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.

So the end of July is upon us. Summer is going by so fast and soon the cold wind of winter will be here before you know it.

So let's see lately things have been cool. I've done a lot of eating so to speak. Trying different foods and restaurants. My friend Wu took me to this Turkish restaurant in Suwon a few weeks ago. It was my first time having Turkish food and I enjoyed it and will be heading back there again.

The same guy also told me about a birthday celebration for someone at a thai restaurant. It was my first time trying thai food as well and that was good. It's a shame all the different restaurants around my area and I haven't been to none of them. When I get back home, I will be trying Arab food, Thai again, Japanese, etc, and find me a Korean restaurant to go to in the city.

Hmm let's see what else..I tried a food called Tak Toritang which is spicy chicken boiled or something with potatoes, peppers, and noodles. I had this while eating with some of my friends up in the Pocheon area. One of them Joe, had his sister visiting for two or three weeks and that was her last night there so we all had a going away dinner.

I've been looking for people that are into the arts to hang out with and I went to this art gallery with some people I found on meetup.com.

Cool people and one of the ladies there reminded me EXACTLY of my senior thesis teacher back at HU. Only she is like a white version of her. My friends know that I am talking about Dr. Bontemps.

Anyways I exchanged numbers with some people, I even met a guy from France and a woman who works as a translator..she speaks English, Korean, and French.

Gives me inspiration. Ultimately I want to speak Korean, Spanish, French, and Japanese. Hard task? Sure...but it can be done. Maybe not by the time I'm 30, but it can lol.

My Korean is coming along fine. I am starting to pick up words from the Koreans around me and I watch Korean television. It is also good to watch the American shows and put the show on mute and try to read the Korean subtitles. I know how to read the Korean language (with all the symbols and whatnot), I just don't know what it means. My coteacher is helping me, and I am also learning from a website. I hope to be at least 75% fluent by the time I leave here which means I'm gonna have to pick it up.

In the personal life so to speak, I'm finding out a lot about myself.

For starters, it seems that no matter where I go, I come off as stuckup, arrogant, depressed, etc to a lot of people. This is because I don't usually talk a lot when I meet people (other than the introductions and telling about yourself of course), especially if we just have nothing to talk about. Usually people can talk for hours about NOTHING...meaning small talk which my close friends know I can't stand.

But it's hilarious because I can read it right when I meet people. I don't know what I say, but most people I always get this confused look when people talk to me. And one thing about me that I didn't realize is that I can read people VERY well. I really started noticing it when I got here and I started looking back on things in my life. I can usually tell what type of person someone is within five minutes of meeting and talking to them.

When I meet someone or when anyone meets anyone it's like ok, what's your name, where are you from, what do you do, how do you like it in Korea, what made you come here, etc, etc...after that, if we have nothing in common, I'm pretty much content to sit there and let you talk while I put my input in here and there. Although I only do this if the person seems like they just want to talk. If not, I will try to keep the conversation going.

Many people (several here in Korea) have taken this the wrong way and I get the "what's wrong with you" foolishness. It literally pisses me off although I don't show it. I realized this my whole life and at times I would try to "Talk more" with people, but they can instantly see through the fakeness so I just be myself and I get the other reactions stated above.

So basically I say eff it because I'm screwed either way, and just do me. You can't please everyone all the time and I'm content to have a few good friends who understand me and accept me for me, than try to be fake for people just to please them.

People might say I don't like talking...well that's true to an extent. Like I said, if you bring up something of interest, I will talk all day. And even if you don't bring up something I'm interested in, I will listen to you because I like listening more than talking.

The funny thing is, I said I confuse people, well I confuse myself the most so maybe this whole tirade is pretty pointless. Hmmm.....

As for classes, my summer camps are going pretty well. I have one more day then I start the conversational classes, and then I get a week off. Not sure if I'm going anywhere yet (it would be in Korea). I definitely want to go to Thailand in the winter or Guam...yes I said Guam.

