A day in my life…

Posted on by
1

February 22nd is Melissa’s birthday. She is one of my close friends back in Texas. On her birthday two years ago I decided that it would be funny to just send her picture texts of completely random things. I sent her one of those pictures as a reminder and then it got a bit out of control. Mel suggested I relive the randomness so I decided I would do 28 pictures for her 28th birthday. It turned into a bit of a photo diary of my day so I thought I would share it.

I started sending the pictures at about noon on February 22nd (10pm Feb 21st) and my goal was to finish within 24 hours. I was still in Ulsan and was spending the day inside so the first few pictures are just random things in Dave’s apartment. Afterwards, he drove me back to Busan and we had dinner in a restaurant in Shinsegae (the world’s largest department store). My goal was to take make it through 14 pictures before bed. The next 14 were taken when I woke up.

Descriptions:

  1. This is the where it all started… one of the photos I sent 2 years ago.
  2. This is Dave’s intercom system at his apartment. It started showing this error message the night before.
  3. This is a picture of me and Mel when I went home in January. I changed it to my profile picture and it became #3.
  4. These are some leftover pistachios from the Mardi Gras party.
  5. Dave left this laying on the kitchen table… it’s 1,000 won (about $1).
  6.  “How to check a fire extinguisher” – Dave has a book of  How To’s for his apartment. I had it out to look at the dishwasher guide (a lot of help that did me!).
  7. I really like this picture for some reason. I just opened up a bag of lemons and snapped a pic.
  8. Dave borrowed some extra wine glasses and champagne flutes for the Mardi Gras party so these were just on the counter waiting to be returned.
  9. Bidets are really common here. They even installed one in my school (most likely just for the heated seat).
  10. When you stand at the windows and look straight down you can see the downtown/market area below. This is a shot of that.
  11. The highway on the way back to Busan.
  12. The leftovers of my pizza… including a plate full of unwanted pine nuts and raisins.
  13. Parking garage signs
  14. Fabric softener (this was me desperately trying to find #14 so I could go to bed)
  15.  This is the best you’ll get for 5:00am. I woke up, thought I should take a picture and snapped this one from bed.
  16. A bit of my refrigerator. Yep, it’s all that cluttered.
  17. PB & J Brunch – it gets fancy at my apartment!
  18. Every few days there will be magnets stuck on all of the apartment doors with food ads, but every few weeks we get a big book on the door with ads for all of the local delivery places. I flipped through and found my favorite ad.
  19. This picture was taken with Sexy Sax Free App for iPhone – Dave showed me the Sexy Sax Man prank video on YouTube the night before and it cracked me up. I recommend all of you watch it.
  20. Here’s an ad that was in my mailbox. Don’t we all clean our bathrooms like this?
  21. I took the subway into town to find better pictures. I went one stop and then walked around quite a bit.
  22. Dongnae Station – this is where I came out. It’s a little more than 3/4 of a mile from my apartment.
  23. The door of a coffee shop somewhere between Dongnae Station and Mega Mart.
  24. This picture is from outside of a cell phone shop (there are no shortages of cell phone shops in Korea). These little guys are meant to draw attention to the shop. They are electronic and they dance.
  25. I was originally just going to take a picture at the mannequin legs wearing hose at another shop, but then I came across this shop. It was even better! I got the mannequin legs, but I also got the male mannequin in the background wearing suspenders with PJ pants.
  26. This place cracks me up every time I walk past. It’s a restaurant called Hello Samgyupsal (a type of BBQ pork in Korea that is a similar cut to bacon, but it’s thick and isn’t smoked). One thing very interesting about Korea is that many of the restaurants have cartoons of the type of meat they sell on their signs. That wouldn’t fly back home, but it tends to come in handy here because at least it helps me know what kind of restaurant it is.
  27. Foreigners (like me) are always on the lookout for shirts with bad English. The best place to go are small markets. I saw this shirt hanging as I was walking through an outdoor market. It made me smile.
  28. I took this picture in Ulsan and was saving it for last.

