way around the stadium, where it would hit the opposing team's fans and die out.

So we started... 3... 2... 1... GO! And BAM. There is a perfect wave. Traveling all the way around the stadium, through the opposing team's fans, through the Samsung cheering section, and back to us! So we figured we would try to keep it going... and it worked! It went around about 3 full times... THEN it got back around to the cheering section and it was like a light switch, they slowed it down to a slow-motion wave... it was the coolest thing I've ever seen! So it went around, ssssssssllllloooooowwwwww mmmmooooooo... then as it hit the cheering section again, ZOOM it was a super fast wave.

And that is the story of the Wavegookin.

Picking a team name

I recently did a game day with some of my classes where they have to choose a team name. It is incredible to see how difficult it is for them to understand the concept of choosing an ENGLISH team name... a lot of time they want to pick one of the student's names or something that is in Korean, but this is English class so I make them choose something in English. I tell them it can be anything... Purple Stars or Black Ninjas... anything they want... so at first I was expecting something along the line of Pretty Girls or Iron Man (some have come up with something like these) but it is so funny to see what they actually decide to choose.... here is a list of the names that I've remembered to write down after the classes.... I've grouped them into the class groups...

Playboy (in retrospect I probably should've made them change this)

Johnson (again, probably should've made them change this)

Passage

Alistar

Jelly Bean

Ryze Hair (it means bald, but I found this out after class)

Ah

Oh

Q

BBBig

Teletubby

Girls Generation (GG)

Goblin

Mafia

Kokomo

Farmer

Pig

Troll

Beak

Alistar

Sleepy

Bighead

Dragon Man

Texas

Challenger 

Perfect Man

Gentlemen

King of the Mountain

Bronze

Back Door

Marshmallow

Prada

Samsung

Pretty Girls

Star (literally a picture of a star, not the word)

Hannah Montana (can you guess the movie they watched during their speaking tests)

Yo

Woo

Ah!

Princess

Bagel Girls

Ho

Mini

Princess

Call

Foxy

Crystal

Rr

I Want You

Get Guy (I made them change it from Gay Bar)

Sexy Boys

Ugly Boys

Action Mask

Uncle

Wow! (the entire class would all scream "WOW!" when I gave them points)

Oh Yeah! (again, would scream "OH YEAH!")

Hey Guys

Peace

PG (short for Pretty Girls)

Yahoo

There are so many others, however I didn't write them all down... but I find their choices absolutely hilarious and wanted to share :)

I speakie Englishee

As a native English teacher in a Korean High School, I get the privilege of conducting speaking tests for all of the 1st and 2nd graders in my school. I just got finished with the 1st grade tests... each class takes 2 class periods to do, so they lasted for 2 weeks... The prompts were:

1. Tell me about yourself (introduce yourself)
2. Describe your favorite movie or a book
3. Explain the differences between Korean High School and American High School (this is because I did a lesson on this with my classes)

They were told to make it under 2 minutes and they were graded on grammar, vocabulary, fluency,  pronunciation and task completion, each counting for either 12, 14, 16, 18 or 20 points.

Some of the responses were OK, others struggled pretty badly, but others blew me away... I wanted to share a few of the moments or common comments I heard throughout the 2 weeks of 1st grade tests (a follow up blog on the 2nd graders to follow after those are finished).....

1. Most students started their speech by saying "From now on, please listen carefully.".... as if I wasn't going to listen to your speaking test, since it is just you and me out here in this hot hallway

2. A lot of students told me their height and weight (yes even girls, though their weight was usually "secret")... except they pronounced it "hate" and "weight"... guess because they are spelled alike, they think they sound alike.

3. Everything is "cute" or "funny".... their sisters are cute, their friends are cute, the color blue is cute... their favorite movie is funny and soccer is funny too.

4. I'd really like to know who told them to say "My family number is four"....

5. After "My family number is four" they would continue with "Mother, Father..." and every time I wanted to interrupt "GENTLEMAN" right after... only one student joked about it... I gave her extra points... if you don't know what I'm talking about watch this

6. I've never heard a hotel manager called a "hotelier" until now... and EVERY SINGLE Korean calls it that

7. One girl explained the difference between American HS and Korean HS and told me how, in Korea, everyone wants to go to college, but in America only a few people want to go to college

8. One boy told me "I'm shorter than my friends, so I drink milk every day"

9. Hopefully they don't think it is OK to, before sitting down, violently cough on someone that you will be speaking to... but apparently one boy did

10. One student told me that they are interested in learning other cultures, so they watch the Simpsons a lot to learn about America... oh great

11. One student said "My favorite color is blue, because I like it"

12. Another boy sat down and stared at me for a few seconds, then mumbled something in Korean, got up, and walked away

13. That boy unfortunately got the same score (as low as I could give) as the boy who sent the Korean teacher out to tell me he didn't prepare anything at all and wouldn't be coming out to try

14. A classic example of what "maybe" means in this country... when I asked someone if they were finished... "Yes, maybe" then proceeded to get up and leave

15. One boy, whom I knew had studied abroad before, just blurted at the end of his perfectly natural introduction "Can I go now?" uh, sure I guess...

