(Hafa Adai is similar to what the people in Hawaii say..Aloha)

Greetings from Guam, USA! I'm enjoying the second day of my short vacay to the island of Guam.

Just some brief facts about Guam:

- It is technically part of the US (a territory)...I've been using American money the whole time
- It was a major player in WW2
- It is beautiful
- It is the largest island of the Micronesian islands

So, why did I decide to come here for my vacation? Well, first the flights weren't that expensive, nor were the hotel rooms. Also considering it's part of the U.S., I wanted to get a taste of home (sort of) while at the same time enjoying some warm weather and nice beaches.

So, I will be back sometime during the weekend with some stories, updates and pics. Peace!!

OK, so I'm about 12 days late saying it, but Happy New Year everyone.

I thought I'd dust this thing off and tell you guys whats been happening over here in Korea the past couple of months.

So the end of 2009 was kind of weird. Thanksgiving was awesome. Spent is with some friends up in Pocheon and it felt just like home with turkey, greens, etc. So that was cool.

Christmas was weird because it was my first Christmas away from family of any kind. My very first away from home back in Detroit. I didn't do much on Christmas Day, but the day after, my friend had a dinner meetup for about 30 people at this Brazilian all you can eat place that served TONS of meat. Just ridiculous varieties of meat. Needless to say, I was pretty full.

Afterwads, they somehow managed to drag me to come club, where I'm sure I was a wet blanket sitting there not really enjoying myself. But hey, I'm not a club person. All the noise, lights...ugh. Absolute torture for an introvert like myself.

New Year's Eve was pretty chill. I just met up with a friend in Suwon and we had some Galbi then afterwards I headed over to his place to play some video games.

It seems that with the cold, I've been less prone to go out and do things. The winter is a very funny season. It's the season where most people get depressed, but I have a love hate relationship with it. I love the snow, but hate the cold. I hate the greyness and dreariness, but I love the reflective mode it puts me in.

Also one thing I notice is how much I like Korean or Asian architecture in general. People will say, and I'll be the first to admit it, that it's not pretty or anything, but it's something about the cluttered power lines, the close and narrow streets, and the small compact buildings that I like. Walking through the back alleys of Seoul and finding little restaurants and shops is pretty cool.

Oh and speaking of snow, we had the biggest snow in Korea since 1937 about a week ago. I estimate here it was around 6 or 7 inches. Not big by Michigan standards as I ahve seen much more in my life, but I'll take it.

Here are is a pic with some of my students (of course the girls hiding their faces again)



I'm still out and about as much as I can meeting people, but I just have to say this quickly...this single thing is getting pretty old and the more people I meet here, the more it gets worse well because it seems like EVERYONE is in a relationship. I'm always like the 5th or 7th wheel (if that makes any sense). I would've gone skating on New Year's Eve, but it was ALL couples! No thank you...I'm good.

So, for the next two weeks, I am on vacation. I have 3 weeks total, so I'm going to use the last week in February on the week of my birthday. So this week, I'm chillin. On the 19th, I'm headed to Guam for five days to get a break from this cold. I can't wait.

Also, the thought of renewal is coming up. Wow that was fast. Didn't I just get here? Has a year really almost gone by? Well, I'm leaning towards staying another year as it seems like the best option for me right now. Still not 100% sure, but we'll see.

Anyways, peace for now.

I just wanted to make a post to say updates are coming soon....and to just say I made a post for the month of November lol. Be back later.

So it's been awhile since my last post. I can't believe it's been six months since I've been here. In this short time I feel like I've grown a lot and still have some growing to do as well.

I read another post by another teacher who's also been here six months and I felt the same about a lot of what he was saying. That first night coming into my apartment like "what was I thinking?", getting adjusted to everything, to now where I'm very well adjusted and feel like I'm in a real nice routine and groove.

I've also become a bit more outgoing even my INFP nature. I regularly try to go out and meet people who have the same interest in things I do. Though I still seem to have a problem with the "follow up"...meaning I meet a lot of people but I am totally lacksadsical and lazy about making plans with them, which is why throughout my life I usually just have a few close friends I hangout with. I usually just wait for people to call me or something which I have gotten better at changing since I've been here.

I am also really taking a look at my future plans I wrote at the beginning and a couple of years ago and seeing how I can accomplish those. I like teaching for the time being, but I def. don't see myself here for more than two years (though I know how life goes...never say never). I do plan on renewing my contract if possible or if not possible, just finding another school.

I also don't want to go back to school, because frankly I don't like it. I graduated in graphic design, but I don't like that anymore either. I know I want to do something within the art field, as I am also focusing on photography now. I also have been working on a small business website that has done well considering it's only two years old. I hope for that to grow even more and that will be incorporated into my plans as well.

So I'm pleased with the growth I've had since I've here, but also realize there is still much more room to grow. Being young is great :)

So here's to the next six months...the third quarter.

Hmm what else. I have been traveling a bit around Seoul and to some cities outside of Seoul. I went on my second hike to a city called Chuncheon. That was a great hike as the view was spectacular...the most spectacular I've ever seen. I'm not a hiking person, but it's something to do every now and then...though I don't plan on doing in the winter because I hate the cold.

I've also been to more places around Seoul with my friend Wu. I really like the Insadong District since I like art. There are some galleries I want to check out there.

My Korean is...ugh. I'm not satisfied. I feel like I'm making no progress at all. I still can only make a few words when I hear Koreans speak. They talk so fast.

