After Seoul Tower my family took me to Itaewon to have dinner! It was so much fun! There are lots of military people there!
Stacy Rae
- Stacy Rae
- Henderson, Nevada, United States
- This blog is about my journey to Korea! While I am there I will be teaching conversational English and living in two different Korean homes. This is a once in a lifetime chance to go on an adventure across the world! I am SO blessed!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Seoul Tower
My host umma took me to Seoul Tower Friday night. It was a blast! check out the view that I got. When you are looking at the pictures- just imagine that it was a million times better in real life! I would suggest that everyone visits this tower if you visit Seoul! You will see the locks and probably wonder what they are. They are called "Love Locks" Some have been there SO long! They don't take them down either! So they have all of these locks you see in the picture and MANY more!
After Seoul Tower my family took me to Itaewon to have dinner! It was so much fun! There are lots of military people there!
After Seoul Tower my family took me to Itaewon to have dinner! It was so much fun! There are lots of military people there!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Buddha & Rain
It was funny tonight I got done eating with my family and my host dad suggested that we go to Bukhansan National Park. Do you know of that place? Well anyways there is a famous Buddhist Temple there. I am not really into Buddha nor have I ever really known about Buddha until I came to Korea. I actually got Buddha 101 from our first trip. Well anyways we got up there and my dad wanted me to rub Buddha's belly. Which I really didn't want to because it looked really dirty (Buddha's belly was a differnt color than the rest of his body) there were a lot of people around me waiting to touch his belly. So I just laughed and said no thank you. Well my son said she is not Buddhist, she is christian. And the dad said, so its good experience. LOL
Then we walked a bit further and there was a drinking well. I got to try the water, and it was the most fresh water I have tried in a LONG time! Then as we were walking further my host father goes, oh I think you will have a great experience up there as he pointed up the 5 flights of stairs. So I thought to myself, "experience" - he is going to have me try something. I already knew that we were walking up to a Buddha temple where people were probably worshiping him at. I could smell the incense in the air. When we got to the top I looked to the right and there was a Giant Buddha ingraved into the humungous stone that was sitting on the mountain. In the middle was a beautiful green tree and below the tree were about 20 people bowing down and worshiping Buddha. My father said, "Lets have a seat." I couldn't say no, even though I am no Buddhist he said that it was okay- more people began to trickle up the stairs (we were surrounded by a lot of people! I looked behind me and there was a girl who was doing a special bow. My host father told me that if you do it 108 times you get blessed with a clear mind, and understanding. It was very peaceful up there but I felt out of my element. Just FYI, I don't have anything against people that believe in Buddha, its just not my thing. Anyways...
All day yesterday it rained. Today was very sunny and hot. As I was sitting there watching all these people praying/worshiping Buddha for about 15 minutes (which was a very long time to me- it wasn't like rubbing Buddha's belly where I could just say no thank you- If I got up it would have been a distraction, and I don't know what my family would have said- so .... as I was sitting there I began to pray to God. I said, "Please God let it rain so maybe we can leave." Sure enough it started pouring raining!!! NO JOKE! I couldn't believe it! We were pretty wet! I was laughing the whole way down the mountain to myself. And thanking God for taking me out of that situation. God is good! :)
Then we walked a bit further and there was a drinking well. I got to try the water, and it was the most fresh water I have tried in a LONG time! Then as we were walking further my host father goes, oh I think you will have a great experience up there as he pointed up the 5 flights of stairs. So I thought to myself, "experience" - he is going to have me try something. I already knew that we were walking up to a Buddha temple where people were probably worshiping him at. I could smell the incense in the air. When we got to the top I looked to the right and there was a Giant Buddha ingraved into the humungous stone that was sitting on the mountain. In the middle was a beautiful green tree and below the tree were about 20 people bowing down and worshiping Buddha. My father said, "Lets have a seat." I couldn't say no, even though I am no Buddhist he said that it was okay- more people began to trickle up the stairs (we were surrounded by a lot of people! I looked behind me and there was a girl who was doing a special bow. My host father told me that if you do it 108 times you get blessed with a clear mind, and understanding. It was very peaceful up there but I felt out of my element. Just FYI, I don't have anything against people that believe in Buddha, its just not my thing. Anyways...