16. One girl sat down, and started to speak perfect English, however it went something like this: "I like actually studied in America for like one and a half years. Like, I lived in Atlanta. Like. LIKE. LIIIKKKEEE"... though I gave her a 100, I really wanted to tell her, like, she shouldn't, like, use "like" like all the time. LIKE.

17. One boy sang me part of Jason Mraz's Lucky... he knows the way to my heart, and could really sing!

18. Another girl sang part of Beyonce's Halo (she was great)

Overall though I was really impressed. A lot of the students did very well... a LOT better than I had expected. I was so happy when I was surprised by someones English, but I was also proud of myself for realizing who a lot of the students were and knew kind of what to expect.

It was, however, hilarious to see how nervous they were... So many of the students would sit down and whine... several were shocked when I started the clock and made me stop it and start over... You could pretty much tell that most of them were reciting a memorized speech... it was like I could see them staring off into space, reading the lines of the paper in their head... though that's better than the few that ACTUALLY just read from their paper... I really wish I could've video taped these kids... they were just so darn cute!

It was a great time listening to the 1st graders responses, but I'm even more excited to hear what my 2nd graders have to say (and meeting the classes I don't teach yet)! Another blog to follow...

Row Row Row Your Raft

Again, another awesome weekend! This one is definitely in my top favorites!

This weekend, Adrienne and I, along with several other friends, headed back up to the northern part of South Korea (why do we keep doing this to ourselves? Those bus rides are horrible!) for some outdoor fun. On the agenda for the weekend: paintballing and white water rafting!

We woke up SUPER early Saturday morning, which I actually liked a lot better than sleeping in... it made it easier to fall back asleep once on the bus...and headed to the pension where we had only a few minutes to change before heading straight to paintballing...

Once we arrived at the paintballing site, we had to endure an extremely long speech from a Korean ex-marine being translated (he kept getting mad at us because we were talking)... I think he didn't realize that we were there just to have fun... he wanted blood though... he really wanted us to be serious... at one point he told us we were not allowed to hit each other with the guns if we were out of bullets... no shit!?! Once we finally got dressed and had our guns in hand, we were divided up and set out on the course...

Team Blue!

The Girls

The course

I've only been paintballing once before, but it was a little different this time. We were actually in the woods, and there were gullies and ditches that you had to run to, you used trees and tall grass to hide your body, there was even a huge hill on one side that you could climb and end up attacking the other team from behind. It was actually tons of fun and I had a blast. I was really impressed with myself because I was not one of the girls that just sat in the back and hid... I ran out of ammo all 3 games, and "killed" someone each game as well. The first and last round, I was the one that ended up rushing while my team members covered and getting multiple people out, which surprised me. Though the second game my team was up the hill, rather than at the bottom, and I ended up getting stuck in some bush and couldn't get a clear shot and eventually wasted most of my bullets (though I did end up getting one or two people out). It was tons of fun and my team ended up winning all three rounds (and I didn't even get hit!).

After we were finished, we headed back to the pension and had a few minutes to change before heading to the rafting site. We divided into teams and drove the short way up the river. I was kind of nervous because I had never done rafting before, but then I kind of expected it to be slightly boring as well, thinking there wouldn't be much to the rafting course. I was wrong though! There were several times where my "family" ended up slipping and falling into the raft (thankfully not out of the raft). And MAN does rafting require you to use your muscles! Between my legs holding me in, my abs having to keep me from flailing around, and my arms having to actually row the raft, it was painful at times, but still a lot of fun! We got to swim on the more relaxed parts of the river, and they took us onto the land where there was a really cold stream that they dunked us in, the whole experience was just amazing, I can't wait to go again.

The Family

At one point in the trip I wasn't paying much attention and the instructor was talking to us and I turned and said "yes" as in "yea we are listening"... apparently he had just asked if I had WINKED at him! haha.... so from that point on, we were "boyfriend and girlfriend".... at one point he had his arm around me when we were walking, then he gave an ore to his friend who had lost one, and he told me "his girlfriend" didn't have to work anymore, and at the end we got a cute little couple picture :) It was great how everyone in the boat caught on right away and it ended up being the ongoing joke of the day... we really had a great "family" in our boat, great atmosphere and great laughs!

Me and my Boyfriend :)

That night we had a cookout, but for some reason I wasn't feeling very well, so I ended up going to bed pretty early after helping cook a little. But the next morning I felt refreshed and we all ended up making the most of our day before loading back onto the boats by heading back down to the river to hang out for a bit. Some people swam and played, while others just dipped our toes in, but it was a wonderful end to a great weekend!

Our sleeping arrangements- Korean style

Glorious Morning

Relaxing before the long trip home

Fun times with fun people