Booked

We have officially booked our flights to go back home!
(loud applause and roaring crowd)

Yes thank you, thank you! We are so pleased to have a set date on the horizon. We will be flying out of the Incheon airport at 11:30am on September 3rd to Tokyo, Japan. After a 4 hour layover we will depart to Chicago and then after a 5 hour layover we will arrive in Pittsburgh at 10:30pm on September 3rd!
20-some days of actually teaching classes are left in the semester and I have to admit I'm starting to slack. We are slowly falling into lessons that consist of bingo, PowerPoint games, and watching videos. During the summer break I will be teaching a 5 day course for Korean English teachers. I have to prepare at least 50 pages of lesson material and teach 4 hours per day. Its not hard work and its extra money so I'm excited to have this gig.
Nathan will probably be teaching a summer camp at his school which will probably last for a week or so. We are allotted a 2 week vacation and I think that we're just going to lay low, save some money and maybe travel to a Korean island-which sounds better than it really is... believe me.
Classes will start back up at the end of August so N8 and I may be dragged back into the classroom, and I know it will be an emotional roller coaster for the both of us. No matter how much of a terror these kids are, we love them!
Our contract ends on August 31st and then we have one last day in our great apartment and then head off to Seoul for the 2nd and stay the night in a hotel until we head out on the 3rd. We don't have much time for decompression so that will just have to happen during summer vacation and after our last day at school we will rush out of here...

soon to come-what we will miss/NOT miss

Summer in Gangneung...

is much better than winter. Because there aren't many great indoor activities, winter was long and boring in our hometown. It was cold, rainy, and it only snowed once!

On the other hand, our proximity to the beach and mountains simultaneously seems like it will serve us well in the summer. Here is a list of why summer in Gangneung rocks:

1. cheap road bikes (mine only cost me about $130). roads are wide and traffic respects cyclists
2. un-crowded beaches
3. high temperatures (70 and it's not even technically summer yet)
4. many mountains in a hundred mile radius
5. cheap transportation to get to the many mountains (For $6 you can get to three of Korea's most popular peaks)
6. the ocean has big waves! surfing is possible...
7. there is a flat, coastal road that runs right along for the beach for miles
8. marathons and half-marathons are ridiculously cheap, and you get good freebies and runner bags (only about $12 for the most expensive one!)
9. you are allowed to drink alcohol on the beach, or anywhere for that matter
10. grills are cheap, making BBQs very easy
11. fireworks are cheap and legal
12. schools make every excuse to have days off from school
13. water sports are popular and accessible. the best kayaking and whitewater rafting in korea is only a few hours away
14. paintball
15. futsol fields abound. beautiful, new sport turf (the kind with the fake rubber dirt crap) and lights stay on until 11:30

We have been taking advantage of Gangneung's features. For example, this weekend we went to Sokcho, a city about one hour north. We attended a beach party where there was BBQ, music, badminton, ocean, and lots of booze. We were there late in the night. The whole adventure only cost us about $20. And we went home the next day to enjoy Sunday at home.

Danoje

We're sorry for being so M.I.A. lately, its just been too nice to stay inside by the computer!
This past week was a very exciting time for our city, Gangneung. Each year, Gangneung hosts the Dano Festival which is a ritualistic event for the crop season. Traditionally, female shaman perform songs, chants, dances and exorcisms to cleanse the people and the earth.
The best part is that EPIK provided an all inclusive 2 day festival experience for EPIK teachers. I was allowed to leave early on Tuesday to meet up with other teachers downtown to see the tents, performances and parade. There were teachers from all over the place to come and see the festivities, which gave me a great feeling for this city that we live in.
We were allowed to take part in the parade which went through the streets of downtown. Each person in the parade had a colorful robe and held a lantern with a wish that you wrote out by hand and connected to the lantern. The parade ended by the river, where we sat our lanterns into the water and had our wishes carried off by the current. It was quite a sight!

Early the next day we went for a hike up a mountain that overlooked Gangnueng. We were able to see the whole city and the coast. On the mountain, there were a few shrines dedicated to the god figures in the stories related to Dano and also the mountain god. Many women were there as shaman to light candles and do ritualistic chanting in the mountains.
I was really happy to miss school, even though I love my kids, but sometimes its nice to get out and be outside on a beautiful day and see what your city has to offer. I think I also set a good example for the students on how you should take personal time/breaks for good mental health, right? haha!


Now the next thing in our horizon is Nathan's birthday party (paintball, white water rafting and homemade piñatas) and I'm considering getting Lasik surgery done next month. *Ee!*

Video News Project

A project that my students just finished was a Video News Project. The task was to create a short, informational video in English (e.g. news, how-to, commercial, etc.). This video is worth 20% of their English grade, and the top three videos will win their creators a pizza party.