That's it for now. Sorry again for the late update folks.

And oh yeah ehre is some Kpop for you guys...I personally like very few songs. I like Korean music, but my taste is pretty similar here to what it was in America. I dislikes mainstream and go for the less known artists.

So 3 months in...Somebody else said this and I like to think of it this way as well. Break the year up into 4 quarters like a game. I've just finished the first quarter and now it's time for the second.

So what has happened since my last post? Well this past week, I finally got sick for the first time over here and I'm still recovering. It was nothing but a sore throat and a cold, but I'm still coughing and dealing with sinuses. I hate sore throats and I use cayenne pepper powder all the time mixed with warm water to gargle and get rid of it quicker. It works although it tastes awful and I hate it everytime I do it. I hate the sore throat more though.

Also right when my sore throat went away, I went to the Noraebang (karaoke room) for the first time here in Korea. The singing room might as well be a pastime for Koreans here. I went with about 10 friends about 2 hours away from me.

We went bowling first for about 2 hours, then headed to the singing room at about 1130 or so. I kid you not we stayed in there singing songs until 5 AM. I only sang about 5 songs even though I'm a little shy when it comes to that stuff, but everybody wanted to hear me sing. I guess because with my laidback personality, they couldn't really picture it. After I was done singing, two people in particular just had all this energy out of nowhere and they were singing their behinds off. I decided to lay down and just watch the rest of the way and be amused.

Afterwards, since the two hour trip back would've been brutal with no rest, some friends let me stay at their place because they had an extra bed. So I rested there for about 4 hours, although it was hard at first because with me still with a slight cold, my sinuses were horrible and I could barely breathe.

After I woke up, I headed back home and just rested for the rest of the weekend, because it felt like I was trying to get the cold back.

Teaching has had its ups and downs lately. Sometimes I get frustrated when some of the kids don't even make an attempt at the lesson I'm trying to teach.

For example, I did a lesson on occupations last week with things such as "I am a pilot and I fly airplanes" or "I am a comedian and I make people laugh" or my favorite, "I am a hobo, and I do nothing".

So afterwards, I would ask the kids to write down what their dream job would be IN ONE SHORT SENTENCE. Some students when called on said they did not have a dream. They didn't do they absurdly easy assignment so I said "Fine, I guess you will be a hobo then..congratulations!"

The other kids would always get a laugh out of that.

I also ripped off a game that I read from another blog called monkeys eat bananas to play with the kids after the dream job. I would have the class divided into teams and present each team with a slide of one of the occupations we just went over. Only this time I would leave the answer blank and the team would have to guess. Once they guess correctly, they would get to roll this makeshift dice that I made out of cardboard. On the six sides, I had 1 banana, 2 bananas, 6 bananas, 1 monkey, 2 monkeys, and 6 monkeys. Bananas are points and monkeys mean you lose points. Each team starts with 3 bananas.

The teams could also chose to roll for another team to try to get them to lose points. It was so funny watching other team trying to knock teams out with more points, only to see them roll 6 bananas and give them even more points.

If any teachers are reading, this is an awesome game to use as a review for 15 or 20 minutes. It gets the kids speaking (because I make them say the whole sentence when they answer) and they have fun. I also rewarded the winning teams with candy.

This is my last week before summer vacation, although starting next week I'll be doing summer camps and then the third week in August, I get a full week off. I wanted to travel somewhere, but I'm choosing to save money for the time being and will travel somewhere warm in the winter.

So that's it for now. I will keep trying to update more. Hello grandma!! :)

Later.

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

So I just realized this week that is has been one month since I've been in Korea. Time really flies. It doesn't even feel like I've been here that long. This means I should really enjoy my time here and try not to complain about minor things.

So this past week was pretty good. My Korean lessons with one of my co teachers is going great. I'm learning phrases like how to say "please pass the water" and "nice to meet you". I'm using a children's book...and don't laugh!! Children's books are one of the best ways to learn a language. Think about how you learned English.