I've also been pretty active on meetup.com meeting people from all over. This one movie/dinner meetup had me, someone from Indonesia, Russia (this was weird because she was korean, born in Russia, and had a Russian accent to her English), America, Canada, and Korea. I even went to a meetup where I played some Monopoly with some Koreans in which I found that rules are slightly...different lol.

So next post I will talk about some of the lessons I've used. Some other teachers have asked for some ideas so I don't mind helping out at all because it is hard trying to come up with a lesson that the kids will enjoy while at the same time having them actually learn something.

Peace yall.

So this week is coming to a close and has been going pretty well. The lesson for this week was a game called "Alphabet Soup".

Basically I printed out a sheet of paper with all the alphabets on them. Then I cut all the letters out individually and put them into a bag. I split the class into four teams, and then one team at a time, I pull out a letter randomly from the bag. The object of the game is to create a sentence with as many words starting with that letter as possible.

So for example, I pull out the letter "M", I could come up with something like "My monkey made me eat mangos at the market on Monday morning." So there are 8 words starting with "M" and that team gets 8 points.

This game really showed how creative many of my students could be. Pulling out the letter "X" always invoked creative responses such as "We watched X-men on X-mas while playing the xylophone and we ate xylitol (a gum) after getting an x-ray."

So teachers out there, this is a good game to play to get the kid's imagination going and also recall their vocabulary. If you want to go through the alphabet, it will definitely take up a whole 40-45 minutes. (Also give teams a time limit of say 30 seconds to start saying their sentence...maybe a little extra time to finish their sentence and add on stuff)

Anyways, I thought I'd make a post about my top five foods in Korea so here it goes:

5. Tak Tori Tang

Tak ToriTang is basically chicken braised (spicy) with potatoes and some kind of noddles that I forgot the name of.

4. Kimbap

You can't come to Korea without knowing about Kimbap. It's one of the most popular foods for Koreans and foreigners alike because it's cheap and it's fast...hmm that didn't come out right...it sounds like I'm talking about a quick trip into a red light district.

What I mean is that it's low in price and it's very fast to make. I get it maybe one or two times a week and get about 3 sticks at a time. It consists of ham/tuna/insert other meat here, veggies, and rice wrapped in seawood.

3. Jajamyeong

This is another favorite and even though they sell it in "Chinese restaurants" it cannot be found in China at all. Kind of like Chinese food in America. It's a type of noodle covered in a black sauce with a bit of meat and veggies as well.

2. Donkasu and Curry

This is basically a type of pork mixed in with Curry and rice. Pretty simple meal that I could actually make myself. I eat this once or twice a week.

1. Galbi aka Korean BBQ

This is my favorite dish and it's usually eaten with a large group of people. It can be beef, chicken, pork, cooked directly in front of you and then eaten wrapped in lettuce (maybe with some sauce on top) and not very healthy but oh so good.

Cheers everyone.

So it's been awhile since my last post. I figured I should make a post for the month of August.

So...

Summer break started at the end of July for the kids and most teachers but I only got one week off. In our contract, when school is not in session, our school can have us teach summer/winter camps and conversational classes in the morning. We get four weeks of vacation a year so it's up to you how you want to use them.

I opted to only take one week off for the summer and save my 3 weeks for the winter.

So during the summer break I had 6 days of summer camps in the morning and then 2 weeks of conversational classes the week after. The good thing was that they ended at around 11 am everyday. The bad thing was I had to sit at school for the rest of the day (until 430) for reasons unbeknownst to me. A few teacher friends said during the winter, try to ask if I can get to stay home for those hours instead of sitting there and accepting it.

The camps went well and the conversational classes for the most part. The conversational classes had four trouble makers that just could not be quiet or sit down so I had to constantly separate them or call the VP in.

For my one week break, I wanted to try to head to Jeju Island, but there were no hotel rooms so that was a no go. So what did I do during this time?

Well the Friday I got off, I went on a midnight hike up Mt. Gwanaksan. Yes a friggin midnight hike. Never thought I would be doing one of those but it was fun on reaching the top of that mountain and seeing the sunrise was so worth it. I was however so wiped out the next day. Even with me being wiped out, I decided to head to Seoul Tower with my friends Khiana and Leonard (and their adorable daughter). I had been wanting to go there for sometime and actually it was just ok.






Monday of my break week, I decided to head to Olympic Park and take some pictures. For the rest of the week I chilled out until Friday when my coteacher took me to Daecheon. It was a nice little town on the west coast and it was my first time actually seeing the country side of Korea. I wouldn't mind going there again.

Then on Saturday I headed to an art meetup group (even though I was late and left early lol). I love the art meetup groups because I like meeting other people who like art. It's been crazy trying to find some art minded people here.

Sunday I went to another meetup group, but this time to see a Korean movie about the Korean ski jumpers in the Olympics. It had English subtitles and was a pretty good movie.

So that ended my short vacation and even though I was sad it was over, I was sort of looking forward to get back in the swing of things.

I just finished the first week back from vacation and it went pretty well.

I didn't do much this weekend except help my coteacher with some English things and then she took me out to have some raw fish. Definitely not the first time I had raw fish, but it actually tasted pretty good although I can't remember the name of it.

So anyways, I'm working on saving money for a trip to Thailand and Japan in the winter. Even with my school loan payment, I should be able to save quite a bit of money. I also have another website which brings in some extra adsense money so I think the trip will happen.

Enjoy the pics.