All day yesterday it rained. Today was very sunny and hot. As I was sitting there watching all these people praying/worshiping Buddha for about 15 minutes (which was a very long time to me- it wasn't like rubbing Buddha's belly where I could just say no thank you- If I got up it would have been a distraction, and I don't know what my family would have said- so .... as I was sitting there I began to pray to God. I said, "Please God let it rain so maybe we can leave." Sure enough it started pouring raining!!! NO JOKE! I couldn't believe it! We were pretty wet! I was laughing the whole way down the mountain to myself. And thanking God for taking me out of that situation. God is good! :)
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
golden rat
still on the mission for this golden rat! I asked SO many people and everyone looks at me like an idiot! Finally one person told me in the subway malls is where I can find them. So the search is on! haha Judit and I are going to go on a search soon! Oh and last night Judit's host stay mom bought movie tickets for us. We are going to go see SALT in theaters tomorrow after school. I can't wait.
Yesterday which was a Tuesday for us- we went to the theaters and it was packed as if it was a Friday where all families, couples, and people are out! So we didn't see Inception for the 2nd time because we would have had crappy seats - (another reason why I love the seat selection idea) Poor Sky, he is the only one out of the 6 of us that hasn't seen it. And he wants to SO bad! haha! SUCKA!
Students remember EVERYTHING! If you tell them something and don't do it they will remind you for sure! Learned that one today! =]
Miss you all!
<3 Nona!
Yesterday which was a Tuesday for us- we went to the theaters and it was packed as if it was a Friday where all families, couples, and people are out! So we didn't see Inception for the 2nd time because we would have had crappy seats - (another reason why I love the seat selection idea) Poor Sky, he is the only one out of the 6 of us that hasn't seen it. And he wants to SO bad! haha! SUCKA!
Students remember EVERYTHING! If you tell them something and don't do it they will remind you for sure! Learned that one today! =]
Miss you all!
<3 Nona!
we are all the same
I was talking to my host boy the other day and he started flipping his hair like all the emo kids back in Henderson. You know the hair flip that gets their bangs out from in front of their eyes. HAHAHA! I started telling him that they boys back home do the same thing. Its so funny how we are all the same!
Then...
Last weekend when I was talking to my host sister about her boyfriend she asked if I had a boyfriend. We then started talking about guys in Korea. Then she asked how the guys are there in Henderson/LV. I told her they are distracted pretty much. She laughed and said yes, yes, we have guys here that are like that too! She said that they call them "Windy". I am going to bring that back with me. We also talked about how in Korea since everyone is skinny, beauty is measured by how beautiful their personality/face is.
Oh and at the Lotte Mart here they have special parking for women. WHY don't we have that in America!? haha
I am really looking forward to going to Ocean World this weekend! And best of all my family is taking me again next weekend! How cool is that?! Ocean World- you should google it. Its like wet n wild just a million times better! Its half indoor and half outdoor! I can't believe that I only have like 16 days left! Just yesterday I learned how to read Korean and I made a really nice cheat sheet today in class. The students were laughing at me because I was trying to say the different sounds- lets just say I murdered some of them! hahaha!
Then...
Last weekend when I was talking to my host sister about her boyfriend she asked if I had a boyfriend. We then started talking about guys in Korea. Then she asked how the guys are there in Henderson/LV. I told her they are distracted pretty much. She laughed and said yes, yes, we have guys here that are like that too! She said that they call them "Windy". I am going to bring that back with me. We also talked about how in Korea since everyone is skinny, beauty is measured by how beautiful their personality/face is.
Oh and at the Lotte Mart here they have special parking for women. WHY don't we have that in America!? haha
I am really looking forward to going to Ocean World this weekend! And best of all my family is taking me again next weekend! How cool is that?! Ocean World- you should google it. Its like wet n wild just a million times better! Its half indoor and half outdoor! I can't believe that I only have like 16 days left! Just yesterday I learned how to read Korean and I made a really nice cheat sheet today in class. The students were laughing at me because I was trying to say the different sounds- lets just say I murdered some of them! hahaha!
