Halloween Weekend :)

On Friday night, I stayed at my place instead of going to Shannon's house. We didn't have any plans figured out quite yet, and I just wanted a night-in before the weekend craziness started. :)

On Saturday morning, I woke up, packed my bookbag, and headed to the subway station. I got to Shannon's place around lunchtime. We met up with Reuel, and the three of us got food at three different places! :) We were all wanting something different. We took our food to-go and headed up to Shannon's. We ate lunch and chatted for a bit. At 2pm, Reuel left to meet up with some friends, and Johnny and Tommy came over. The boys brought movies with them, so we just hung out, ate snacks, and watched a movie. It was fun. After the movie, Reuel came over, and the five of us headed to Osan. It ended up taking us FOREVER to get there!! Like two hours. It should've only taken about an hour. We took three different forms of transportation to get there...

We got on the bus to head to the subway station, and a bunch of older Korean ladies got on the bus a few stops after us. They couldn't stop staring at us! Johnny and Tommy gave up their seats so the ladies could sit down, and they were just staring. The lady sitting behind me kept grabbing my curls and yanking on them....It was pretty entertaining actually. :) We're used to Korean people staring at us because we look so different, but they were not being subtle about it at all. They were pointing and saying things really loudly. It was funny. :)

When we got to the subway station, we got off the bus and headed downstairs. We caught the subway after a few minutes and were finally on our way! Apparently, at some point, we missed our stop and ended up traveling WAY out of our way. We had to get off the subway and catch one going back the other direction! Because it was Saturday night and it was Halloween weekend, the subways were PACKED!! I've never seen so many people on a subway at once! When we got into the subway, it was standing-room only. All the hand hooks were taken, so we had nothing to hang on to. Reuel was practically hugging me to hold me up, and I didn't have room to put both my feet down! I was standing on one leg for the first few minutes until people shuffled around a bit!! Sheesh! It was crazy, but we couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous it was.

When we FINALLY got off the subway, we took a taxi to the Main Gate at Osan. There's a military base there, so we knew there would be good food in the area. Johnny and Tommy took us to a Mexican restaurant they'd been to before. It was authentic Mexican food, and it was delicious! Reuel and I got tacos which weren't that tasty, but Johnny, Tommy, and Shannon all got yummy food! And the chips and salsa were the real deal! :) It was good. When we finished dinner, we walked around the area for a bit to see what kind of stores and restaurants they had. We ended up going to a place a few stories up and played Pool. At the end of the night, we caught taxis back to the subway station. We rode the subway for a bit, and the boys hopped off to head home. Shannon, Reuel, and I continued on for awhile. When we got to our stop, the buses had stopped working since it was so late, so we had to take a taxi home. It was a great night, but we were exhausted.

On Sunday morning, we woke up and headed to the bus stop to catch a ride to church. We called Reuel three times, but she didn't answer, so we hopped on the bus and headed to Gangnam without her. A little while later, she texted saying she had slept through her alarm. She took the subway and met us in Gangnam. We went to Dos Tacos, our usual Sunday lunch place, and met our friend Mi-Yeon. Yes, we had Mexican food two days in a row. :) Yummy! We went to church (which was awesome as usual!). After church, Shannon went to her small group and Reuel and I got coffee, and then went shopping!! We went to the Underground Shopping area in Gangnam and walked around for a bit. We found a few things here and there, so that was exciting! We eventually found a locker because my bookbag was getting really heavy. We put our stuff in a locker, and then got sodas and sat and talked.

At 4pm, we both left to go to our small groups. We promised to meet up afterwards to make a plan for the night. When our groups were over at 6pm, we met up in the Underground Shopping area to make a plan. I called up Johnny to find out what the boys were doing and see if they wanted to meet up for dinner. They were headed to Yeongtong to have dinner with a few of their friends, and he invited us to join. Reuel and I took the subway. Along the way, Reuel invited Shannon to meet up with us. We all three convened at Suwon Station where we caught a taxi together to the restaurant. We met the boys at an all-you-can-eat barbecue place. It was so good!! You go through this meat buffet type-thing and choose all the raw meat you want. Then, you take it back to your table and cook it on your barbecue. There were sides (as usual) and lettuce to wrap the meat in. SO GOOD.