On Friday it was Teacher's Day and I will post some pics of that later. The kids had a nice little ceremony for the teachers and then after school was done, the teachers played kickball. It really brought back memories of being younger lol. After the game, the teachers went out to dinner and we had duck. At first when one of the teachers told me what we were going to eat, I thought she said dog, but her pronounciation of duck was just funny haha.

It was my first time eating duck and it was pretty good. It was on the grill along with some other foods I can't pronounce. I also got paid for the first time on Friday woohoo!!

Saturday it rained alllllllllllllllllllllllll day long...and even all day long is an understatement.

I wanted to head up to Yongsan and get a new lens and tripod for my camera. I went Friday after the dinner but by the time I got there, it was closed. I needed to get a new tripod because the one I bought for about 10,000 won was so cheap and it broke this week. Like 4 pieces just fell off.

So this time I headed to Yongsan and bought a better tripod that cost 65,000 won and also bought a new lens and bag. Altogether it cost 250,000 won.

After I bought my new toys, I called up my friend Leonard who was in Itaewon getting a haricut there. I went up to meet him and we walked around there after his haricut for awhile and then met up with some other friends at On the Border Mexican restaurant. One of the people there was actually from Dearborn. So we talked for a bit more and then we both headed our separate ways back home.

Today, I went to the Multicultural Festival in my town. My church was there selling hot dogs. There were raffles, talent shows, and plenty of food to go around. I tried some kind of Vietnamese Noodle Soup with beef which was pretty good. I stayed for about two hours and then left and took a nap. The day started off rainy and cloudy but then the sun came out.

So now I'm sitting here watching Spiderman 3. I finished my lesson planning, and it's time to get ready for the new week. Until next time readers...

So another interesting week and weekend. Teaching was very good for the short 3 day week. The kids really seem to be less shy, and they are talking a bit more. It is interesting to see how each class differentiates from each other. One class is very upbeat and excited to talk (along with your class clowns..not too bad though lol), then another class is just sooooo quiet and it's more difficult to get them to speak. I don't want to talk for 45 minutes because first of all, it will bore them, and second, I know they can't understand a lot of what I say if I speak too long. The second graders (which would be the 8th grade in America) are more energetic but the 3rd graders (9th grade in America) are overall almost into that teenage stage where they just don't care. I don't teach the first graders.

I also on Wednesday started my after school conversational class. This one follows a book, so really no lesson planning for this one.

So Thursday was cool opened my bank account, and then Friday, I made plans with the friends I made last weekend to go to the movies. Now this is a long story of my weekend.

So they live in a town called Pocheon and one of them also lives in a town called Uijeongbu (where we were all meeting). Now these places are about 2 hours away from me on the subway. So after I got off from school on Friday, I came back to my apartment to change real fast and then I proceeded to take a cab to Suwon Station. I then got on the subway and got on the line 1 train. What was good about the trip was that I didn't have to make any transfers. The line goes straight to Uijeongbu.

So the two hours pass and I finally make it to meet everybody. Since I was a little late, we were gonna have to see the X-Men movie at around 10. This presented a problem for me because the subways stop running at midnight and seeing as how I just took two hours to get there, I was dreading the fact that I may have to turn right back around to get back before 12. Fortunately, my friend Joe said I could crash at his place until the buses and subways started running again at 5:30 AM.

So before the movie started, we all played some games at this place called Amusing World. This place has literally everything. Food, shops, arcade, DVD Rooms, PC Rooms, and Noribongs (karaoke). I didn't get to do karaoke this time but I know that time will come soon lol.

So after the games, one group of us split off to see the movie, while the other three went to the DVD Room to watch some Korean movie which they said was crazy. I think they kind of just randomly picked it, but it turned out to be some serial killer movie where a pimp kept losing his "workers", or something to a serial killer....ummm yeah lol. Craziness.