Nona
Nona means older sister- coming from a younger brother. :) InJae called me his nona today. I love my family! Sky was teaching me some of the Korean alphabet today after we finished school. Then the teachers started helping us out. Well, when I got home I talked to InJae and his mother. They showed me an easy way to read it- and explained it more in depth. I can totally read Korean and I learned in one day! Its difficult for me to pronounce some of the words because I am so used to English. Now I understand the frustration/confusion that all my students must be facing everyday with English.
Tonight we went to dinner and it was called VIPS. Oh man, it was a really nice steak house. InJae LOVES steak! He was so happy to eat there tonight. While we were waiting to be seated I was looking at some of the books that they had in the waiting area. They had a bunch of children's books. I was so surprised to see a book that I knew! It was, "Thank you Mr. Falker" By Patricia Polacco. I LOVE LOVE LOVE her books! She is one of my favorites now! I was introduced to her books last semester in my social studies class. It was awesome to see that book, I was able to show it to my mother (who knows very little English) and tell her about the book in English as she read some of the pages in Korean. :)
We also took a Cab to the restaurant. This was my first time in a cab here in Korea. The cab was extremely clean! Smelt good AND was really really cheap!!
Well today was a great day! I can't wait till tomorrow! :)
Tonight we went to dinner and it was called VIPS. Oh man, it was a really nice steak house. InJae LOVES steak! He was so happy to eat there tonight. While we were waiting to be seated I was looking at some of the books that they had in the waiting area. They had a bunch of children's books. I was so surprised to see a book that I knew! It was, "Thank you Mr. Falker" By Patricia Polacco. I LOVE LOVE LOVE her books! She is one of my favorites now! I was introduced to her books last semester in my social studies class. It was awesome to see that book, I was able to show it to my mother (who knows very little English) and tell her about the book in English as she read some of the pages in Korean. :)
We also took a Cab to the restaurant. This was my first time in a cab here in Korea. The cab was extremely clean! Smelt good AND was really really cheap!!
Well today was a great day! I can't wait till tomorrow! :)
Monday, August 2, 2010
Brian
YES! I was able to load it to facebook! Thank you Facebook! =] Here is Brian, one of the funniest kids in Korea!
I love him, he makes me laugh ...sad, we got a new class today and he is not in it anymore :( But I will forever have this funny video of him! Check it out, its a good laugh.
He is making fun of the lady who speaks on the subways.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1357325688406&saved
I love him, he makes me laugh ...sad, we got a new class today and he is not in it anymore :( But I will forever have this funny video of him! Check it out, its a good laugh.
He is making fun of the lady who speaks on the subways.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1357325688406&saved
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Korea just keeps getting better!
Friday
Oh man, it was so funny watching the kids today try to do tongue twisters! Especially: "How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?" for the closing ceremony we gave all of the students certificates with their names, grades for the 2 weeks (which were all A's) as well as comments about them. I wish I was able to upload some of the funny videos, but for some reason youtube says something like: Korea is not allowing video upload. Idk. But Once I get a chance I will post it up! Its absolutely hilarious!
LOL The kids are doing a tounge twister-
The last day of English Summer Camp we had a pizza party/ceremony. It was a blast!
Korean Pizza: Potatoes- I know it looks a little weird, but suprisingly it was delicious!
Friday my host mom 1 went to her parent’s house for the weekend! FREEDOM! Haha! Just kidding! She asked me if I wanted to go with her and JunSik but I declined. The girls told me that if I went I would probably be bored. And sure enough JunSik called his sister the next day and said I am so bored!! He also doesn’t talk to me that much so I don’t think that it would have been a fun trip for me. Instead I got to go to the Doosan Baseball game! It was amazing! I took the subway to the Sports Complex, and on the way I got to see the river and the Olympic stadium! I loved it! The picture that I took of the field was literally in my seat…WE HAD THE BEST SEATS EVER! And and…they were only 8,000 WON which isn’t even $8.00. Funny, all of the baseball players had American intro songs, and one of the cheer songs was the song, “SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS…”
Friday we also saw these big black ants eating a secada. These suckers are huge here! They look like humming birds! HAHAHA!