After dinner, we walked around a bit and ended up at The Playground. It's a bar-type place, with a Pool table, darts, TVs, video games, tons of stuff to do. It's basically a playground for grown-ups. :) We played Pool for a little bit and then decided to head home. It was a tiring weekend, but lots of fun! :)

English Slang.

Yesterday, I taught my middle school students about English Slang and Idioms. We started the class by brainstorming all the English Slang and Idioms they could come up with. This is the top-speaking class in the school, so I expected really good results from them. They didn't disappoint. :) We started compiling a list of words and phrases they had heard of, but didn't know the meaning of. These are just a few of the words/phrases on our list:

-redneck
-smarty pants
-tight wad
-cold shoulder
-teacher's pet
-right-hand man

These are all common words and phrases that I've used in the past or at least heard of. Try explaining "redneck" to four Korean middle school students who don't have a background of American culture...

"It's a person from the South (South what, teacher?) who...uh...lives in a trailer (explain trailer, teacher!) and they live away from everyone else out in the country (what country, teacher?) and maybe they don't really take care of themselves and don't shower?? They listen to country music (what is country music, teacher?) and they drive pick-up trucks?..."

That's pretty much what our conversation was like. It was difficult to explain without having any background knowledge of American culture. I sort of let that one go. It sounded awful when I was explaining it, but that wasn't the intention. I LOVE country music and pick-up trucks and boots! But I'm definitely not a redneck....I ended up leaving class and getting my iPod. I showed them a picture of one of my Luke Bryan albums. (He's not a redneck, but he's a country boy, so I figured that would work.) They enjoyed looking at the albums and listening to the music, but I don't think they ever understood what I was trying to explain. Oh well...I was a lot more successful with the other words and phrases. When we talked about "teacher's pet," I definitely got the point across:

"This is a person who walks into class and tells the teacher, 'you look so beautiful! I like your hair! is that a new shirt?' and then tells the teacher they do not want to take the test..." In unison, all four students said, "Ohhhh!!!!" and then said the equivalent of "teacher's pet" in Korean. The class went on like this for about a half hour. The students were really engaged, and we were cracking up the whole time! It was great! I didn't really have any expectations for the lesson because I didn't know how interested they would be. They ended up LOVING it! We had about five minutes left of class, and I asked the students if they had any more English slang or idioms, and one of the students (a girl) pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and handed it to me. On this paper, she had written:

"dawg"
"wit"
"dat"
"mah"

I wrote them on the board. The students said, "Teacher, what is that?" Again, how do I explain these? So, I wrote "dog," "with," "that," and "mom," next to each of the words. I told them that sometimes people make the words short to speak quicker. I didn't even think about trying to explain the concept of "ghetto" so I just left it at that. :)

On Friday, we're celebrating Halloween at the academy! The younger students are going to be in costumes, and Darren asked the teachers to dress up as well. I'm going to be a cowgirl, since it's easy and I won't have to spend any money on a costume. I'm going to wear my cowgirl boots, a plaid shirt, jeans, and braid my hair. I'm definitely going to bring my camera to school so I can take a lot of pictures with my students. :)

Vitamins.

Monday was a hard day for me. After the weekend, it was hard to get back into the swing of things at school. It seemed like there were similar feelings from the other teachers, too. We were all pretty tired and were moving slow. Classes went well though, so that's a good thing! We're in the middle of "Movie Days" with our secondary students. We show a movie clip, talk about it, and give the students a short quiz to make sure they were paying attention. This is really good for the students, I think, because it gives them a chance to watch an English-speaking movie with no subtitles. Many of the students have seen most of the movie clips we show. However, without the Korean subtitles, they really have to listen to hear what the characters are saying. Also, this is a nice break from our normal class, so both the students and teachers enjoy that! :)

Almost every day, Jessica, one of my Korean co-teachers, has given me a piece of candy. It's normally right before our middle school students arrive. The candies are really good! They're just hard candies, but they have different flavors. Anyway, yesterday Jessica offered me another candy. I accepted (of course!) and then asked her what the name of the candy was. I told her I wanted to buy a pack someday for myself. She showed me the name of them, and said, "They aren't candy. They are just very healthy." I asked her what she meant. Very hesitantly she said, "They aren't just candy. They are like vitamins. You told me last month that you don't take vitamins, so I wanted to give you one every day so you will not get ill." I thought that was so funny! She was secretly slipping me vitamins because she didn't want me to get sick! That was very sweet of her, but I thought it was funny, too. I don't think I ever would've found out if I hadn't asked her. :) I'm glad someone's looking out for me!