The Wolverine movie was good and it was better than expected. The next movie I want to see is the Star Trek movie and TRANSFORMERS...can't wait until that comes out. One thing about watching American movies in Korea is that the Koreans will not understand the jokes sometimes, so when we foreigners laugh at the jokes, they look at us like what is so funny LOL.

So anyways after the movie, we all meet back up to go home. One of the guys, Leonard, invited me and Joe to play some video games on the 360m so after playing that for awhile, it was about 330 in the morning....hunger has set in and we set out on a mission to find chicken...mission fails, so we find a Chinese food place which in my opinion was delicious. Definitely different than "Chinese food" back in the states.

So after we eat, it's about 430. Leonard doesn't eat pork, so he was still on a mission to find the chicken (the Chinese place had no chicken surprisingly) So me and Joe went to his place so I could get a quick nap. I really didn't sleep and I was headed out at around 515 am.

So...I take the bus back to Uijeongbu from Pocheon, get on the subway. Thinking it's a nice two hour ride, I'm tired, and promptly fall asleep on the subway. I wake up, and realized I've severely passed my stop lol. I get off, go to the other side to catch the train back, fall asleep and miss my stop again....GRSSHH.

I finally get it right and after 3 hours, I arrive back in Suwon. Oh but the day is not over. I made a commitment to go to the Ceramics Festival with my church (and I had paid already). So I headed to the church running a low sleep. I decided to try coffee for the first time ever in my life...I think it's nasty and never again.

So I get on the bus and wait for everybody to arrive and I am just completely out of it and I just fell asleep once we started rolling to Ichon for the festival. Before we got to the festival, we stopped for Korean food and I was still out of it and all I wanted to eat was some but the Koreans kept trying to give me Korean food that I had tried and already did not like, so I said I was tired and they assumed that's why I didn't want to eat, which was true. Also I'm pretty sure that people thought I was some kind of rude anti social prick, because I wasn't saying much. But I literally felt like I was going to tip over. I really thought I was going to start hallucinating at any moment lol. So everybody was just trying to start conversations and I just was not feeling it. Any other time I would've been fine.

So after they eat, we head to the festival, I'm still struggling, so I had planned to leave early. We all went to see a 10 minute presentation about the festival, but I can't even remember what was said. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. Next we head out to see some of the art work, and it really was beautiful and I love art, but my tiredness just killed all that and I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted and I was ready to be out. I said my goodbyes and headed to the bus terminal...so I thought.

The shuttle bus took me nowhere near the bus terminal and I was walking around for about 45 minutes trying to hail cabs and looking for the bus terminal to no avail. The tiredness just made things even worse. So I finally found a police station and managed to say enough Korean (I know how to say bus and station in Korean and I think terminal is the same) So the police officer told me and luckily a cab driver was right at the station so he said he would take me. So I finally arrived at the terminal, bought my ticket to Suwon, waited for the bus, got on and headed to Suwon.

I made it to Suwon, now with a severe headache from no sleep (couldn't sleep on the bus) took a cab back to my place even though it was more expensive than the city bus. I just wanted to get home.

I FINALLY get home, take some aspirin and just jump in the bed and sleep.

Surprisingly I only slept 3 hours. I got up and got some Papa John's pizza and then went back to bed again.

I didn't go to church today because I was still tired, but later on I met up with someone I had talked with on mylanguageexchange who was a very nice person. She is Korean and was in the states for awhile but is back in Korea studying at university. We talked for about 3 hours, I showed her pictures of Detroit on my camera, we talked about differences in American food, culture, etc. It was fun. So we're gonna hang out again because her weeks are usually free and I still have yet to find good friends that are not into drinking every night here in Suwon. I've met a lot of people here in Suwon, but they either live too far, we don't have the same interests, or they don't seem to want to do anything on the weekdays.

All the people I seem to click with live in Uijeongbu and Pocheon which are two hours away and what's ironic is that I was supposed to be placed in Uijeongbu at a school, but my papers took too long so I came to Suwon. Life is funny.

