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...