Judit and I have fallin in love with these fruit blast drinks! I hope they have these back home! : ]
Saturday
Saturday Shin (the older sister at my first home stay house) the two of us went to the movie theater to see Inception. I was so bummed because I forgot my camera so I can’t show you pictures but I will describe the place. First off outside of the theater- you know what I am going to go back and take a picture of this- there was a giant (I mean huge) statue of Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. When we went inside you had to take a number to get helped or you could go to an ATM looking thing and buy your tickets. I am not sure why in America we don’t have the same thing that they do. There they have assigned seating! AND there is a listing of how many seats are left in a theater at the time that the movie is playing. This I thought was genius! So on the touch computer screen we got to choose which 2 seats we wanted for the movie! I love it! The movie was in English and the subtitles were in Korean (Thank God) I can’t imagine watching that movie in subtiles and not understating the langage spoken, that would confuse the crap out of me! Later that day I met up with Judit and Sky, we went site seeing. We had a great time!
Sunday
Sunday was time for me to switch families. I am really going to miss my old family. I woke up and the whole family was gone. Host mom and brother were out of town still, dad- idk, and daughters were at church. When I came out of my room there was breakfast: a BLT =] so cute!
The new host family that I went to is just a boy, InJae. He is 13 years old (Korean Age) so American Age he is really only 12. For some reason when you are born you are 1. Let me tell you…they were SO SO excited to have me come to their home! The mom is so pretty and the dad speaks English very well! So does InJae, but they insist that they need to learn more and more! When I came in they showed me my room which is bigger than my room back home! Haha, and InJae goes, “you took my room and my bed, now I have no place to sleep. I am going to have to sleep with the dog.” LOL! He is hilarious! I love his personality! Victo, the dog is 14 months old, he is like a little teddy bear. I love him already! The dad put some American music on after being in the house for like 20 mins. It made me feel like home. I really enjoy being at this new house! OH and best of all- THEY HAVE AIR CONDINTIONING!!! I love it! Last night I got to go to this Korean BBQ with them. It was such a nice night out, and the place we went to was out doors in the middle of the forest. Afterwards we went to have dessert. We went to another place in the forest and picked out some sweat potatoes. After that we sat down on some wooden benches while our sweat potatoes cooked in an open fire pit. I soaked it all in last night. Last night was probably one of my favorite memories so far of this trip. There was a live Korean singer, tons of people sitting around camp fires with their friends and family and enjoying good food! I loved it! I have never had such good tea before! The tea they got was even better than my mom’s tea she makes back home! (Which is hard to beat!) Also, I have never been a fan of sweat potatoes, but this was delicious! In Korean, (MASHETA) InJae even started singing along with the live singer last night, it was so funny! I asked him what the song was about, he told me it was about a break up and that the man was really really upset! Oh man he is so funny! I think that I am really going to enjoy staying here for the next 3 weeks! I can’t believe that July is already over! Its August 2nd and I will be home in 17 days! WOW! Love and miss you all!
InJae’s Cousin, InJae, Victo = ] and me!
Isn’t he so cute!?
This is me walking home…InJae gave me his Sword umbrella hahaha! So I put it in my backpack like a ninja! Everyone was so jealous or it!
Oh man, it was so funny watching the kids today try to do tongue twisters! Especially: "How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?" for the closing ceremony we gave all of the students certificates with their names, grades for the 2 weeks (which were all A's) as well as comments about them. I wish I was able to upload some of the funny videos, but for some reason youtube says something like: Korea is not allowing video upload. Idk. But Once I get a chance I will post it up! Its absolutely hilarious!
LOL The kids are doing a tounge twister-
The last day of English Summer Camp we had a pizza party/ceremony. It was a blast!
Korean Pizza: Potatoes- I know it looks a little weird, but suprisingly it was delicious!