So there is a peak into life in Korea. I hope you enjoyed it.

Mardi Gras (Continued)

Posted on by
1

Here are some pictures from the party…

Today is another day in Ulsan. Last night Dave and I returned some chairs we borrowed for the party and were invited in for a glass of wine. During the conversation I was invited to play Canasta with some of the wives of Dave’s co-workers. I’ve never played Canasta before. Should be a good time.

Mardi Gras in Korea

Posted on by
3

I got to Korea on February 16, 2011. I went through a 9 day orientation and started my contract on February 26. Next weekend marks the end of my first year and the beginning of year two. I am really excited to see what this next year brings.

Right now I’m on vacation… again! Each teacher that renews their contract is given an extra 2 weeks of vacation time so I finally have some time to kick back and relax. I am currently at my boyfriend’s apartment in Ulsan, Korea. This weekend he and some of his co-workers threw a Mardi Gras party. Some of my friends came up from Busan. It was a lot of fun! There was lots of delicious food, including gumbo, jambalaya and king cake!

The apartment is a bit of a wreck, especially the kitchen! BUT one of the many great things about Dave’s apartment is that he has a dishwasher. Last night we went to the local E-Mart to buy some groceries and to pick up dishwasher detergent (because he never uses it). We had a difficult time trying to decide which one was the right kind for the dishwasher, but we finally selected one. While Dave was at work I decided to try to do some cleaning up and it kind of turned into a disaster. I have a feeling what we bought isn’t right because there was a puddle of suds and water gathering on the floor in front of the dishwasher. I had to take the dishes out and wash them by hand and then clean the suds out of the dishwasher and run it a few more times to clean it out. I think it’s okay now… I’m just glad I didn’t flood the apartment! That would have been embarrassing.

There’s a lot more cleaning to do so I’m going to wrap it up here, but I have something to share with all of you. I haven’t been videoing as much as I used to, but I still managed to put together a video for months 6-9. I am happy with how it turned out. I hope you enjoy it!

Months 6-9

Months 3-6

Months 1-3

Hello, strangers!

Posted on by
1

I haven’t been posting very often. I tend to struggle to find the motivation to get back to blogging after I get so behind. Plus, I’ve been quite busy lately… if you don’t believe me, ask my Hulu account. My queue is almost always over 20 episodes these days. (If you don’t know, Hulu is a website that you can legally stream the latest TV shows from)

A lot has been happening. In the past few months I have renewed my contract, fallen in love, been to Texas and back and have been making lots of travel plans for the next year (Jeju Island, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Hawaii, China)! Life is pretty amazing. To make up for my slacking, I will post another edition of…

THINGS THAT JUST DON’T SEEM STRANGE ANYMORE

Part III

Boys don’t mind sitting in each other’s laps and playing with each other’s hair.

The school bell makes you crave ice cream.

Fish and rice belong at any breakfast table.

Outdoor gyms at the top of mountains absolutely make sense.

There are 3 shower settings – boiling hot, luke warm, freezing cold.

Someone is always watching you.

You are now always ready for anything to happen.

When the department store opens, the staff will kindly bow to you just before they are nearly trampled.

The only thing Chinese about a Chinese restaurant is the name.

You need a new pair of shoes before you will be allowed to work out at the gym. They must never be worn outdoors. Ever.

You can’t be trusted to teach regular class alone but if it’s after school or camp, they’ll expect you to teach multiple grades, levels, and gender groups alone.

Who needs a janitor when you have a school full of kids?

There is no better browser than Internet Explorer.

Mechanical pencils break after each letter but students love them.

Even if the cab driver has no idea where you want to go, he will spend 10 minutes pretending that he does.

The perfect side dish to pizza is a pack of sweet pickles.

It makes perfect business sense to open a cell phone store right next to 20 other stores that sell the exact same thing.

Who needs a peephole when you have a video camera that shows you who’s at your door?

Every store carries covers for your umbrellas on rainy days.