So it's Sunday and another week begins. I talked with my mom on Skype for the first time and it's Mother's Day! We had a good talk and she was so happy to talk and see me (via webcam)

So Happy Mother's Day to all the eo-meo-nis out there (Mother in Korean 어머니) Until next time readers, see ya.

So this past weekend was actually a four day weekend. I was happy to get some extra days of. I realize that I'm going to have to cultivate my own teaching style. Hopefully by the month mark I will have something I'm confident in. The other teachers have been saying I'm doing a good job but I feel like I'm not. The biggest thing for me is lesson planning. I'm not an organized person so I usually just "go out there" in many things I do and either wait until the last minute or freestyle. It works a lot of times (and worked in college many time), but it's not good practice and it's something I'm trying to get out of. So I've been lesson planning ahead of time and putting them in Word documents in order with time blocks. My co-teacher actually made me do this which is a good thing.

So anyways back to this past weekend.

Friday: I didn't do too much except for catch up on some tv shows. Particularly the final 2 episodes of Heroes for this season and the last four "The Office" episodes. I just download them from sites and watch them back to back.

Saturday: I was supposed to get up and go to Costco at 9am with some people from the church but clearly I watched my tv shows until about 2 am and knew I wouldn't feel like getting up so I had to cancel. I also had taken 3 Benadryls (is that safe lol) on Friday night because my allergies are HORRIBLE. I'm allergic to some type of plant here.

So the rest of my Saturday was spent chilling and getting ready for the dinner that teacheslkorea.com was having for the teachers that they helped get to Korea. It was at 6 and I had to take the subway and despite getting lost a few times I managed to make it to the place where they were meeting.

On my way there I met a guy named Jered whose blog I have been following for some time about how teaching in Korea was like and also met his friends Khiana and Leonard. Finally some black people to talk to in Korea!! lol.

So we get there and I meet some more friends of theirs, also black, who went with the same recruiting company. We talked for awhile getting to know each other and when everybody had met up at the place, we then walked over (about 40 people or so) to a Galbi place.

Galbi is a type of Korean cuisine in which types of meat such as beef and ribs are grilled and you can put the meat in sauce. It was an indian style restaurant with the food cooked right in front of you (you and your friends are the ones who have to flip and cook the meat) It was fun and it was delicious. I took some pictures which are below and it was good to sit and eat and get to know new people.

Afterwards many people were headed to a fruit soju bar, but of course I wasn't interested and I had to get back on the subway before they stopped running unless I wanted to stay in Seoul until 7am.

So I headed back and got off on the last subway and had to take a cab back home because the buses stopped running. And boy on my way out of the subway there were quite a few drunk Koreans wandering around lol.

Also the people I met on the way to the dinner I told you about invited me to come with them to Everland Amusement Park on Sunday.

Sunday: Went to Church at one. I'm glad the service starts at one because it means I get two days of good rest and not having to get up at 7:30 AM.

Afterwards, I proceeded to catch the bus to Everland. They were already there but I made it there at around 4. I didn't plan on riding any rides because I wasn't in the mood for rollercoasters. Everybody else was geeked to ride them but in the end a lot of people didn't because of the ridiculous long lines...we're talking 3 hours for one ride. Me, the guy Leonard, and another friend of theirs I met Joe, ended up playing some arcade games and we headed through this animal zoo thingamajig...I can't remember the exact name lol. Anyways, only in Korea would you find hyennas, lion cubs, and CHEETAHS in glass boxes. The funny thing about the cheetahs is that they had National Geographic playing in the background of their nice little box, as if they were being educated. At best they were seeing what real Cheetahs got to do when they weren't captured by humans.

All in all it was a fun day being there and hanging around and meeting more great people. Unfortunately everybody lives north of me (about 45 minutes or so) so everybody was on one bus back, and I was the only one that had to take another bus lol. It was cool though...give me my ipod and I'm cool.