Pool! :)

On Friday night after work, I took the subway to Shannon's area of town and met her and some of her co-workers for a BBQ dinner. This chicken BBQ place has become one of our new favorites...and may or may not become a tradition every weekend... :) After dinner, we went to Shannon's place and watched "Something Borrowed." We ended up staying up pretty late, which wasn't a very good idea...

On Saturday morning, we woke up early and met Reuel at the bus stop on the corner, and the three of us went to Suwon Station. There, we met Tommy, Johnny, and Daniel, some friends from Suwon. We were all going hiking together in the area!! We decided that the quickest way to the mountain would be to take taxis. OBVIOUSLY, we had a "girl" taxi and a "boy" taxi. We decided to race and see who would get there first. You know, kinda like that TV show "Amazing Race." (The only problem was...the taxi drivers didn't actually know we were racing each other...) :)

Korean taxi drivers are TERRIBLE drivers. We knew we would get to the base of the mountain in NO time...what mattered was who got there first. The entire drive the girls were leading by a mile! We were zipping in and out of traffic, pushing the speed limit, skidding through yellow lights. Occasionally we would catch a glimpse of the boys out the back window. Then...we hit traffic. The boys' taxi driver got ahead of us. We both inched forward every few minutes, until we FINALLY made it to the mountain! The boys ended up winning. Lame. We weren't even really racing anyway... :)

We started hiking around 11am. We had packed lunches for when we got to the top. It took us about 3 hours to make it to the top of the mountain. It was rough hiking, too!! There were rocks to climb, steep hills, MILLIONS of stairs (and I do mean millions.), rough terrain, and occasionally a flat area or two where we could take a break and catch our breath. When we got to the top, there was the most beautiful view I've ever seen in Korea. We could look out and see a 360-view. The view was breathtaking, and well-worth our hike. We took pictures at the top and just relaxed for a bit, taking in the view. There was a ginormous boulder that we climbed, too. There were ropes attached at the top that we could hang on to as we climbed. It was awesome. Going back down...not so much. It was really terrifying because we had to go down backwards and carefully place our feet. There wasn't anyone monitoring it or anything, so we were climbing at our own risk.

We hiked a little more and found a meadow on the side of the mountain. We stopped and had our lunch. The weather was gorgeous, the view was amazing, the company was perfect. Definitely the best picnic I've ever had. Ever. :)

After we finished eating, we decided to hike 1.2 miles higher to a gazebo at the top for another cool view. By the time we made it there, we were all exhausted. I hadn't had any water, except for the little bit that I drank with my lunch. That proved to be a horrible idea, because I got really dizzy. Reuel, Tommy, and Daniel went ahead and hiked back down the mountain. Johnny and Shannon stayed with me and took it slow. I don't remember leaving the gazebo and going back down the mountain at all. I was so dehydrated that I couldn't even see straight. Somewhere along the way I ate an apple and drank the rest of the water we had. What a mess...now I know. Note to self: bring water when you go on a hiking trip. And perhaps drink water before you go, too...

When we made it off the mountain around 5pm, we stopped for some food at a restaurant nearby. Everyone ate while I took a breather and drank more water. We caught the bus and started our trek back to Suwon Station. When a seat opened up on the bus, they told me to grab it. I took a nap for about 20 minutes on our way back, and woke up feeling very refreshed. The combination of not sleeping well the night before and not drinking any water had completely exhausted me. I felt much better by the time we made it back to Suwon Station. We parted ways at the station, promising to make plans later on that night. The boys went back to Suwon, and the girls headed back to Anyang. We showered and relaxed before we got back on the bus.

