Korean Kulture

Lately N8 and I have been thinking that we have great luck, but in reality this place is really just great! The people here are so friendly and kind and are always willing to give you a smile or even a leg-up when needed. The other day N8 and I went to Emart (Walmart/Target-esque) to buy some essentials for our apartment. We were carrying a heavy bag of groceries, a full length mirror and a boxed clothes hamper and we piled it nicely on N8's bicycle. Then on our way back to the apartment, we passed the outdoor market and had to pick up some fresh vegetables and fruits for the kitchen. After buying a few bags of goods we realized that we couldn't do without some things from a smaller/cheaper store called DCmart so I waited outside while it started to drizzle while N8 ran in to pick up a few items (a small garbage can, a nightstand and two lamps). By this point I am trying to think of how we can figure ourselves out to carry all of this stuff home because it started to rain. When N8 came out with his arms full, a man who works inside instructed us to put all of our stuff, including N8's bike, into his van. I think they were already headed out to make a delivery, and they took us all the way home and even helped us unload the van and brought the stuff to our door! We gave him a banana and an apple to thank him for his kindness! We were so happy to be living in a town where people really care and actually make the effort to be neighborly.

My school also has nice surprises every once in a while. From now and then all of the teachers in the school get fruit or pastries from one teacher. I asked my co-teacher why a teacher would bring in fruit for everyone, and she told me it was because this specific teacher had just bought herself a new car over the weekend. I guess its a gesture of sharing the wealth. I asked her on what other occasions someone would do this and she said, "anytime! if you get a new car, a new dress..anything!" So in lieu of our new bike, I guess I should start baking. oh yeah, and all of the teachers brush their teeth everday after lunch, so fresh and so clean CLEAN!

Check out my hog.

Muffy and I bought some new toys in Korea this weekend...

Muffy lost her iPOD on the bus ride from Seoul to Yang Yang during orientation, and she has been waiting anxiously to get a paycheck in order to buy another one. We shopped around last night, and we decided on the iRiver. Apple isn't very big here, but LG and Samsung are huge because they're both Korean companies.

It only cost her about $100! It holds 4GB of music, video, pictures, or documents, so she's very happy.






And....we bought a motor bike!

It only costs $3.70 to fill the gas tank, and we were spending $3 for every cab ride, so this will save us more money. The bike cost $645, and it came with two new helmets!

Hold your breath mom...

For Sandra...

There have been some complaints from a very kind, beautiful, beloved, and PUSHY person that has adoringly been checking our blog rather often. The nature of these complaints regards the lack of pictures of Muffy.

Here's to you...

Muffy fixing her hair

Muffy watching TV

Muffy examining a fine selection of fruits
Muffy running in place

Whew! What a workout

Muffy stretching
Muffy reading

Muffy on the can

Muffy in the shower

Updates from N8

Despite remembering to send him a gift, I forgot to call my Dad on his birthday. Korea has consumed me to the point where I forget abotu the important little things in life. I'm really sorry Dad.


As riveting as Korea might be, I have been distracted for the past four weeks by the looming pressure of my MCAT scores. Just last night...I finally could take a deep breath.


The scores came in a day late, but last night, at 11pm Korea time, my scores were finally available! I got a 34M. The M stands for an extremely low writing score. The score is very low because (and I knew suspected this during the exam) because I forgot to save what I had written for one of the two essays. From what I understand though, the writing score isn't all that important to schools. They will get to judge my writing from the personal statement that I send in with my application anyways.


Although I was hoping for a higher score (my highest practice test was a 37), a 34 seems sufficiently high in order for me be competitive at just about any school. I have already decided on the schools to which I will apply (column on the right is the avg. MCAT score of accepted students)


Harvard 35.9
Yale 34.0
Stanford 35.0
UCLA 33.7
Baylor 34.7
Pittsburgh 34.2
Chicago 34.7
Jefferson 31.2
Temple 30.6


Anyways, that will be my next adventure. Now that I have gotten this out of the way, I am free to enjoy Korea until the spring, when I have to begin applying to the schools above. If I hadn't achieved a good score, I would have had to request my parents to send me the "hell box" that I prepared for them before leaving to Korea. The hell box is basically full of 30 lbs. of MCAT study materials, and it will no longer be necessary.