You like 2 of the seasons. The start of Spring and Fall are more anticipated than Christmas.

Your hands are cold all winter. You can’t stop sweating all summer.

It’s a tradeoff between using the toilet and staying warm.

Broom handles are needlessly short.

Flashing red and blue lights are more effective at controlling speeding than actual police cars.

The elderly have more active lives than you do.

The most used feature on the phone is the mirror.

You can conveniently buy thermal underwear on the subway. Its use will also be demonstrated for you.

Matching outfits show a committed relationship.


You never know how to dress. It might be school picture day or you might be going on a staff hike up a mountain. You just never know.


You can often make purchases by swiping your card, without entering codes or signing anything. You still feel very secure about your finances.

Korean women can do anything in high heels.

Koreans love freebies when they go shopping. Especially when they’re given out by young women in short skirts wearing headsets.

At least 1 student has gotten your phone number somehow.

And in case you missed them, here’s the previous editions of…

THINGS THAT JUST DON’T SEEM STRANGE ANYMORE

Part 1   &  Part 2

I borrowed most of these images from other blogs. I tried to link back to all of their sites and they all happen to have really nice explanations of the pictures so check them out if you’re curious.

**Click on any picture above to see the full sized image.**

And finally, HAPPY BIRTHAY, NANA!! Love you….

One More Year

Posted on by
1

It’s official. I’ll be in Korea for one more year.

I found out last week that the new drug test results were normal. I guess whatever medications I was taking that were messing with my results were out of my system. I was very relieved!

I was supposed to go pick up my contract on Friday, but I got a call from the office of education saying that there were protesters outside their building (not sure why). They closed off the gates and weren’t letting anyone through. I had to overnight my medical results to them and they mailed me my contract this week.

I got my contract on Wednesday and on Thursday I went to the immigration office to extend my visa. It was a very simple process. I was in and out in 10 minutes. The visa extension was 30,000 won, but all of the medical checks and additional drug testing was 120,000 won. Basically, I spent about $140 to stay in Korea for another year.

I had the weirdest thing happen to me on the subway last night while I was on my way home from the immigration office!!

I almost passed out. It was really scary. The immigration office is pretty far away (14 stops and one transfer… about a 45 minute trip). I was in the subway… I was standing and I was all layered up because it was quite cold out. The further we went, the subway kept getting fuller and fuller. I started getting really hot until finally I decided to take off some of my layers. I started feeling weird so I just decided to put my coats and scarf on the little shelf above the seats. I probably should have gotten off and sat down, but I thought I could make it until the transfer station (3 stops away).

So as I stood there, I was getting really light headed. My vision started getting really fuzzy and dark. I could barely see at all. I put my phone in my purse so I didn’t lose it when I fell and then braced myself. Fortunately, we stopped before I passed out. I managed to grab my stuff and stumble out the doors. There was a bench right in front of me so I basically threw myself down and held my head in my hands. The Koreans were probably like WTF?!

So anyway, it was really, really scary for me. I think it’s kind of scary anyway to think about passing out in a public place (or at all), but especially on a crowded subway where no one speaks English. Plus, I was wearing a dress yesterday. Awkward! And I think sometimes Koreans would rather ignore things than get involved.

Good news was that I didn’t pass out. Bad news was that I was still 6 stops and a transfer from home. I just had to buck up and get back on the subway. I made it home okay and I feel pretty normal now, but it was kind of a crazy night.

Problems!

Posted on by
1

I have had a lot of stress in my life lately. Most of it has to do with the renewal process. After the original medical check, I was informed that I hadn’t been tested for all of the drugs that the Office of Education (BMCOE) requires. The problem was that I found out on a Friday afternoon and the results were supposed to be due by Tuesday (impossible). I went for the drug test on Saturday and was told to pick up my results on Thursday. Because I hadn’t turned in my drug test, I wasn’t given a contract on Tuesday at the renewal meeting.

