So since I have nothing of real importance to report on right now (school went well last week, saw Transformers 2, ate food, cleaned my bathroom because my bathroom and everyone else's on my floor flooded, blah, blah lol), I thought I'd dedicate a post to the infamous Ajumma.

Primarily because I experienced two types of Ajumma this week.

What is an Ajumma you ask? You can easily spot one in Korea. Here is what you look for:

- A married older Korean woman, mainly 50+
- She will be wearing a HUGE sun visor hat on her head
- Colorful clothes (purple, pink, light blue, etc) that don't match
- The "Ajumma perm"
- She will literally run you down if you are in her way

Now this past week I experienced the most common type of Ajumma. I was getting ready to hop on the bus after coming from dinner, and right when I was about to get on, an Ajumma comes out of nowhere and basically elbows me in the side and pushes me out of the way.

Awesome.

Now, I have now problem letting just women in general go before me, but the problem was, I didn't see her. It's like she just materialized out of nowhere.

So the other day (Friday), I'm waiting on the bus to go to Suwon Station to buy some new gym shoes. An Ajumma comes on sits next to me while we are waiting on the bus and she begins to just casually have a conversation. She actually spoke some English, so she was able to ask me where I was from, where I lived, and what my job was here in Korea.

We got on the same bus and continued to talk until she got off before me. What was also funny is that while we were talking, some Korean kids were being loud in the back and right in the middle of our conversation, she turned back with this MEAN face on and they shut right up. She then proceeded to turn around back at me, smile, and begin talking again lol.

So I have just returned today from a 4 day GEPIK conference where all the waygooks who teach middle and high school Englishee, come and meet each other and learn tips for the classroom.

I actually learned quite a lot and I am going to use a lot of stuff in the classroom.

I was not looking forward to it at first, because I hate lectures. And my goodness one lecture was absolutely brutal. I'm sorry but I put my headphones on and even then it was a struggle. But my battery died lol. I just think the guy was too prepared for his lecture because it was good info, just presented in a way that didn't get everyone's attention.

I also met quite a few people from all over. And when I mean all over, I don't mean all over Korea, I mean everywhere in the world. South Africa, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Canada, and of course the USA.

I made some connections and got some numbers so yeah.

I didn't bring my camera for this, because...well I don't know why. Whatever lol.

Of course the pinnacle of every night was everyone getting beer and getting hammered. I didn't take part for obvious reasons which I have already explained on this blog, but I still decided to go down and talk with people. Of course not everyone was getting smashed but there were a few interesting characters.

One guy I started talking to would not let me leave. He went from talking about how he shows Al Bundy to his kids, to talking about starfish and South Carolina lol. OK buddy.

I also got a lot of questions, "Why don't you drink" many times. Again, I am not against drinking, I just don't do it very often. Christ says drunkeness is bad...just like with anything, overindulgence is bad for you. But surprisingly when I told them the reasons, why, they were like "cool".

I say surprisingly because usually this creates an avenue for christian bashing. I think one of the many reasons Christians get ridiculed is because we don't even pay attention to what Jesus said in this regard about judging outside of the church(in Matthew)..ANYWAYS, that's for another time and for my other blog lol.

So yeah I'm chillin right now before getting to sleep for the trip to Busan tomorrow. Enjoy a few pics from my trip to Seoul Tower and Banpo Bridge below. Cheers.

So what's up readers. Been a little bit since my last post, but I will try to post more and with more pics...promise ;)

So what has been up since the last time I've written. Well let's see, the two month mark of me being in Korea came on went on Tuesday. I tell ya, time flies. Lately I can actually picture myself being here a little longer than a year, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it. I'll never say I'll know what will happen because a year ago I wasn't planning on being here.

But I look at the whole situation, especially in Detroit, and I pose a question to myself as in "what is back there?" Don't get me wrong, I love my city and I love living there despite what some people ma think about the place, but there is really nothing going on there for me right now.

I really am not fond of graphic design as I have gravitated more towards my new passion, photography. I still love art and can admire good design, but it is too technical. You are always at the whim of whoever is your client. You can design something that you think is awesome, and the client will hate it. You can make changes to a design that you think suck, and the client will go bananas over it. Ugh.

Photography is my next goal.

So yeah, I figure if I stay here for a couple of years, I will have a job that I love, which gives me a lot of free time, allows me to save money, meet new people, and experience a new culture (learning a new language as well)

I do eventually plan on going back to the states, but maybe until my web business (which is actually picking up after building and catering to the foundation the past 2 years) and I have a plan for my business in photography.

But surprisingly I love my job. Some ex pats here hate it and are just passing through for the money, beer, free time, etc, but I enjoy teaching more than I thought I would've. Are there hard days? Of course. Some days my kids act like total monkeys (specifically 3 classes), but with teaching, it's something new everyday.

In the end I know God will lead me wherever I'm supposed to be.

And ah yeah...as for learning Korean, it's coming along well. Here are YOUR lessons for the day. You will learn Korean right with me.

안녕하세요 = ann-yeong-ha-se-yo = Hello/Goodbye

And that's it for today because I'm tired of trying to type in Korean on this keyboard. I will give you more lessons when I get some Korean key covers...or when I feel like copy and pasting lol.

So it's been awhile since my last post so just a brief summary of things going on with me in Korea since then:

- I'm getting settled in and into a nice routine now. I go to school, teach, then either come home or go out to dinner. Weekends are up for grabs as what I do changes from weekend to weekend.

- I've made a few more friends although in classic ISFP pattern, I still am reserved.

- Teaching is going well...in a sense. I seem to get frustrated at times because I have mixed level students and many times, the students do not understand what I'm saying, or they are just plain unmotivated (unless I play a game). But I do not want to be a lazy bum and just play games every class. I played one game last week for all the classes and they really enjoyed it and got them speaking. But when it comes to an actual lesson, they are reluctant to speak

- I have to prepare a demo lesson for next week

- I'm kind of still church searching. Somebody told me about another English church in Suwon I may check out. Me being reformed makes it difficult at times.

-One random thing I notice in my school is that Korean kids get injured a lot...or is it just me? It seems every week, a new kid has his hand or foot in a cast and when I ask them what happened, they say "fight" or "hit with baseball" or "or punched a wall"...wth

I'm like you guys need to be a little more careful.

- We had sports day at our school and it was pretty fun

Also a special hello to my grandma!! She doesn't have access to a computer, so my aunt prints off my blogs for her. So again, hello grandma and happy birthday to you!!!

I will try to keep more up to date like I was before.

ttyl