I have posted the #1 video below. You'll notice some interesting things in the video, which are very reflective of Korean culture and their English woes:

1. You can hear the students shuffling around in their house slippers. Nobody wears shoes inside, not even at school.
2. There is almost a total lack of article use (i.e. a/an/the). Articles don't exist in the Korean language.
3. The students' inflection when speaking in English is totally off. They accent the wrong parts of words constantly. Inflection in languages around the world is very different. Korean, however, is not a tonal language like Chinese, they simply uses rises in different parts of words and sentences than in English.
4. The girls frame their faces by cutting their hair straight across the bangs and tapered inward from the temples to their chin. This gives the appearance of a tapered jawline, a characteristic of foreigners that the Koreans envy.



Aren't the kids great!??

Get It Right Korea!

slam time:

I'm loving my time here with my love, new friends, new environment, food and people. My time here has been spent well and I can't believe time has flown by so quickly. One year sounded so long, but its hard to believe we only have 4 more months left! 

On the other hand, we are very excited to get home.  We will finally be able to communicate with people around us. We won't feel as invisible and/or at the same time feel like we're being gawked at. When I ask for something, I'll know I'm getting what I asked for, oh yeah... and people will have washed their hands regularly throughout the day.

For example: My co teacher complained about how sick she was feeling. She had a fever the night before, a terrible cough and was losing her voice. She looked pretty bad, so she had decided to leave school early to take a rest. As she was describing her symptoms and coughing in her hand, she proceeded to stick her hands in my trail mix bag and dig around for ALL OF MY BANANA CHIPS. 

First of all, the banana chips are the best part. Secondly, I have never seen her wash her hands. Ever. So needless to say, I threw away my bag of trail mix and went on my day very hungry. 

Miscommunication is very common here in Korea. People tend to freak out if you try to speak English to them. Granted, I know that many people here do not speak English, which is fine! But if they would just get over the initial shock of not understanding and just look at me we could work things out. Body language and konglish (the mix of Korean and English) can go so far! 

For example : I went to go get my hair permed. I know I know. I couldn't help but hear my mother's voice saying: "Stephanie, you should really appreciate your natural hair. A lot of people pay good money for your curls!"

Well I had to perm my hair so it could grow out normally, and I showed the hair dresser what I wanted my hair to look like. 4 hours later, I came out looking like a hybrid between a cracked out poodle and a back-up dancer for a Madonna video. Needless to say I cried on my way home and just pinned it back . 

Please don't get me wrong, this trip has been great! It has helped me grow as an individual and also with my relationship with N8, but I cannot wait to get back to Pittsburgh! 

The Hills Are Alive

As the sun comes out, so do the people....

This weekend was a beautiful one! On Saturday I decided to ride over to the stadium with a few friends to see a Gangwon-do (provincial) soccer game. There was a good crowd in the stadium all chanting encouraging things to our team. The Gangwon-do soccer team color is bright orange which was quite a sight at the stadium. 

 

Afterwards I had to literally kick start the motorbike (which we have to do everytime, because we're that classy) to go meet Nate at the beach because he had gone for a long run as to prepare for a half marathon that he is running in the end of April. We were planning on staying at the beach for a while to read but it became very chilly so we headed home.

On Sunday we had our first Gangneung Sports Day! Quite a few people came out to Kwon Dong University to play kickball, Frisbee, catch and just to lounge around in the grass under the warm sky.  It was a nice change of pace! Later we all moved to the beach for a warm coffee.

 

Later that night we met up with some Korean friends and had a delicious oyster dinner.

First we ate some potato pancake with green onions, shrimp and fried oysters then shared some oyster dishes with rice and kimchi.  It was all so good. 

 

Spring has Sprung!

April has proven to be a good start on good weather and good moods! 

April Fools Day was a bust: I had planned to wake up late at night and paint N8's nails fire engine red and then sneak off to school early and take the nail polish remover with me...but my alarm clock failed me and it was a big flop. But I like pranks, so I just might keep my nail polish handy.

We celebrated Hai's birthday this weekend in Seoul. We went out for a performance called Nanta.  It is a non verbal, musical performance. It is very similar to STOMP and it is a family friendly show.  We enjoyed ourselves much more than we thought we would. Afterwards we went out to a Vietnamese restaurant, then to an underground Hukkha bar, then sang our little hearts out at noribong, AND THEN to an after hours night club. Most of our group, by this point, had disintegrated and we were left with 5 people in the group.  We entered the club around 3AM. I have never been in a place so crowded in my life. People were shoulder to

shoulder and jam packed near the DJ. The funny thing about Korea is that people here love pop music, but no one ever dances. Everyone 

was just bobbing up and down to the music and pushing their way through to go to the bathroom or to the bar. Our little group managed to shove our way to the upstairs where we'd hope there was more room, but we found ourselves stuck in the midst of a sea of people. I broke out into hysterical dance movements a

s to scare off people around me and make some room... surprisingly it worked! I kept flailing my arms and legs around to make sure people wouldn't want to get near me and we ended up with enough space to actually do some dancing. N8 and I had to finally call a quits around 5AM and headed back to our hostel. We were very happy to have all day sunday to relax and recharge for Monday's classes. 

As for Mondays...The cherry blossoms

are finally blooming and the city is looking very nice! N8 and I had a scheduled date after school to ride down to the lake, which is right next to the ocean, to take a stroll and check out the cherry blossoms. I can't help but think of my Dad and how much he likes to see these flowers.