So I got back and relaxed and got a nice rest.

Monday: Now me being the introvert I am, I enjoy hanging around people, but I had to use most of this day to "Recharge" so to speak. People think introverts don't like hanging around people when it's really we get our energy from being alone. Once we're alone for a period of time to "recharge" hanging out with people is no problem. But once we hangout again, we get drained again and may kind of "check out" and people may wonder what's wrong with us lol.

Anyways I slept in and then took a five minute bus ride to get my Alien Registration Card. It didn't take long and I was back home within a half hour.

Later on at 6:30pm, I met up with a friend from church who is Korean. He's in University and it was just a hey I'm bored let's get something to eat type of thing. He also said he'd call and let me know when his friends were playing pool.

Tuesday: I didn't plan on doing anything, but decided to head to Coex Mall in Seoul for a few hours to see if I could find any CDs by Toko Furuuchi who is a japanese artist. I've been looking for them so I won't have to order from Amazon, but it looks like I will have to. I didn't find any so I took some pictures and then headed back on home.

So that was my 4 day weekend. I forgot to mention I also washed clothes for the first time and not having a drier is really annoying. I have to hang my clothes to dry and it takes at least a day and a half to dry.

I get to open my bank account tomorrow and I get paid on the 15th yeehaw.

Also I'm expecting a deposit from my website that I've been working on for awhile. It looks like things may be starting to "snowball". It's coming up on the two year mark for the site and I need to figure out how to get my MAC configured so I can keep updating it because traffic to it is really starting to jump.

So pictures are below and click here for my flickr account for the more "artsy" pictures that I don't want to upload to facebook because they say they own all pictures on there.

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This has become my favorite show in Korea (in English it translate to Infinity Challenge). Luckily I found English subbed verison of many episodes on youtube. I find it hilarious. The contestants are famous comedians in Korea and the show's premise is basically them completing random missions and the first to do so wins some type of prize.

So some updates. I don't think this post will have one common subject. It will kind of be all over the place lol.

First some random observations since being here:

1. If you ever come to Korea and want to get a driver's license, you need to take the test, and then forget everything on the test because that's what the Koreans do. I thought Michigan drivers were bad...here, running red lights is common, nearly running over pedestrians, riding motorcycles on the sidewalk, and constant lane changing (way worse than what people do in the states) is how you drive here. I don't think I could survive the streets here.

2. I see a lot of baseball caps here and surprisingly it's mainly Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Son, and New York Yankees (for obvious reasons). I don't know how the Tigers became popular here.

3. When on the subway, you better learn how to be a pushy person or you will get rundown.

4. I like how whenever you enter a restaurant or place of service, they are really their to serve you, unlike the states, they say hi with a smile on their faces and a goodbye with a smile.

So the previous weekend was pretty boring. It rained and was kind of cold all weekend so I really didn't go out except to buy a few things from the grocery store. I went to church again Sunday and met a Korea there who is in school so we are going to try to hang out on Friday.

I have a pretty easy week into next Wednesday. Students have had midterms since Tuesday and will be over Thursday. I'll be back to teaching on Friday and then on Monday and Tuesday I have days off because of school holidays.

On Saturday some people from the church are riding to Costco....yes there is a Costco in Korea!! I don't have a membership though so it's pointless. I'll still go just to get out.

Then later on Saturday the recruiter that got me my teaching job here is having a dinner for all the people they've helped get here....and they are paying for dinner so DEFINITELY cannot miss that. Sunday I'm supposed to meet someone who's going to help me with Korean and I'm going to help them with English. Pretty cool.

Today since I got off school early, I decided to head to Itaewon to get my hair cut. The shop was located in a small community of Africans and I'm just trying to figure out what made them come to Korea...then again they could ask me the same thing. They gave me a real nice cut and I hope they don't go anywhere because that is the only place where a brotha can get a good haricut right now.

Afterwards I found a KFC and a Coldstone...yes COLDSTONE...I devoured some great chocolate ice cream.