At the meeting, I was told that if I was asked to come to the meeting then it meant my position was secure so I wasn’t worried about it. My school was under a different impression. On Wednesday they received an official document from the BMCOE stating that due to budget cuts, any Native English Teacher (NET) that hadn’t turned in all documents wouldn’t be renewed. My vice principal was in panic mode because that also meant that the school may not get a NET next year. She had us call the hospital to see if we could pick up my results early. As it turns out, my results were back, but there was a problem.

When I went in for the drug test, I had a meeting with the doctor to let him know I was on some prescription medicine for a cold that I had. He didn’t know what effects it would have on the test. He advised me to wait until he could talk to the lab on Tuesday, but I decided to take my chances with the test. He took a copy of the medications. Well, as it turns out, the medication I was on caused a false positive for marijuana. JuHye was amazing in helping me communicate with the people at the hospital and the people at the BMCOE.

To make a long story short, the doctor noted on my test the reason for the positive and JuHye took the results to the BMCOE as a filler until I could complete another drug test. The BMCOE seemed fine with this so I went this past Monday for my drug test. If all goes well (cross your fingers), I should get my official contract on Friday.

So between that, Christmas and preparing for winter camp, I’ve had a hell of a time lately! It’s a good thing I’ve been spending a lot of time with some really lovely people that make me forget about all of my problems.

Renewing My Contract

Posted on by
2

I finally made up my mind to stay in Korean for another year. The problem was, I didn’t know if my principal and vice principal would want me to stay or get a new Native English Teacher. Every day I would see all of my friends talking (online) about their schools asking them to say, signing contracts and getting medical exams. I didn’t hear anything from my co-teacher.

I already knew that our applications to renew were due on December 5 and I also knew that included the medical exam results and it takes up to a week to get those back. I was starting to stress out so I started asking my co-teacher a lot of questions about the renewal process. It turns out she was pretty clueless. She didn’t even know that I needed a medical exam (so it’s a good thing I asked).

The vice principal of our school was supposed to be out all week so I had to wait around for a week not knowing if my school wanted to keep me or not because it’s basically her decision. The following week, I kept asking my head co-teacher if she had heard anything from the vice-principal. She said there was a meeting with the vice principal and the head teachers about me, but she hadn’t heard anything.  On Friday, I decided to ask my other c0-teacher to see if she knew anything. She told me that she really wanted to tell the VP that they should keep me, but she hadn’t because she doesn’t want to teach English next year.

I’m not sure how it came up, but my co-teachers spoke to the VP at lunch that day and she told them that all of the head teachers wanted me to stay so I could stay at the school if I wanted to. I was so excited to hear the good news!

Since then it’s been a whirlwind of paperwork… and I had to go get another medical check. That was an adventure.

Step 1. Check in at the front desk

Step 2. Escorted to a dentist chair where he looked at my teeth for less than 10 seconds then said, “Your dental condition is very good!”

Step 3. Take a number.

Step 4. My number was called so approached the unknown desk and was asked to pay 60,000 won (about $55).

Step 5. Walk back to the front desk and then escorted into another room.

Step 6. Height/Weight check

Step 7. Blood Pressure

Step 8. Chest Measurement (Does anyone know why they only measure our chests??)

Step 9. Color blind test. The woman opened a notebook. Inside they had glued some of those dotted pictures with numbers hidden in them.

Step 10. Hearing Test

Step 11. Eye Test

Step 12. Chest X-ray

Step 13. Urine Test

Step 14. Blood Test

Step 15. Instructed to sit on a bench outside of some closed doors. Sat there for half an hour as the two men inside chatted in Korean.

Step 16. Go into the room and sit in front of a doctor for “counseling.”

Doctor: Do you have any problems with your body?
Me: No.
Doctor: If you have problems with your body, you have to come back here.
Me: Okay.
Doctor: I don’t want to see you again.
Me: Me too! Bye!

I picked up the results yesterday. I passed!

Today I turned in my medical check results. My co-teacher had a meeting with the principal and vice principal. The principal asked her to translate his words to me. She typed it out and gave it to me. I thought I would share it with all of you.

