elevators!

This whole trip has been so eye opening to me! I have been out of my comfort zone many times, and most of the time I really am not sure what is going on, what I am going to do, things are very spontaneous here.

Well today I found out that Brandon Johnson passed away on Friday. RIP Brandon. When I found out I had just gotten home from a long day at school and a trip to the post office. On a side note: The post office workers all had belts with guns on them! I asked why, she said for protection because it’s a government job. I found that kind of strange...but anyways. I got home and saw that Brandon had passed away. I was very upset and had no one to talk to, and my host mom wasn't home, just JunSik and he never talks to me. I got to talk to my bestie, Jamie through IM which made me feel better- but I was still really upset so Judit and I went out walking. Then we got so Baskin Robins (Kiwi Fruit Blast, so BOMB!) She made me feel so much better too! She reminds me so much of my sister! I can't wait for the two of them to meet! I know that they will really get along! Well on our way home my mom called Judit, she always calls her, we haven't figured out until today that she put Judits # in her phone with my name on accident LOL. She told us to meet her at the park. So we did and then she took us on this 30 min walk to go to the meat store. on our way back she took us to JunSik's English academy. The English teacher (Short Korean Man, early 40's) took us on a tour. We walked into a classroom and the student’s faces were priceless! It was like they had never seen a foreigner before! The first thing that came out of their mouth was "you are so beautiful!" It really put a smile on my face! Then on the way out, we were standing next to the elevator, then the professor took us downstairs 2 flights just to get on the same elevator, I thought it was very odd! LOL Then as we are in the elevator my host mom goes, "Stacy, English Teacher, single, very handsome! haha (yes, she really laughed) and then she said no married!" I look at Judit and started busting up laughing on the inside! I thought, was she trying to fix me up with him? Oh my gosh! And then as we were walking home my host mom goes, Stacy, Judit beautiful girls, makes English teacher heart pound! He is very shy!!" Judit and I started busting up laughing!!! Oh and I forgot to tell you, the elevator was like extremely SMALL! We were very close, it was the most awkward/funny moment so far! I thank God for good friends and laughter! It was so comforting!
RIP Brandon, I love you and miss you so much!

Fun Weekend in Seoul!

Friday night a few of us went down town to hang out. We ended up going to this place called the HO Bar III. Pretty funny! It had 3 levels...we went on the 3rd level and got a table! It was so nice, there were a lot of foreigners there! We got to play pool for free and there were darts there too! Our curfew for the night was midnight. And we had to take the subway home so we left around 11:15pm to get home on time. Well we all get on the subway and we are talking, laughing, and having a good ol' time. Then I look out the window...and see water- I was like holy crap! We are going over the river in the complete opposite way! HAHA! We were late! It took us 2 hours to get home. I got home at 1am! My host mom was very worried- and trying to communicate with her over the phone was hard! Not to mention- Murphy’s law, my phone ran out of minutes at 10pm so I was calling from Sky’s phone. Good times! My mom wasn't mad she was just really tired! lol



Saturday I got to sleep in till 10am! It was so nice! Then my host mom and Judit's host mom and dad took us out! The took us to some of the nation parks close by! My favorite part of the day was when we played badminton at one of the parks! I was sweating SO much and we only played like 5 games! I felt as if I had been running for hours! After badminton they took us to the National Cemetary for Democratic Martyrs of April 19th. It was amazing! The scenery was so green and peaceful! It was such a great experience!






Sunday I got to go to church with Judit's family in Nowon. She went on a hike with Zach's family instead! It was so cool, I met this girl who was born in Korea, but when she turned 7 her family moved to London and she was back visiting. She was so sweet! She ended up interpreting the entire service for me!

After church my family went out for dinner. We had Korean BBQ Duck! It was delicious! I had never had duck before- This was the first time we have eatin out while at this family. The mom is such a good cook that she always makes breakfast, lunch, and dinner! She is really good at cooking!