Here's a picture of me smiling:







And here's a picture of my desk at work:

Few pictures

Hey folks

I have been receiving some picture requests, so here you go. We forget to bring our camera everywhere, but we have been meaning to take more.

You can drink beer on the beach in Korea. We drink a lot of beer on the beach in Korea.
We found this guy passed out drunk on the sidewalk.
So I spooned him...
"I've been working out..."
One guy, one cone. That's some delicious pre-packaged ice cream.

On the Edge of Our Seats

Right now, N8 and I are anxiously awaiting his MCAT scores. He has been checking almost everyday for the results of his test scores, today is supposed to be the day, but so far no dice. And the worst part is that we cannot access his scores from our school computers. So please send all of your love and best wishes because poor N8 doesn't have any finger nails left.
We had a pretty nice weekend of meeting people and some exposure to the bar scene. There are two main Expat bars: Bumpin' and The Warehouse. Bumpin' is a very small bar that is quite cute and good for the first drink of the night. The bartender, Eric, is just darling. The Warehouse is where people usually end up for the rest of the night. It has more of night-out feel because of the lighting and music. There is a decent sized bar and tables around the wall and a free pool table and foosball! On Friday I went out with my friend, Erin, and the ethics teacher from her school: who is "not ethical past 5pm." We had a really nice girl's night out but it was weird to see how low key the city was on a Friday night. The streets were practically empty and the night was pretty quiet. The next day N8 and I checked out the outdoor market which was full of stuff but not as impressive as the markets in Mexico. We were able to buy some fruits and vegetables for very cheap! We had plans to go to the beach but it started to rain so we just headed home mid-day and took a nap and watched a movie on the computer. Then we received a call from a friend saying she was going to be in town and wanted to stay with us, so our nice night in turned into a night out at the Warehouse.

There were many more people there on Saturday night and it was much more fun. We were able to exchange names and numbers with many people, networking is fun! Sunday was a lazy day, but N8 and I got our workout out of the way and then finally headed down to the beach and met up with some people we had met the night before.

We were then invited to go out for a pasta dinner at a local restaurant that has a menu in ENGLISH! It hit the spot, finally something other than rice!
Monday has come and gone and now the week is rolling on its way. I really like working as a teacher, even though its exhausting. The girls at my school are so nice and very friendly, but my conversation class is a blow-off class for them. As N8 described before, the kids have at least 10 hours of school, and my class does not receive a grade and they don't have homework, so they can either be really cooperative or very disruptive because they are restless. Sometimes teaching English is like pulling teeth because the students don't want to make the effort to speak or respond to any English...it can get very frustrating at times. The nice thing about the school is that they have a very balanced lunch for the teachers and students. There is always kimchi, of course, vegetables, meat, soup and sometimes a piece of fruit. After everyone eats, there is a long line to dispose of whatever is left over and everyone stacks their plates in a bin and then each person takes a small tin cup for a drink of water and then takes a napkin to wipe their face.
Although my job has its high and low points, I am very grateful to have this opportunity and I am very excited to see what else there is in store for me. Tomorrow is a long day, 8-4..but the good thing is that my school is a 5 min walk away!

Happy Chusok

I'm not too excited to be back at work, but its always hard to get back to the grind after a 4day holiday weekend. The holiday of Chusok is celebrated all throughout South Korea as a harvest festival, it is similar to our Thanksgiving. For the weekened we needed some time to catch up on some sleep and meet up with some friends. My friend Dana, who I met during orientation in Seoul, invited our little group of friends to stay at her apartment in Geojin which is near Sokcho. We stayed there Saturday and Sunday night. There were about 10 of there at once and we went around the little town and hung out at the beach in the evening. The cool thing about Korea is that you can drink opening on the beach, but the not-so-cool thing about Korea is that there is barbed wire all along the beaches which is kind of scary. I think the government is trying to get them all taken down because they were used as a way to keep North Korea out.

While we were there we went up to the DMZ, the Korean Demilitarized Zone, where we were able to see the mountains and ocean of North Korea. On the way up to the site, we passed many army men and also North Korea's immigration, note: we did not go through immigration we just passed by the immigration office. It was quite beautiful. We also went to a small memorial museum that showed a video of the war.