Speaking of food, that is what I love about my apartment is that it is part of a little "town" so to speak. That is popular here. They build "officetels" and surround them with shops and restaurants. So I basically have everything I need right at the bottom of my apartment. I've found several favorite restaurants and there is even a grocery store in my building. A Dunkin Donuts opened up yesterday and there is also a Papa John's not too far away. Basically I have my choice of fast food, Korea food, Japanese, American, etc within 2 minutes walking distance. And the food is so cheap.

Also, I believe that within 30 years, a lot of Koreans will be dealing with the same health problems many Americans are dealing with and overweight issues. Asians in general are known for being smaller and slimmer than westerners (not all of course), but with all the Western restaurants coming here, mainly catering to the younger generation, it's only a matter of time.

One more thing...WHEREVER I GO, I always seem to live enxt to someone who is just stomping on the floor and bumping around their apartment for now apparent reason. In college I had neighbors and people above me who just stomped on the floor. Back home in Detroit, the same thing only people were slamming doors and bangning and walls with loud music. Now here, I am next to someone who does some type of exercise where he is stomping on the floor. He was doing the exercise late one night and I asked him could he quiet down and he did, but now lately he's started up again only earlier. I mean really...I think sooner or later I'm just going to have to find a place to live in that is not attached to anyone...in other words A HOUSE. I can't wait to buy a house....a house with 100 yards of open space all around it...yes that sounds nice.

So that's basically it for now. God bless.

So earlier in the week, one of the male teachers invited me to play soccer with them against another middle school.

*Sidenote...when talking about invited here in Korea many times it may mean it is imperative that you go, or they insist that you go...aka if you don't go, will will be angry lol...I assume it's seen as disrespect*

Now I have poor stamina so I was not looking forward to it. I hadn't played soccer (at least a full game) since elementary school and it's not something I'm good at. Nonetheless I went with it raining and all and I actually had fun. I was out of breath and I missed the ball several times when I went to kick it, but all they cared about was if I was enjoying it. The teacher that invited me who is very nice kept saying "just enjoy...enjoy!!" So I did. They understood that I had never really played and soccer is very popular here.

So afterwards, they tol...ahem invited me to come to dinner with them. We went to some kind of seafood place and again I was wondering what type of food I was going to be trying today. I learned it was a type of stew or soup with octopus, veggies, and what my teacher friend described as "fish stomach" (can't remember the korean name)...At first I was like hold up, but then I thought about it, a lot of my african american counterparts back in the states eat chitterlings (CHITLINS LOL), pig feet, and the like and they smell way worse than what I was smelling at the restaurant. (Oh yeah at the restaurant you sit indian style which I'm sort of used to because I did it all the time as a kid)

So after they brought the soup out, I tried it and it wasn't bad. It was actually quite good with this sauce that they had. This is a big feat for me considering my picky taste buds. I also ate a type of dried seaweed that was salted and wrapped it around rice which was pretty good. I tried the octopus but couldn't roll with that. It was rubbery and I didn't like the taste. I also tried a fish egg lol. It was so so. Later one they also brought out a type of fried potato which tasted like hash browns to me so I tore that up.

So the fun part comes in with the alcohol. Now me being a christian I try to stay away from alcohol. As a matter of fact, I don't think drinking a beer or something every now and then is a sin, but getting drunk is the problem...overindulgence. So part of the culture here in Korea, especially among co workers and bosses is drinking the shoujo, Korea's famous liquor (kind of like saki in Japan). So I tried just a bit and it was very strong. Also in Korea, you don't pour your own drinks. When your glass is empty, you ask someone to pour you more (while holding two hands) and vice versa. So people kept trying to fill my glass, but thankfully my teacher friend told them I was a christian and as a matter of fact another teacher there was a christian as well so many understood and backed off. Too bad I couldn't speak korean because we could have some good conversations. I ended up drinking a few more shots because the principal was very thankful for me being at his school and said I was doing a good job, and that was it. Not nearly enough to get drunk and I spent the rest of the time drinking Fanta pop lol. My teacher friend said that this is the part of his culture that he doesn't like lol.