We met the boys back at Suwon Station at 8:30pm for some dinner. We walked around a bit and decided on The Frypan. It's a really yummy fried chicken place. We talked about our day, ate chicken, and laughed a lot. It was a lot of fun. After dinner, we walked to a bar around the corner. Shannon and I ordered Margaritas-SO YUMMY!! Our first Margaritas in Korea! :) Reuel, Tommy, Johnny, and Daniel played Pool, while Shannon and I watched and chatted. The next round, Shannon took Daniel's place and played a little bit. Then, came Round 3.

Johnny came over and asked me to play on his team. I declined and suggested that Daniel play instead. Johnny wouldn't take no for an answer. Here's the thing: I've never played Pool in my whole life. I didn't even know how to hold the pole thing the correct way. Johnny is an extremely good Pool player, and he wanted ME to be his partner. That was a disaster waiting to happen. After I warned Johnny once more, I gave in. He taught me how to hold the pole correctly, how to aim, and where to shoot. And, guess what?! I was indeed a HORRIBLE Pool player!! Every shot I took, I missed. I either barely pushed the ball, hit the ball too hard, or sent that little white one in right behind the first one. (I found out that's not a good thing.) Anyway, it went on like this for awhile. Johnny would do really well, then it would be my turn, and I would miss. Good times. While we were waiting for our turns to come around, Shannon and I line-danced next to the Pool table to different songs they had playing in the background. THAT was fun. :)

I realized pretty quickly that I just wasn't a fan of this game called Pool. Like, not at all. I didn't really understand the point of it, and couldn't aim correctly to save my life. It was just a big mess. Finally, it was my turn again. Johnny had taken care of all the other striped balls. Now, all I had to do was put the 8-ball into the hole. Well, that seemed easy enough. It was a straight shot right to the hole. Only a few feet across the table. I aimed, I shot...AND I MADE IT!! I won the game for our team!! No big deal. I'm kind of a pro at Pool. It's actually my new favorite game. Not to brag or anything...but I win games.

We hung out for a little longer, and decided to head out. It had been a long day, so we parted ways and went home. It was an incredible Saturday, with lots of good memories. :)

On Sunday morning, Shannon and I woke up and got ready for church. We had about an hour to kill before we had to catch the bus, so we went to a little coffee shop around the corner. I had a Caramel Macchiato as usual, and a bagel, too! Not just any bagel though. A blueberry bagel, toasted, with cream cheese. Yum! This was a big deal because I've been wanting a bagel for the longest time, but just haven't been able to have one in Korea. It might've been the best bagel I've ever had.

After breakfast, we caught the bus to Gangnam, where we met Reuel and Mi-Yeon for church. (Mi-Yeon is Reuel's friend from back home in North Carolina. She just graduated in May like Shannon and me. She's a super sweet girl, and lots of fun to be around. We were fast friends.) :) We went to church, which was incredible. The worship music was amazing, and the song selection was perfect! We had a guest speaker, and his message really hit home for me. It was based from the passage in Luke about judging the speck in someone else's eye when you have a plank in your own eye. This is a message that I've heard many times in different churches, and a passage that I've read a hundred times. For some reason, I actually HEARD the message for the first time today. It really hit home for me, and made me re-evaluate a little bit. It made me realize how much I've been needing to hear that. Anyway, it was a pretty emotional service for me. Turns out, Mi-yeon and Reuel felt the same way. So good. :)

After church, we went to Butcher's Cut for cheeseburgers! We sat and talked and ate for awhile. Shannon had to leave for her small group soon after, so Reuel, Mi-yeon, and I stayed and talked for a bit longer. We kind of debriefed on the sermon and shared a lot with each other. It was really good to hear different perspectives and just reflect on the message. Very refreshing. We wandered over to the bookstore and looked at their media section. We found the Korean dramas section and I flipped out! I might've drooled a little bit, too. Korean dramas have become a weakness for me. I saw my first Korean drama before I left the States, and immediately was sucked in. Reuel and Mi-yeon showed me other dramas that are good, so I wrote them down to watch on my computer later. I'm really hoping I'll find them somewhere online!

When Shannon's small group got out, the four of us went to a park nearby. This park was SO MUCH FUN! We rented bikes for super cheap! It was about $3 to rent a bike for an hour. We rode bikes all around this big lake and played on a playground. There were swings that you stand on instead of sit, and you have to propel yourself with your knee caps! We took pictures. It was really fun.