In the evening we went out to eat. The dish we ordered was a huge spicey soup with veggies and pork spine. It is all placed in a pot in front of you and it is simmered at your table. This is my favorite dish I have had so far, too bad I dont know how to say it in Korean. The meat was so tender it was falling off of the bone and the soup was so wonderfully spicey. When you finish and you think you cannot eat any more, they remove the pot left with broth and and mix in some rice and make a very stinky rice dish that tastes divine!

When we came home on Monday we had a 2 days to relax, do some shopping and finally cook in our own home. We also had our first Korean language class on Tuesday, which didn't give much help but I think I'm going to have to crack out the language cd mom and dad gave me. We didn't start work until Wednesday so it was a nice long weekend with a short week to follow. TGIF

Mini Tour

Home Sweet Home

Hey all!
Today is a wonderful day. The financial office of our schools sat down and signed a contract with the owner of our apartment allowing us to live here with privacy. After the signing of the contract I was able to take a much needed nap! Today was physical fitness day at Kyong Po all girl's Middle School. The girls did gym activities all day outside...with no classes! I was able to sit back and get some more ideas about games and such that I can play in class. Then we were allowed to leave by 2pm to sign the contract at my apartment. I was told that the furniture from the other girl's apartment so we can finally have kitchen ware to cook with! Recently we have been living off of yogurt and cereal as to save money. Once N8 came home around 5pm we wanted to double check about the move-in....his co-teacher informed him that they would not be moving the stuff until next week. But as he was having this phone conversation, there was a knock at the door with a line of strapping korean men who brought in EVERYTHING from this girl's apartment. We have an extra bed, for whoever wants to come and visit WINK WINK, an extra refrigerator, washing mashing, television, couch, clothes rack, we now have dishes, pots, pans, so pretty much her entire apartment was shoved into ours. Once we get everything situated we will take a video of our apartment now that it is nice and cozy!

The Little Engine That Could

Today is Thursday and the weekend couldn't come any sooner. Although I am really enjoying myself with my new surroundings and my teaching job, for some reason N8 and I have been really tired lately. I think it is due to all of the adjusting we've been doing. We are finally getting used to our neighborhood, and we are getting around better, our mental maps don't always agree but we go on little walking adventures now and then. We do a lot of shopping because that feels familiar and we also still need a butt-load of things for the apartment. We have yet to get pots and pans, plate/bowls/silverware, and food. N8's school is finishing up a contract with a prior English teacher and all of her household stuff will be moved into our apartment, hopefully by tomorrow. We still don't have a detailed list of things that will be given to us, so we are trying to hold off from buying more things for our place since we just might get it for FREE! Since we cannot cook in our apartment, we are FORCED to go out to eat every night. It is pretty delicious, for the most part, and if you know your way around then you can find very cheap meals. Since N8 and I have been wandering around we have made some mistakes on food choices, like the time we wanted to order "something small" to split, it ended up costing us $14 for a 5 skewer plate of ketchup covered seafood. not nice.
Picture Left: A carpet of hot red peppers laid out to dry in the sun, you can find these all over the sidewalks every day.
Picture Middle: Our dinner of Korean BBQ that we LOVE. The restaurant owner loves us too.
Picture Right: Nathan at a child's computer game set outside on the sidewalk.

While we are on the topic of bad food, Here is a little story about seafood :