First of all, thank you for last 1 year.
Your face looks so good than first time I saw you. getting brighter and brighter.

I think it maybe you spend good time at this school and Korea life.
Thank you for your passionate teaching. Student’s English ability getting rising and they like English.

I want to recontract with you and please make sure you do your work (teaching English, broadcast, Morning English, etc) with sincerity & passionate.

I wish I expect good result.

-principal

Busan International Fireworks Festival

Posted on by
Reply

Monday, October 24

I don’t remember if I have previously mentioned this or not, but I now have a language exchange partner. She is a 6th grade teacher at my school. She is so so sweet. We met on Monday and after our lesson, she gave me 2 huge pears. Pears in Korea are so big… they are bigger than grapefruit.

Tuesday, October 25

During our 3rd grade classes we were teaching about time and asked our students what they do every day. So many of them said academy (additional classes) so my teacher began asking questions about how many. Most go to more than one, but it was pretty shocking when one of my students said he goes to 5 academies. On top of his regular week at school, he also takes classes in English, Chinese, Korean, math, and taekwondo. The poor kid! No wonder he struggles at English… he’s so bogged down by everything else he’s forced to study.

Wednesday, October 26

On Wednesday Jamie and I went to get our hair cut. I’ve only had 2 haircuts in the 8 months (now 9 months) I’ve been in Korea. The first time I went to a large department store and ended up getting a lady that spoke pretty good English. This time I went to a small place in my neighborhood. The cut was interesting. She cut my hair dry, then they washed it and two women dried my hair, using two blow dryers and their fingers to comb through my hair. It was quite an experience. The entire thing was only 12,000 won ($10.50). Jamie had her bangs trimmed for 2,000 won ($1.75).

Before                          After

  

Thursday, October 27

I was talking to one of my 6th graders about Halloween and he told me that he doesn’t like to be scared. He said that his brother once jumped out at him while wearing a scream mask and he cried. He’s a funny kid. I liked that he was willing to admit that in front of a group of his friends.

Friday, October 28

There was a big K-POP concert on Friday night. K-POP is Korean pop music and it’s HUGE here. Some of the biggest bands played in the show, like Big Bang, SHINee, Kara, and T-ARA. I filled out an application for tickets online on October 14th and I heard that if it said “Successful!” then you definitely have a seat.

I was really excited about going, but I decided to stay home because I knew I would be out in the cold on Saturday night and didn’t know if my body could handle two chilly nights outdoors in a row. Bummer.

Saturday, October 29

I have been looking foward to the Busan International Fireworks Festival since I found out I was going to be living here. It happens every year in October at Gwanganli Beach.

The weather on Saturday was awful. We hit the beach around 4:30 to make sure we could get a spot. The fireworks didn’t actually begin until 8:00pm. It started out great. We were sitting there, the weather was nice, and we bought a pizza and had dinner on the beach. Unfortunately, it started misting around 6:30 and eventually it started really coming down.

I guess I forgot to mention that we were supposed to go out for Halloween after the fireworks so we were all dressed in our clothes we were planning to wear that night. After the fireworks, we were all cold, wet and super sandy. If you know me, you know that I HATE sand.

The fireworks were nice, but the weather put a damper on things. It was also a bit hard to see because they didn’t always shoot up very high and there were lots of umbrellas blocking our view.

So… I should have gone to the K-POP concert.

About 5:00… before the beach was too crowded

The view we had – umbrellas and people trying to find a spot to sit

The fireworks were so low

The subway station was beyond crowded

If you look at the top of the stairs you can see the guy in the camo holding back a herd of people from coming down the stairs

Here you can see Jamie and Shanna bracing themselves against the side of the subway car because we were packed in that thing like sardines!

My Week and a Video Bonus

Posted on by
Reply

Sunday, October 16

It had been a long time since we had our Sunday morning McDonald’s breakfast so Faith and I met up to enjoy some delicious McMuffins. Faith was running a little late so I got to have a nice chat on the phone with my Nana while I waited. It’s not often that I have free time to talk while my family and friends in Texas are awake.