Friday my host mom 1 went to her parent’s house for the weekend! FREEDOM! Haha! Just kidding! She asked me if I wanted to go with her and JunSik but I declined. The girls told me that if I went I would probably be bored. And sure enough JunSik called his sister the next day and said I am so bored!! He also doesn’t talk to me that much so I don’t think that it would have been a fun trip for me. Instead I got to go to the Doosan Baseball game! It was amazing! I took the subway to the Sports Complex, and on the way I got to see the river and the Olympic stadium! I loved it! The picture that I took of the field was literally in my seat…WE HAD THE BEST SEATS EVER! And and…they were only 8,000 WON which isn’t even $8.00. Funny, all of the baseball players had American intro songs, and one of the cheer songs was the song, “SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS…”
Friday we also saw these big black ants eating a secada. These suckers are huge here! They look like humming birds! HAHAHA!
Judit and I have fallin in love with these fruit blast drinks! I hope they have these back home! : ]
Saturday
Saturday Shin (the older sister at my first home stay house) the two of us went to the movie theater to see Inception. I was so bummed because I forgot my camera so I can’t show you pictures but I will describe the place. First off outside of the theater- you know what I am going to go back and take a picture of this- there was a giant (I mean huge) statue of Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. When we went inside you had to take a number to get helped or you could go to an ATM looking thing and buy your tickets. I am not sure why in America we don’t have the same thing that they do. There they have assigned seating! AND there is a listing of how many seats are left in a theater at the time that the movie is playing. This I thought was genius! So on the touch computer screen we got to choose which 2 seats we wanted for the movie! I love it! The movie was in English and the subtitles were in Korean (Thank God) I can’t imagine watching that movie in subtiles and not understating the langage spoken, that would confuse the crap out of me! Later that day I met up with Judit and Sky, we went site seeing. We had a great time!
Sunday
Sunday was time for me to switch families. I am really going to miss my old family. I woke up and the whole family was gone. Host mom and brother were out of town still, dad- idk, and daughters were at church. When I came out of my room there was breakfast: a BLT =] so cute!
The new host family that I went to is just a boy, InJae. He is 13 years old (Korean Age) so American Age he is really only 12. For some reason when you are born you are 1. Let me tell you…they were SO SO excited to have me come to their home! The mom is so pretty and the dad speaks English very well! So does InJae, but they insist that they need to learn more and more! When I came in they showed me my room which is bigger than my room back home! Haha, and InJae goes, “you took my room and my bed, now I have no place to sleep. I am going to have to sleep with the dog.” LOL! He is hilarious! I love his personality! Victo, the dog is 14 months old, he is like a little teddy bear. I love him already! The dad put some American music on after being in the house for like 20 mins. It made me feel like home. I really enjoy being at this new house! OH and best of all- THEY HAVE AIR CONDINTIONING!!! I love it! Last night I got to go to this Korean BBQ with them. It was such a nice night out, and the place we went to was out doors in the middle of the forest. Afterwards we went to have dessert. We went to another place in the forest and picked out some sweat potatoes. After that we sat down on some wooden benches while our sweat potatoes cooked in an open fire pit. I soaked it all in last night. Last night was probably one of my favorite memories so far of this trip. There was a live Korean singer, tons of people sitting around camp fires with their friends and family and enjoying good food! I loved it! I have never had such good tea before! The tea they got was even better than my mom’s tea she makes back home! (Which is hard to beat!) Also, I have never been a fan of sweat potatoes, but this was delicious! In Korean, (MASHETA) InJae even started singing along with the live singer last night, it was so funny! I asked him what the song was about, he told me it was about a break up and that the man was really really upset! Oh man he is so funny! I think that I am really going to enjoy staying here for the next 3 weeks! I can’t believe that July is already over! Its August 2nd and I will be home in 17 days! WOW! Love and miss you all!
InJae’s Cousin, InJae, Victo = ] and me!
Isn’t he so cute!?
This is me walking home…InJae gave me his Sword umbrella hahaha! So I put it in my backpack like a ninja! Everyone was so jealous or it!
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