The other day N8 and I realized that our sink has the wrong size pipe under our sink, it fell out completely from the bottom of the sink and from the wall. So we walked around the building until we found a middle aged woman and an older woman, we'll call her Edna, to show our pipe to and gestured that we needed help. They went upstairs and Edna brought down the manager's phone number. We gave our deepest thank-yous and tried to explain that we were going to a public phone to call. She insisted on speaking Korean to us for about 5 or 7 mins, almost yelling so we just walked away to call my co-teacher to have her call the manager's number. When we walked back to our apartment, the manager was there to look at our bathroom, he ended up taping the pipe back to the sink and told us he'd be back on Monday with a new part. A few minutes later, Edna strolled into our unlocked apartment and started talking....again. As she spoke she walked around our apartment opening up our refrigerator, our cabinets, looked in our bathroom and all of our rooms...and so on. She kept talking/yelling/ranting/ slapping my arm and we just stood there smiling after many attempts to explain that we don't speak Korean. Thankfully it only lasted 10 or so minutes. Come Sunday morning, the next day, N8 and I wake up to someone knocking feverishly on our door and relentless door-bell pushing. Finally N8 opens the door and Edna is standing there with a black plastic bag and shoves it in his face. She tried to come in but N8 blocked her and shut the door after many thanks. Later, when we finally woke up we took a look into the black bag. There was a rather large container of homemade kimchi, which smelled like a rotting foot, and a bag of 4 or 5 whole-raw fish, with the head, scales and all. We had to get rid of it, and our apartment still smells like it! We had one more encounter with Edna when the cable guy came around, the door was open and she walked in with her two grandchildren and did the same scanning routine. Now every time we hear the pitter-patter of little sandals we rush around turning off the lights and muting the TV and hide in hopes that Edna will pass like bad gas.

I hope you liked our story. We are planning on going out of town up north to visit a friend from orientation so we will be Edna FREE this weekend, so cheers to that!

Finally, Nathan posted something

Hey everybody!

Sorry for not posting for a while. Stephanie and I have both had legitimate excuses though:

1) Stephanie's shins were critically bruised after an encounter with a group of vagrant Korean children, so she...couldn't post. And there was something wrong with the scripts on her computer.

2) I was dumb enough to allow the tech guy at my school to connect my laptop to my school's wireless network. I should have anticipated contracting every virus/spyware/adware from the computers of my tech-UNsavvy teacher colleagues. Sure enough, my computer became so infected after two days that my computer has been virtually crippled. The computer at my desk at the school is also way too slow and incapable of doing anything.

Long story short, I have been mostly without a computer since I have been here, and that has been wonderful. It's kind of like being in Malawi, actually. We have begun to start using the internet again now that we had internet installed in our apartment.

I want to post two things. First of all, we have finally begun teaching at our schools. I have co-ed classes, and my day looks a little something like this:

a. Wake up at 7:15
b. Ride bike to work to start at 8:15
c. Sit around at my desk and prepare for my lessons. I teach 4, 5, or 6- 45min. classes per day.
d. I eat lunch at 12. It usually consists of kimchi (pickled, spicy, fermented cabbage), some unrecognizable fish dish, and an extremely salty soup. There are usually two other options, and they vary from a meat to seaweed.
e. Leave at 5. (Except on Mondays: I teach the English teachers' conversation class from 4:30 until 6)

My classes are all about equal. There are usually a few kids that are exceptionally attentive and studious. Then are those that are pretty freakin rude (probably like me when I was in 7th or 8th grade). I find ways to get their attention besides just yelling all the time. For example, today I pegged a kid in the head with chalk. And I found a big pair of thongs and pinched another kid's neck. Nothing too serious, but it at least keeps them on their toes. They don't what I'm gonna do next! What a wacky teacher guy!

They're also tickled by my age and by the pictures I have shown them of Pittsburgh. Don't ever take our city for granted people, the pictures of New York didn't inspire any oohs or aahs. But Pittsburgh - day or night - blew the kids away.

I have designed my class so that the kids will play games every day in my class. I have every class of 8th graders and 2 classes of 7th graders at some point during the week. I only see each student once per week. so, they can look forward to games in my class.

A few reasons that I decided to use only games. First, the kids have to take a gigantic exam at the end of 8th grade in order to enter high school. They study all-day everyday for this exam throughout this current semester, so they don't really care about conversing in English since they be tested on it. It might as well a class that they can look forward to instead of treating it as a blowoff class. Second, 80% of my kids go to "academy" after school. This is another 5 hours of prive school to hone their academics. The kids are thus in school from 9am until 10pm everyday + Saturday! Sometimes also includes Sunday. The kids seem like drones that are just moving through the motions of the school day.

More to come later...in the meantime, check out this cool video!

Technical Errors

Hey everybody...
I just wanted to let you know that we have been trying to keep up with our blog BUT for some reason my computer at work wouldnt let me post my blogs. ok so here we goooooo! more pictures and maybe a video here and there.