After the park, we went to Costco. We each bought a few things and then headed to the Food Court to eat dinner. We had the most random assortment of food, but it was delicious!! We had pizza, sushi, soda, ice cream, and hot dogs. Perfect. :) We hopped on the bus and parted ways after a bit.

This weekend was exhausting, but wonderful! I got a lot of exercise from hiking and walking and riding a bike (SO HEALTHY!), I met new friends, I heard a great message at church that really challenged me, and I learned how to play my new favorite game called Pool. :)

Oh boy...

So....you know those days when everything seems to go wrong, one thing after another? And no matter what you do, it just seems to get worse? Today...I had that.

This morning started off really well, I thought. I woke up, got dressed, and headed to the subway station to meet Shannon and Reuel for coffee at Suwon Station. It's our traditional Wednesday morning date, so I've done this before. When I got to the subway station, I only had to wait about five minutes before it came. I got to Suwon Station about ten minutes early, which is really good for me! Shannon and Reuel weren't far behind. We had great conversation and great coffee. Perfect. When I went to leave, I went back to the subway station to my terminal; the terminal that I go to EVERY SINGLE WEEK. The subway came, and I jumped on. Let me explain something. I'm only two subway stops away from my home, so my ride doesn't take more than 7 minutes TOPS. After being on the subway for about ten minutes, I realized something was wrong. I walked to the end of the car to look at the map and realized that I had accidentally gotten on an EXPRESS subway. It was still going in the right direction, but it skipped a bunch of stops in a row. As we zoomed past my house, I found a seat, as I realized I would be on the subway for awhile. It finally stopped, and I was on the other side of town.

I exited and walked across the platform to catch the subway back in the other direction. I've been warned about express subways before. I was told that if there were red letters on the side of the subway, it meant it was express. If the words were written in blue, it was normal. So, the subway came (blue letters!), so I jumped on. Just as the doors shut, I heard the announcement: "This train will not be stopping until Suwon Station." WHAT?! I had just gotten BACK on the express train! So, there I sat, as I eventually saw my house pass by once again. I ended up back at Suwon Station where I started. At this point, a whole hour had passed. Luckily for me, Shannon and Reuel had left for home earlier than normal after coffee, so I had some extra time to spare. I went back to my platform and decided to look extra careful at the trains. A train came, I jumped on really fast, saw the map (it was express!) and jumped back off. I waited for about ten more minutes, another train came, and I did the same thing. It was another express train. I've NEVER had this problem before. And, until today, I'd never actually seen an express train. I realized that time was running out before I had to go to work, so I went outside to just catch a taxi home. It would  be more expensive, but I couldn't risk catching another express train.

I went to the taxi terminal and asked the driver to take me to Lotte Mart. It's a central location, really close to the station, and I could easily walk home from there. The man began driving. It should only be about a five-minute taxi ride, so I realized pretty quickly that we were going in the wrong direction!! I asked the driver if the Lotte Mart he was driving to was close to my house, and gave him the address. He started laughing and said we were going to the OTHER Lotte Mart. He turned the taxi around and started driving in the other direction. I kept apologizing over and over, and he was apologizing, too. He said to me in English, "I'm sorry, I misunderstood you." I was very impressed with his English. We had a good conversation as the ride went on, so that made me feel a little better. When we finally got to Lotte Mart, I paid the driver, thanked him, and began my walk home.

As if my morning couldn't be any worse, this is what the rest of my day looked like:
-On my walk home from Lotte Mart, I was stung by a bee on my neck.
-When I was leaving for school, I dropped my purse down the stairs and everything fell out.
-By the time I got to school, I didn't have time to make copies for my classes, so I was scrambling all day to get things done. I only have five minutes in-between classes, and the copy machine was always taken.
-On my dinner break, one of my students asked me for help, and I wanted to. I helped her and then missed my dinner break...
-On my supplement/planning time, my computer wouldn't pick up the Internet at work. My computer ALWAYS picks up the Internet at work!