I met up with Jamie and Shanna, two of my friends that live in my neighborhood, for dinner. We went to the local Kimbap Cheonguk. It means Kimbap Heaven in Korean and it’s a big chain here (there’s two on my block). It’s cheap and quick and they have a pretty big selection. To get an idea of what you can order in places like this, check out the translated menu from another kimbap restaurant… http://maryeats.com/2006/11/16/kimbap-nara-menu/

Monday, October 17

I had my weekly check-up at the ear doctor. I was almost in disbelief when he asked me to pop my ears. It had been about 9 months since I was even physically capable of popping my ears. When you have a hole in your eardrum and you plug your nose and blow, you can feel the air blowing through the hole. Before my injury, I used to pop my ears often. It was an awful habit. The only good that’s come out of this whole ordeal is that it’s helped break me of that. I don’t have to go back for 2 weeks and I think that may be my final visit. Hopefully I’ll be at 100% by then.

Tuesday, October 18

At lunch, one of the teachers mustered up all of the English she could to tell me that she thinks I have beautiful skin. I have to say that it is nice to be in Korea sometimes. I can walk around in shorts and skirts and never have to feel self conscious because I’m too white.

Wednesday, October 19

Most of the teachers left school at 2pm on Wednesday to go hiking, but I had an after school class so I couldn’t make it. The teachers that had to miss hiking met up with the other teachers after school for dinner on the mountain. The restaurant had a van and they came to school to pick us up. The drive up the mountain was miserable. I get motion sickness pretty easily and a winding trip up the mountain was torture. This wasn’t any ordinary mountain road. Every 100 yards there were 90 degree turns. I don’t know who designed this path up the mountain, but I hate him. I did notice something interesting on the GPS system in the van. It was so exact that it included every single speed bump. Impressive.

I had been dreading the dinner anyway because my school almost always goes to raw fish restaurants. We found out in the van that we were going to be eating meat. We got there at the perfect time because the teachers were walking up the driveway as we were pulling in. Dinner was so good! We had grilled duck. They brought out so much food and I felt like I ate a ton, but all of the teachers around me asked me why I had such a small portion.

The atmosphere was really lively. The 5th grade head teacher is always the entertainment at teacher functions. He goes to all of the tables to make sure people are laughing and having a good time… and drinking. Every table had soju (it’s sort of like watered down vodka), beer and makgeolli (rice wine). If you don’t want to get drunk, make sure you never have an empty glass around the 5th grade head teacher. He will see to it that you get a refill. He’s a funny guy and the principal was very impressed by his English skills. The principal wanted to know how I felt about the atmosphere of the dinner and I said that it was fun. The 1st grade head teacher was sitting between me and the principal. She asked me if I wanted to stay another year and after I said yes, I heard her talking to the principal about it. I hope he wants me to stay. Only time will tell, I guess.

The drive home was another rough one. Once I got home I was very worried that I was going to get sick. I did laugh a bit that it was so like me to get sick the one time my school actually goes to a good restaurant.

Thursday, October 20

My throat started getting sore before I went to bed on Wednesday night and by morning it was miserable. I took my vitamins without eating and that made me feel incredibly nauseous so I ended up staying home from school. Even though I have plenty of sick days left, I shouldn’t be taking them if I want to be renewed. Hopefully that didn’t cost me my chance. Oh well. I just couldn’t think of teaching. I did go to the doctor and he wasn’t very thorough. I feel like I have the only doctor in Korea that doesn’t over medicate his patients.

Friday, October 21

I was back at school on Friday and my co-teacher let me give speaking tests to the 6th graders so I could rest my throat. Maybe I’m a little delirious from being sick, but I found two of my 6th grade boys’ first names a little amusing.