Same ol' Same ol'

My co-teacher, Mrs Khang, is officially the BEST! She swayed the landlord of my apartment, a fellow teacher, to let both N8 and I to stay together in the big apartment! PROBLEM SOLVED! Just yesterday N8 and I went to go apply for our Alien Registration Card and also we opened a bank account...which means we will be getting dolla dolla bills baby! My first day of classes will be on Monday and I am pretty nervous but very excited. So far all of the kids here will stop and stare with their mouths hanging open screaming.. BEAUTIFUL! BEAUTIFUL! I guess we need to work on some vocabulary.
It is customary here for the teachers to take out the new teacher out for dinner and drinks. They are all about eating here! But they have a drink called So-Ju and it tastes like watered down vodka. Nathan came home the other night at 8pm from a night out with his male co-teachers and he was pretty crunked...that stuff will get ya!
Hopefully N8 and I will be able to get the internet in our place very soooon...so i can load up some photos.

Musical Chairs

N8 and I looked at an apartment yesterday which was entirely too small. A full size bed would barely fit in the bedroom, whatever. So we have tried to figure out many plans but it seems as though more and more problems are arising. Now my landlord wants me out of the apartment all together, maybe by this weekend. I think that there is a lack of communication right now, but we are trying to deal with this as calmly as possible. Although the space is a bit of a problem we may just settle with the small apartment, it may be our only option. We have been pretty busy today...updates coming soon.

Anyong..YES ANYONG

I am officially in business! I know that my last Blog entry was for my second day of orientation, but a lot has happened and they have kept me busy busy busy! In my ten day orientation, my day usually consisted of an 8am breakfast and lectures starting by 9am. Two lectures would last until lunch time where we would all file out like sheep and eat at the university cafeteria. If we ate fast enough we would have enough time to venture out to Emart to buy some essentials or even take a nap in our dorms. Afterwards we would sit through two more lectures, but in between the two our group leaders would give us a healthy snack consisting of fruits and veggies. We would finish our lectures around 5:30 and then again march out to eat dinner at the same cafeteria. Although I was growing weary of the food, it was free...so i stuffed my face. After dinner they would fill our evenings with offensive movies, one of which was called 200lb beauty (it was a constant fat joke), or class meetings which were helpful because it was a free-for-all Q&A. All of our obligated sessions were done by 7:30 and we would usually close by to a local bar and just chat or stay in because we were still tired and jet lagged. For the first two days I would be bobbing my head by 2 or 3pm. A couple days after that I would need to be in bed by 7 or 8. After that I tended just to be tired all day but able to stay awake.
On Friday the 29th we had a closing ceremony. Earlier that morning we had to load up the buses with all of our luggage and once we stepped out of the closing ceremony we moo-ed our way onto the buses and headed 4 hours east towards Yang Yang, where N8's orientation was being held. We finally got to see each other which was wonderful but then had to go in separate cars with our co-teachers from our assigned school. N8 is working in a co-ed middle school and I will be in an all girls middle school. I will also be required to teach English to the teachers, and once a week i will be teaching elementary school. So far I have been introduced to the teachers and MY VERY OWN DESK. There is another native English speaker-teacher here and his name is Jason. He is married to a Korean woman and he is very nice. I have sat in on some of his classes and also the Korean English teachers' classes. I have been coming up with some really great ideas for my class. I have also been told that I will have my VERY OWN CLASSROOM. This is not common in most schools because the children usually stay in their homeroom and the teachers move from classroom to classroom. This way I will be able to put up my own posters and keep it organized the way I WANT. I start next week!
If you read N8's blog, he mentioned our apartment situation. Even though its kind of a pain in the butt, I'm still so glad we are able to live together. I think that our co-teachers like us very much and are trying to uphold their side of the deal.
The first weekend that we arrived we went to the beach, where N8 and I couldn't really find anything to eat. But the funniest thing was that a lot of people were at the beach, but everyone stayed fully clothed even in the water! good thing I didn't just arrive in my swim suit. Yesterday was the first day of school for the students, and its been raining ever since! I checked the weather and it should be clearing up by tomorrow. I will post more pictures once we get internet in our new apartment.