I feel like I'm Alexander in a book I read as a child:
"Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day"

So...I guess it's just one of those days...I'm looking forward to going home, getting in my bed, and just reading my Kindle. I'm reading a really good book right now, so hopefully that will lift my spirits. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JODI!! :)

This weekend was packed full of fun! It was pretty relaxed, but it was still non-stop. On Friday night I got off work early and headed to Shannon's place, as usual. We ate BBQ for dinner that night with some of Shannon's co-workers, before heading home.

On Saturday morning, we woke up and headed to Gangnam. We were taking a two-hour class so we could become members of New Harvest, the church we've been attending now for just over two months. Reuel, Shannon, and I went to the class together. It was really informative, and we met a bunch of newbies just like us! And now, I'm proud to say, that I'm officially a member of Sarang Community Church, New Harvest Ministry, in South Korea!! :)

This past week, my washer decided to literally EAT my clothes. I put one load in that came out just fine. The second load I put in was all my "cold clothes," clothes for the cold weather, I mean. Long sleeve shirts, leggings, sweaters. All my cold clothes. I took them out of the wash to find them completely shredded. I didn't change the settings from the first load, so I'm not sure what happened there. Either way, I only had two long sleeve shirts left, no leggings, and no sweaters. Since it's already in the 40's and 50's here, it was imperative that I go shopping soon!

Our shopping trip was a very successful one! I was able to get really good deals on what I bought, and re-stock my wardrobe again. After a long RAINY day of shopping, we headed back to Shannon's place. We bought ramen at the GS25, along with some snacks, and headed upstairs. We ate our food and watched Princess Diaries 1 and 2. :)

On Sunday morning, we woke up early and headed to Gangnam once again. We went to Dos Tacos for lunch, which has become our weekly routine before church. This Sunday, Reuel's friend from back home AND Tommy both joined us for lunch and church. It was great to see Tommy at church, and we're hoping he'll come with us again. :)

After church, we hung out in a coffee shop for a few hours and just chatted. It was great to catch up with Tommy, and it's always nice to get to know other people, too. Reuel's friend was really sweet! At 4pm, Reuel and I both left for small group. My small group was wonderful, as usual. I always feel so refreshed after leaving. My small group meets at a coffee shop down the block from the church. I ordered coffee when I got there, and gave the lady my credit card. When she went to swipe my card, she accidentally dropped my card in a crack between the register and the counter. Wonderful. She spent a few minutes trying to get it, but was unsuccessful. Finally, she told her boss and another co-worker, and they were both on their hands and knees looking for the card. At one point, the boss brought out a few different screwdrivers and began taking the counter apart. He also took these glass panels off, so it turned into a big mess! I ended up getting my coffee for free, which was wonderful since it was extremely overpriced anyway! :) An hour later, they finally gave me my card. That was quite an adventure.

After small groups, Shannon, Reuel, and I went to Anyang to do a little bit more shopping. It was an area of town that we had never been to, so that was fun to see. We ate dinner out there, too, at a really yummy restaurant. They had all the traditional Korean dishes, but it was especially delicious I thought. We did our shopping after we ate, and then the three of us parted ways.

All in all, our weekend was a success!! I was able to replenish my wardrobe, became a member of my church, and met new friends!! What more could I ask for? :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLEST SISTER, JODI LEAH. SHE TURNS 14 TODAY! :) I LOVE YOU, JODI!

Scary Stories!!

Today was Day 1 of 2 of Midterm testing! It went extremely smoothly, considering the students' high level of stress and anxiety about being in a classroom for two hours... :) The middle schoolers just took their state test, so they didn't take a midterm at the academy. Darren told me to come up with a topic to talk about with the middle school students; something that would be interesting and allow them to practice their speaking. I chose the topic of Halloween. :)

The middle school class I had today is the top-speaking class in the academy. Their English is incredible, and it's always fun to be really creative with these students. We started off class by brainstorming all the words we could think of that were related to Halloween. We came up with a pretty good list. We had some funny moments when they couldn't think of the English words for what I was asking.

Me: "What is it called when children go to different houses and collect candy?"
Joy: "Visit?"
Ivy: "Teachuh!! First you visit, then you say to them, 'gimme your candy!'...please."
Me: "Trick-or-treating!"
Joy: "No, I don't think so." :)

After we made our list, I told them I had a scary story to read to them. This class LOVES scary stories and scary movies. To get us in the Halloween mood, James turned all the lights off, but one, so it would be really dark. I started reading the story, and all the students were really drawn in...I went to turn the page and my binder clip snapped off and went flying. The students were really startled, so they screamed. Then I screamed because they screamed! It was hilarious. Darren came down the hallway and into the classroom. He was looking around at how dark it was, and I said, "We turned the lights off because we're reading a scary story." Darren just laughed and left.

