Missing the Following:

Its been ages now since I last stepped foot on Korean soil. Do I miss it? Yes. Very much. Am I glad to be home- of course. But still. To think, this time last year, I was enjoying Chusok, Soju, and the beauty of Korean autumn. I miss the following in no particular order:

1. I miss being a teacher! I miss going on dorky field trips with my preschoolers.

2. I miss this guy! Convenience Store Guy never spoke much more than a lick of English but was always friendly as hell and a bright, friendly part of my day.

3. Mingi. This kid was so frickin' cute and soooo unruly and misbehaving. Gotta love a spoiled 4 year old Korean child constantly keeping you busy.

4. Wild nights as the Soju Monster and good company. Damn, I know the terrible quality Korean booze downright ruined my stomach but still, where else can you get a bottle of booze that will get you wasted and almost hallucinating for only $1,000 Won ( about $1)????

5. Weekend trips! What a blast, even if it was cold and rainy and I bitched the whole time, I was still having fun. Trust me on this:)

6. The busy streets of Meungdong. Trips to Seoul came either one of two ways. Either ride for 45 minutes on a nauseating, over-crowded bus or ride for an hour and a half on an over-crowded, stuffy subway. I always chose the subway, or else I would feel like vomiting the rest of the day. Meungdong was always the ultimate fashion and shopping mecca for young Koreans.

7. Walks along the river on the little path to my house. I miss my old neighborhood, with all of its random call-girl cards strewn about, PC Bangs, and junk convenience stores. Oh, and I miss cans of Gatorade. Soo delicious!

8. Cute stuff galore!!!! Everywhere I went, cute and bizarre things would steal my heart and practically rip my eyeballs out of thier sockets. Everything and everyone was just so dang adorable, I felt as if I might burst.

9. Mondu. Of fuck, do I ever miss mondu!!!!!!! The ultimate warm your belly food. Those soft little dumpings are what dreams are made of. And cheap, cheap, cheap.

10. Korean BBQ and drunken, misbehaving coworkers. Lindsay's face is priceless and Aram, we always loved your misbehaving, abnoxious ways, even if we pretended we didn't. And my God, Korean BBQ is just sooo frickin' amazing. Best food ever.

Sometimes, I hear a little voice that tells me that I am ready for more travel and adventure. Day in and day out, I work here. We try to spice things up by getting a dog, getting a new car, new shoes, whatever but it still seems dull in comparison to my life this time one year ago. Then again, I remember many weekends never even leaving my apartment apart from getting a bite to eat. I remember being incredibly alone in one of the most densely populated countries in the world. But to me, the past is best romanticised and played up a bit.

Germ Blaster

Lately, I have been working less hours which means I am far less stressed out and actually able to enjoy teaching my students. Having 12 preschoolers has actually been a bit of a blessing, as the class seems to be more structured now and the kids are all more social because they have more choices for friends. In general, I am feeling much more confident about teaching and generally have awesome days full of surprises!

Since cold season is upon us, I have been especially concerned with germs and trying to keep healthy. My sniffling, sneezing, booger-picking kids seem to be culprit #1 for sickness so I have been using hand sanitizer in class "Germ Blaster." Now, if only I could get the kids to wash their grimy hands once in a while!

So I devised a clever scheme to get the kids to use it sometimes too. The conversation goes as follows:

"Teacher, what's that?"
"This? It is called Germ Blaster."
"What are germs?"
"Germs are bad things that can make you sick. Germ Blaster kills the bad germs."
"Can I have some?"
"No, no. I don't think so."
"Pleaaaaaaase!"
"It is only for the teacher."
"Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaase!"
"OK, I guess so. Here you go!"

And there you have it! I tricked the kids into using Germ Blaster, the anti-bacterial hand sanitizer that will save us all from sickness and chicken pox! One first grader named Ed cracks me up. He is all about the germ blaster and said he wanted to kill all the germs in the classroom. When I gave him some hand sanitizer, he rubbed it on his arm, legs, face, and HAIR just to be sure all the germs were dead! Ha, ha! Then, he started rubbing the chair and the walls too so he could kill all the germs in the whole world! Pure comedy!

Stumbling Upon Good Luck

As one might be able to guess, my lack of knowledge of the Korean language has been a bit of a barrier here thus far. Well, hopefully this problem will be no more! Last night, I was lucky twice. First, when I was walking home, there were two English teachers sitting on the front steps of the apartment right cross the street from mine so I was able to meet a few more Westerners in my neighborhood. A few of their friends walked by and stopped to chat. We had just got done talking about how Koreans tend to simply ignore us Westerners rather than stare or whatever, when a friendly Korean woman stopped to chat with us as well! She asked if any of us would like to learn Korean with her, no charge, because she was hoping to make some Western friends just for the knowledge and experience of it. She seemed very nice and sincere and I am hoping to start hanging out with her soon so that I can get the learning on its way. Fantastic luck, right?





I started teaching classes on Tuesday and things have been going fairly well, with the exception of my wild and crazy first class of the day. There are 12 first graders in that class, with about 5 of them trying their hardest to be troublemakers. The ringleader is an unassuming little girl who likes to egg on the boys, and one of the boys is by far the most dominant and disruptive chatterbox in the class! They had a talking to yesterday so I am sooo sure they will be better today..... 12 kids is a fairly large group to handle but I think we will get better. Sometimes they are just too smart for their own good, which often times leads to trouble!





All of my other classes have been a great joy to teach- they are very smart and hardworking, not to mention extremely funny! I have gotten a good feel for the teaching style that works for each age group and class. We have a lot of fun during the day making learning a game and challenging each other to do well. I especially like my higher level 5th graders, as they have all lived in America at one time or another and are all super amazing kids.





Well, I wish for my good luck here will continue. Hopefully, I will be learning Korean in no time, making even more friends in my neighborhood, and learning how to become an even better teacher. After only one week here, it is just amazing to me how much I have already learned and how well I have adapted to a place that is so completely new to me, yet so comfortably familiar. While time can only tell how well I will do, I am confident that I will excel at all I do here. What a good feeling!