1. 유범 – “You bum”

2. 영범 – “Young bum”

My doorbell rang late Friday evening. It was a postman coming to deliver a package from Mary, one of my co-workers at Curves. Her package made me so happy! It was so thoughtful and packed full of goodies for me and my students.  I just loved everything about it and it was so sweet of her. Thank you, Mary!!!

Saturday, October 22

My sore throat is gone, but now it’s all in my nose. It’s was a rainy Saturday so I just rested up and got some things done around the apartment. After many complications, I finally was able to finish my 6 months in Korea video. You may remember that I posted my 3 months video a while back and I finally put together a video that shows some things that happened during months 4-6. Enjoy!

And if you missed the last video, here it is again:

Open Class, BIFF, Scavenger Hunt… Oh My!

Posted on by
3

Sunday, October 9

I never left my apartment on Sunday. I was fairly productive though. I did a lot of laundry, cleaning and organizing. I bought a new comforter on Saturday and I was worried that it would be too small for my bed, but it fits. It’s quite warm so I’ll have to wait until it gets colder to use it, but it is incredibly soft and I am very excited about it.

  

Monday, October 10

I have taken it upon myself to teach one of the 4th graders to read. His name is Tae Gyun (sounds like Gyoon).  During class I told my co-teacher that I think he’s very smart, but he can’t read so I want to help him. After she explained to him, he looked at me and said, “Thank you, Meagan Teacher!”

He was in my low level summer camp class and he is one of my absolute favorite students. He is just the sweetest thing.  His listening and speaking level is normal, but he doesn’t know how to read or even basic phonics. I will be tutoring him for about 15-20 minutes every day after lunch. It’s on a completely voluntary basis. I don’t get anything out of it except the personal satisfaction of helping out a great kid.

Tuesday, October 11

On Tuesday, I watched a movie at the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) outdoor theater. Read this blog post to find out more about the festival and see more photos.

BIFF Busan Cinema Center

Wednesday, October 12

I had my open class on Wednesday. In the morning as I was walking out of the secretary’s office, one of them ran out to me and said, “Meagan! Today your open class day??” I said yes and then she held my hand and said, “You be a good teacher. Cheer up!” It was so sweet and so sincere.

I wasn’t nearly as nervous as I was last semester. I didn’t feel like it went that great, but my co-teacher said it was good. After lunch she sent me an instant message on the computer that said, “Principle said you did a good job today. and keep up teach passionly.” He observed for about 60 seconds. But hey… at least he enjoyed every minute of it.

After work I was walking through my neighborhood when I saw a group of middle school boys on their way home. They were racing each other down the sidewalk and when they stopped, I noticed that they were all instinctively fixing their hair. They had to make sure each piece was in its place. It was quite humorous.

Thursday, October 13

After school I met up with my friend and neighbor Jamie to get some dinner. We wanted to venture out into a new area for dinner so we walked about a mile to see what there was to eat near the baseball stadium. We ended up eating a spicy chicken fried rice meal that I loved, but it was a bit to spicy for Jamie’s liking. The great thing about it was that it was only 4,500 won per serving. Afterwards, we did some wandering about and stumbled upon some lovely finds.

  

Friday, October 14

6th grade girl: You have a very white face.
Meagan Teacher: Is that good? (even though I already knew the answer)
6th grade girl: Yes.
Meagan Teacher: Thank you!

Saturday, October 15

On Saturday I participated in a scavenger hunt with 4 other friends. We had 2 lists of challenges, one for pictures and one for videos. Each challenge was assigned a point value and the top 3 teams at the end won prizes. There was also a prize for best costumes. My team didn’t have time to go all out on costumes so we just decided to color coordinate. We wore black and red and called ourselves the Red Hots. We ended up coming in 2nd place (out of at least 15-20 teams) at the end and we had an amazing time! I have so many pictures and videos that the Scavenger Hunt will get its own post in a few days. Here are a few pics to hold you over until then…

Take a photo of your team performing in an airband

Bonus Challenge: All 5 team members must do a human pyramid and take a shot at the same time

Take a picture of 4 team members with at least one body part in the ocean