After the story was over, I asked the students to write their own scary stories to share. They were really creative and came up with some good ones. It was great watching them present at the end of class. They imitated me, which was a lot of fun. (When I was reading the scary story at the beginning, I was really animated and was changing my voice a lot.) The students picked up on that and did the same thing when they read their own stories. This class was the perfect end to my day.

The weather here is so wonderful! Fall has officially arrived, and nighttimes are SO NUMB!! I still sleep with my windows open, but I bury myself under my covers to keep warm. I wore one of my snow boots to school the other day-I just love this weather so much! I found out from one of the pastors at my church that they celebrate Thanksgiving at the church every year. They buy about 25 turkeys and have lots of different sides. I can't wait! I know it won't be like my Thanksgiving normally is, but at least we'll be having a big celebration together :)

Amanda Teacher :)

There's a new teacher in town!! Beth's contract ended, so she headed back to the States. Amanda is her replacement. Amanda actually worked at this academy two years ago. It was her first teaching job in Korea. After she finished her one-year contract, she left and signed a contract with a preschool nearby. She quickly realized how good she had it at our academy. After her contract ended there, she was in contact with Darren, and came over when Beth left. I think that says a lot about the academy and Amanda. She could see how well the teachers are treated here, and the school really appreciated and respected her as a teacher and was happy to have her back. That's just so wonderful to hear! :)

I've talked to other people who are miserable at their Korean teaching jobs, and it's always so refreshing to be able to brag a little about my job. Darren is an awesome boss, the school is very accommodating, the hours are great, the pay is incredible, and the Korean teachers have actually taken the time to get to know me. All of these things are opposite what I hear from other foreign teachers in Korea. I'm definitely blessed for sure :)

It was really great being able to help Amanda since she's been here. Beth was super helpful when I first got here, so it's nice to be able to pass that along to the next teacher. :) Many things have stayed the same here at the academy since she left, so Amanda has been picking up things rather quickly. It's obviously an adjustment getting used to the kids and working with older kids again, but she seems to be managing quite well. We went to dinner last night, and I was able to find out more about her, and get to know her a little bit. She's from Canada, so she definitely says, "eh" A LOT. :)

Today, I got a PACKAGE!! :) Two of my best friends from Orlando, Aleah and Harrison, put together a birthday package for me. It was so sweet of them!! I got Hershey's Dark Chocolate (YUM!), a few packs of gum, mac n' cheese, Goldfish crackers, a DVD "Easy A" (one of my favorites!!), and Spiderman stickers...obviously. Aleah and Harrison are so wonderful, and I'm so grateful to have such thoughtful friends!!

Muui-do Island :)

On Friday night after work, I rode the bus to Shannon's place to hang out and spend the night. We ate snacks and watched "Nanny Diaries"-great movie!! We were leaving for the island in the morning, so we had to go to bed at a decent hour. :)

On Saturday morning, we met Reuel, Mattania, and Michelle near the bus stop to buy last-minute snacks and supplies and head to the island!! We were going to Muui-do Island, a very popular beach spot for foreigners. It took us a few hours to get there: we rode a bus to the subway, the subway to the airport, a bus from the airport to the ferry, the ferry to the island, a bus to the beach. Whew!! We didn't have any problems getting there at all! We just went from place to place until we ended up on the island. The ferry was HUGE!! There was a line of cars waiting to drive onto the ferry, along with a crowd of people. It was only a 3-minute ferry ride, so it didn't take long at all. It was a pretty cool experience though.

When we got off the ferry, we took a bus for about 20 minutes to the other side of the island where we were going to be staying. We got off the bus and bought two huts for the weekend: one for the siblings, Reuel and Mattania, and one for Shannon, Michelle, and me. The huts were right on the beach, about 50 feet from the ocean!! The huts were small, room enough for 4 people comfortably. They were up on stilts, had sliding doors and windows, and there was a pillow and blanket for each person. The best part?? There were heated floors!! We definitely took advantage of this because the weather has been cooling off a lot!