Later that night my family and Sky's family went to a school across the street from our apt and played soccer! It was SO much fun! They have a big dirt field with a jungle gym and lots of seating areas. The whole family played it was a blast! Afterwards Sky's dad took us all to a local pub like place and bought beer for everyone and apple cider for me! (he kept saying apple cider for you) I laughed and said, I’m 22! He thought I was much younger! At the pun we set down and at the table there was a tiny square box with a rubber button in the middle. So of course I pushed it! LOL it was so funny right as a push it this “DING DONG” sounded throughout the place! Then a waiter came over and I am guessing said, “Yes?” in Korean! I was like opps! Everyone laughed! It s very different here in Korea, if you ever come you will notice that you have to call the waiters over to your table when you are ready and on top of that there are no lines here either! You kind of have to get in where you fit in.

It was a great weekend! This Sunday I will be switching to my next host family already! Dang, time is flying by!

Silver Center Round II

Friday we went to the Silver Center which is like a senior hospital :) This time we got to make Kim Bop with the elderly! It was SO AMAZING!!! Never in my life have I had Kim Bop, or even made it! I have always said no to the sushi rolls because they never really looked good to me. Well as we were doing all of this with the elderly who majority of them can't speak English, there was a news cast there filming, taking pictures, and asking us questions.

It was hilarious! As we started to cut the kim bop the elderly ladies started to shove kim bog in our mouths! It was hilarious! Everyone’s cheeks were all puffy from kim bom and we were all laughing SO hard! Imagine all of that and then we had Chef hats on too! It was so much fun! My lady that I was helping was the same one as the first time we went. She asked the young man who was Korean to ask me if I was married. I said no, and she asked why? You are so beautiful! All I could do was laugh...what do you say to that!

Apparently we are going to be in the Korean News Paper! It’s as big as the New York Times is how they explained it to us! I am so excited! They told me that they would get us a copy! I am so excited! :)

singing in the fan

Today we took the kids to the Dobong City Hall. They have a Basketball Gym there were we taught the kids how to play basketball. I am not sure if they really understood everything, but you could tell that they were having a blast! You would think that they gym would have AC, but nope- not at the Dobong Office. I actually asked when I got there why it was so hot in their city hall. They told me that they had to make budget cuts and that was one of the things that they cut back on. So they only turn it on during really - I mean really hot hot moments. When I worked last weekend at the science fair I think they turned it on 3 or 4 times and each time it got cooler but then it got hot again.

Anyways back to my story. The kids LOVED basketball. There was one in particular that was really good! His name is Jae. He used to live in America and he said that he played for the YMCA. :) Every kid after 2 hours was dripping in sweat! We were lining up to go back to the school and there were two huge fans by the door. These fans had to have been 3-4 feet in Diameter. They were huge! Well as I am telling the students to line up a few of the boys jumped in front of the fan to cool down. Then the funniest thing happened! They all started singing in Korean into the fan! I was laughing SO hard! I remember when I used to sing in front of the fan to make my voice sound funny. It was hilarious!




Oh and I forgot...we had 20 kids on a public bus- WELL, I have already said that the bus drivers here are crazy! We are riding along and all of a sudden this women goes to cross the street and our bus driver came about 2inches away from hitting her! He swerved and everything! My heart was pounding! I was like holy crap!!! Krista said last week that her bus driver hit a car and then honked at it to get out of the way. The person driving the car had his hands up ( probably thinking what the heck!! )

After school I volunteer at another school in a 1st grade class. They don't really know any English so it is dificult to communicate with them. Today we went over body parts and on Tuesday we did family members. They are SO stinkin cute! Well today as I was leaving the school I started walking home and this little girl came up behind me. She ran all the way over to me from about 20yards away just to give me a coffee drink! It was the cutest thing!! I wish I could talkl with the 1st graders like I do the 4th/5th graders. Its funny because the 1st graders talk to us in Korean like we know it. hahaha! They don't know anything different! Bless their little hearts! They are so cute! On the way into school 1st graders were walking by and one stopped and pointed at me and said, "Beautiful!" and then smiled and ran away! Another girl in class looked at me and the turn her head to the right a little and said, "eyes, what color?" (cause we learned about body parts today and eyes was one of the words) I said Green and she laughed! Green eyes!!! hahahahaha! Like I was some kind of monster! It was so funny!