So after that, it was time to leave and by this time, the principal and other school bosses were drunk and tried to get me to come with them for more!! You kiddin me??!! LOL.

My teacher friend and I slipped away and he dropped me off at my apartment. I am so tired right now and I am going to rest for the rest of the night. Tomorrow I have to wash clothes and clean my apartment for the first time and then head off to Seoul to see a play of some sort preaching against violence against women. Then off to church on Sunday.

So until next time...1

Here is a video at hall passing time so you can see what my school is like. One thing you will notice about one minute or so into the video is that korean kids (specifically the boys) are always beating the crap out of each other (in a playful way)...I've heard this from teachers at other schools as well. It's quite hilarious.

So today was my first day with a class all by myself. There was a co teacher still in the room, but the class was in my hands. Since it was my first day, one of the other co teachers thought it would be a good idea to do a powerpoint about myself, where I'm from, etc. This was a good idea, only I wish I'd made the plan longer. Classes are 45 minutes and I got to 30 minutes with 15 left and the coteacher had to bail me out and we came up with something for them to do for the last 15 minutes.

Basically I did the presentation, and had them answer questions about it. I wanted to get them to use complete sentences and they did. I also gave prizes (American quarters...you'd be surprised at how excited they were to receive american money) and then me and the coteacher came up with the idea of having them do dialouges of them introducing their parents or other friends to me. So day 1...lesson learned.

I also sat in on two of the student teacher's classes as they are preparing to get their certification.

I'm also trying to figure out why my Korean students keep saying I look like Will Smith!! I'm not mad by no means but I don't see it lol.

The weekend was pretty fun. Saturday I met up with a few people who live in my city and we headed to Yongsan which is close to Seoul and is basically the place anyone needs to go if they want electronics. I mean just floors and floors of computers, ipods, cameras, etc. I was able to get a tripod for my camera for 15,000 won (about $10) Afterwards we headed to On the Border a mexican food place which was delicious. Afterwards I headed to a game night that this church was having where we played some uno and Guesstures. Pretty fun time.

Sunday, I went to that church and afterwards a few of us headed to the Tulip Festival in our town. I have pics below. The pics with the gate and the waterfall running through it is part of Suwon Wall which I plan to walk sometime in the future (it takes around 4 hours to do so)

So all in all one week in, I am enjoying it. I'm still getting adjusted and still looking to meet more people I click with and I'm sure that will come with time. I think I'm gonna have to make a calendar because I just randomly signed up to go to a lot of events and whatnot. Tomorrow I'm headed to register for Korean classes in Seoul. The classes are once a week on either Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.

Oh yeah... the name of this blog has Seoul in it even though I am in a city called Suwon that is about 40 minutes away from Seoul. I would change it, but I don't want to...simple. Enjoy the pics...

So I really haven't taught yet. I've basically gone to several classes and introduced myself. I got my timetable today and it looks like I'll start Tuesday. I decided to make a powerpoint with facts about myself, Detroit, Michigan, etc and then afterwards have a short quiz for the students to take (a good idea for all you future esl teachers on the first day). Of course this is if your school gives you a computer.

I tell you I'm real fortunate (at least SO FAR lol) because everyone at my school have been helpful and very nice. The students are very shy at first but once you try to get them to ask you questions they open up a bit more. Today one of the students said I look like Will Smith LOL.

Also a thing I'm noticing is that my personality is real laid back and not talkative (ISFP on the Myerss Briggs Test) and I hate talking in front of people. But surprisingly, I'm quite calm in the classroom. Maybe because it's kids and not adults.

Here are some more pictures...oh I don't know what it is but all the boys are always ready to take pictures...they jump at the chance, but the girls run away, hide their faces lol.