We were hungry from all our traveling, so we went to a BBQ place on the beach, where you cook your own meat over a fire. SO GOOD!! After that, we decided to take a walk on the beach, where we ran into Tommy and his friends!! No way!! Tommy had come to the island with his two friends, Johnny and Lisa. So, we met some new friends! That's always fun. We found out they had arrived right after us. We had gotten huts #18 and #19, and they were in hut #20! :) Awesome. We walked down the beach a ways and climbed some big rocks and took pictures. Shannon was the most daring out of the group, so she climbed the tallest one! We headed back to hut #18 (the party hut!!) and played cards and hung out and talked. We stayed up pretty late that first night.

On Saturday morning, we woke up, (found coffee at one of the shops on the island!), and went out to the beach to walk around. One of the greatest things about the morning is waking up on the beach and having a beautiful view of the ocean!! You just can't beat that! The tide goes way out on this beach, so you can walk REALLY FAR and collect shells and find crabs in the sand. Pretty cool. We went to a small seafood restaurant close-by to grab some lunch. While we were finishing up, Arri arrived!! (She was planning on coming with us on Saturday morning, but was moving into a new apartment. She had to wait until Sunday morning to meet us.) We did some hut-swapping after lunch. Michelle moved into hut #19 with the siblings, and Arri moved into hut #18 with Shannon and me. Our whole group, including Tommy, Johnny, and Lisa, went hiking up the mountain. We saw some incredible views and took some great pictures!! About halfway through the trail, the girls decided to bail on the hiking and walk back home. The boys continued on the trail, and the girls went out to the beach to walk home. We didn't anticipate running into MUD on the way home! It was low tide again, so we thought we would just be walking across sand....boy, were we wrong! We were up to our calves in mud, so it took us about 20 minutes to get back to the huts.

We were exhausted by the time we made it back, so we all took naps in the huts. We opened the windows and let the breeze roll in. Hearing the sound of the ocean is so peaceful. It's so wonderful to get away sometimes and just relax. This weekend was the perfect time to do that! We went back to the BBQ place for some dinner, and took pictures of the sunset. After dinner, we ran into a foreign couple who told us about a karaoke thing going on that night. A Korean company was setting up on a stage near the beach. They were having a karaoke night with prizes. Apparently, they were looking for foreigners to participate. Our group decided to sign up and sing a song. We chose a Journey song, "Don't Stop Believin'." We knew it was a Korean favorite, so we signed up. Shannon, Arri, Tommy, and I went up on the stage and made complete fools of ourselves!! The crowd loved it, so it was a lot of fun! We did some dancing, too, and we even had some little kids come up on the stage and dance with us. :) Our group ended up winning a prize!! Free rides on dirt bikes on the island! :) Karaoke wasn't what we planned on doing on Sunday night, but it ended up being wonderful! We all went back to hut #18 and hung out for awhile longer, and then headed to bed.

On Monday morning, there was complete chaos. Hundreds of Koreans were showing up with their families to go fishing. Apparently, there was a huge fishing festival that day, and it was really popular! We didn't find out about this until Monday morning. Korean families had already set up their tents in between each hut. The island was packed, and we could hardly move around at all. Tommy, Johnny, and Lisa headed out pretty soon after we woke up. They were ready to get home. Our group stayed for another 45 minutes or so, and then headed out. We turned in our keys and started walking to the bus stop. There were maybe 100 cars lined up outside trying to get onto the beach. We knew there was no way the bus would make it through to pick us up, so we started walking. We walked and walked....and walked for about 30 minutes. It wasn't too bad because the weather was really nice and our backpacks weren't too heavy. We FINALLY saw the bus and jumped on. We rode it for about 2 minutes, and up ahead, there was Tommy, Johnny, and Lisa, sitting on the side of the road!! They had been walking, too, and had gotten tired. We took the ferry together, and rode the bus back to the airport to catch the subway. That's where we parted ways.

This was definitely an incredible weekend for sure!! I couldn't have asked for a better group of friends to go with or more perfect weather. What a great way to start October! :)