Here is the other school: (The kids clean here too! - I LOVE IT!)

some pictures

Sunday Experience!

What a day! Lets just say....I went to church and I had to sit here:


Yes, that sign says forigner! LOL I was so embarrassed because I had to sit up there, above all the other seats, next to the choir, only white girl in the whole place, wearing a bright purple shirt! LOL BUT I really liked the church, I was able to listen to the sermon in English, there was a translator. I had to wear the headphones and listen. : ]

Here is some of my Sunday : ]

Jawoon Elementary School

I have never seen kids SO excited about "foreigners". When we were walking up and down the hall for our school tour the kids were waving, screaming (HI-HI-HI), getting out of their seats to come say hi to us and be next to us! It was so amazing! Monday I got to class, I love my students SO much! I have 12 students in my class, here are their English names they were given:
Jack, Irene, Jenny 1, Jenny 2, Christina, Alice, Brian, Michael, Anna, Hue, Jae, and Esther. So funny that those were some of the names they were given. All students are 11-12 years old which is 4-5 grade here for them! They all know English (some better than others)

The first day they asked me questions like, do you have a boyfriend? are you married? the usual for children. There is another English teacher in my class his name is Meachum. Pronounced- me- chum. He is 6'6, wears size 15 shoe, very skinny, and SO funny! The kids are trying to hook us up because we are both single...its pretty funny!

In the schools the kids clean! Slave labor ....bahahaha! JK...But really, on Monday it was the regular schools last day of school, students had gloves on, mops, cleaning supplies and everything! We were told that they clean their schools! I really like that idea! The kids don’t wear shoes inside the classroom so in all of the rooms you will see most kids have indoor shoes which they only wear inside a room or they have socks or they go bare foot. I went to the Lotte Mart this weekend and picked up a pair of hello kitty slippers! All the girls love them!
It was so funny because during the game time we were playing this game called, “Do you love your neighbor?” everyone is sitting in a chair and one person is in the middle asking that question. Well I started off in the middle- the kids volunteered me! The first kid I go to I said, “Do you love your neighbor? He said,” No!” So I said, “Then who do you love?” and the point of this game is to say something like people with socks on, and then all the people with socks on have to get up and move to another seat. The person in the middle has to try to get a seat. Whoever doesn’t get a seat is not the one in the middle. Well this kid, his name is Brain. Total jokester- smart kid! His response was, “People with black face.” (as he motions his hand in a circle right infront of his face! LOL! I could not stop laughing! There was only one black person in the room and that was Meachum! It was absolutely hilarious! Even Meach was laughing! These kids are great! I love teaching them! They are so well behaved and love to learn! Learning to them is like a fun activity! Today Brian asked me if I have had Soju, beer, wine…ect. I don’t know how he knows about all the alcoholic beverages. Then he goes well I have had 4 beers already this week! I was like oh yeah? You aren’t even old enough to drink! He laughs and says, “ROOT BEERS!” I am telling you, these kids are awesome! I look forward to seeing their faces each day!
Oh and one of the summer camp rules is to punctual. And let me tell you, every kid was their before 9 am …actually when I got there at 8:40am, there were already 4 kids there in their seats!  It makes me smile!
Oh and let me tell you about the bathroom! I had to go to the bathroom so I said hey, I will be right back…so I walk down the hall, and there are student bathrooms and then there are teacher bathrooms. So I walk in, open the stall door only to find that the toilet is on the ground! YEP! Had to pop a squat! I was tripping out! I walk back in the room and go, “Judit, Sky…did you go to the bathroom yet?!” They were like NO, why? They couldn’t believe it either! All the stalls in the whole school are like that! In class Brian was asking me where in the world I have traveled! I was telling, and then I told him about the weird toilets here, and how in Mexico they don’t flush their paper down. He said, “Oh yeah, you ever been to China? Well I have and they have toilets on the ground- with NO WALLS!” lol! I love it here! These kids are incredible!