End of Another Semester

Friday, we finished our first semester and started our second today. We have had these kids for 6 months now, so we know them really well and they are adjusted to our classroom (at least I hope they are!). Because of this, it's difficult to let them go and get new students already. I feel like 6 months is such a short time to be with a class, but I know my month and a half with these next ones will be even shorter. It will definitely be difficult bonding and setting a routine with them and then have to leave them so soon, in the hands of the next teacher. But, I guess this is a regular part of teaching, just shorter than normal.
Anyways, our last week of school was pretty easy, but busy. On Thursday, we had a speech contest in the library with our class winners. On Friday, we had a spelling bee with our top spellers in the school. These are fun days, so I wanted to share a bit with you.

My kids had a scavenger hunt as a reward after their speech contest.

Jon's GT1 class; they were great!

Dean being toppled by some kids that absolutely love him.

My very special student, Rina, was a winner!

Some more winners. The boy, Alex, is one of the cutest boys I have ever seen.
His voice makes it all the better!

Here's proof of Alex's cute voice. You probably can't see it on the video,
but he takes so long to take a breath that his neck and veins start to bulge
and then he has to pause and gasp for a breathe. Did I mention he's
the cutest little thing?

Another very special student, Angela. Her speech is about teaching being
her hobby and how she is glad she likes teachers like me!

Simon is a favorite of both Jonathon and I. I am glad to have him a
second time starting this next semester.

This is Lisa, a very fun and expressive student, as you can see.

Ryan is one of my best students, who leveled up to the Magnet school;
Magnet is for the very advanced students. I will miss him and his quirky
attitude. This is only 1 of 3 videos of his goodbye speech. My favorite line is, "Some
people may think I am self-esteeming right now." I obviously didn't get to
proofread this one since he wrote it the night before...

This is just a little observation and nothing big, but I can't believe how quiet this city is sometimes. Seoul is the second biggest city in the world (and can you believe I'm living here), you'd think it'd be really loud. Although I do not live in the thick of Seoul, I still think it's amazing. There are definitely noisy areas, but ours is not one of them, thankfully. But, I was walking Molly in the park late last night, and I realized that it was about as quiet as it is when I sit on my parent's dock at night. I could hear the random car, some people talking in the distance, but that was about it. This was something that I remembering being grateful for when we first arrived in our apartment. It's definitely louder than what we are used to, but at all what I expected after being in some big US cities.
I am thankful that we live in a quieter area of Seoul compared to some of the other teachers or other busy areas we could be in. But, it will also be nice to spend some time in the country at my parents and sit by the lake as well as listen to the snowflakes fall softly to the ground. Ahhhhh. Anyways, a new look at Seoul, at least the lack of noise part....

Kids Write The Silliest Things.

One of my friends had a great idea to share students' writing on her blog, so I'm going to do the same thing!
I love working with kids for many reasons. Two of my favorite things that I love is that little kids laugh at just about anything and that they are up front about whatever is in that head of theirs.
Below, I have a couple of my favorite quotes and pieces of writing from my students.

Student #1- 9 years old
Title: My poor hamster Gwiyumdungi
'My hamster named Gwiyumdungi is die. Because of my mommy. Teacher! hear my story and say my mom is do good or bad. Now I start. One day Gwiyumdungi is bite the lemon. So next day the lemon is die. The lemon is my hamster. One day Gwiyumdungi bite me two times. So I had blood. I said to mom, "I am okay." But my mom took the Gwiyumdungi outside so one they I said, "Take the Giyumdungi inside and take care that please", but my mom said "No", so she is bad. Teacher! My mom do good thing or bad thing? I think my mom do bad thing. What do you think? Think and answer my question please!'

Well, I thought and answered her question. All I could really say was that I'm sure her mommy believed she was doing something good (by putting the hamster outside and leaving it to die).

Student #1- 8 years old
Title: New School Year
'In September I will meet a new teacher in POLY. I am very, very sad to say goodbye to Ms. Anika teacher. I love her very much, because she is so bautiful. She is just like a princess.'

Student #2- 9 years old
Title: Granma
'Yesterday's dinner time, we went to granma's house and ate a meat. A dog meat. My dad say, "This one is expansive one." But, I was not that much happy because mom and grandma didn't go there because they don't eat meat. So, when I eat, I was the only girl so my feeling was not that much good.'

I just love her dad's comment about the dog meat being expensive.

Outburst #1
Me: "When lifting a heavy object, do you need a lot of force or a little bit of force or strength?"
Boy: "Dinosaur!"

Age 9
One of my fun fourth graders was reading the misspelled word "Diearee" and said, "It's French...I think..."

Ages 8
Fill in the blank. __________ the dog.
Lavendar said, "Teacher, don't eat the dog."
Sally, "Teacher, no, we eat the dog. Write, 'Do eat the dog.' I eat dog, really, I do!"

Age 10
After a little Korean girl ran past my classroom door screaming, Jane said:"If I am a dog, I would eat that little girl."

Age 8
"If there is no TV, I can't know how many people live in Europe, Africa, Amarica, Asia, and Atlantica!"

Age 8
"Ms. Anika, look at my new shoes! Smell them! They smell ...like candy! Aren't they great?"
Me:"ummm, yes, they're wonderful! I wish i had a pair of shoes that smelled like candy."

Age 9
Me: "What is something that has fur?"
Eric (in an enthused and confident voice): "a fish!"

Age 7
I was given these two notes on little scraps of paper from my student who leveled up to the next class and was sad that she was no longer in my class. This girl had hurt her foot and had it in some sort of soft cast and I had asked what happened to it; this will help you understand her note better. Also, all of the letter O's were shaped like hearts-cute!
To: Anika teacher.
Anika teacher I miss you. I am sorry to show my leg but I know you love me. And I always like you. I love you teacher. Don't die now. I know you are alive I always will reeamember you good, bye.
From Janet

Anika To: teacher
Hello, Anika teacher. I miss you! My leg is always good so don't worry about it. You are my best teacher. I am earth class in Miss Tracie's class I am just fine. love Janet, I love you!
--Show this to your friends.

So, there's several examples of what makes me laugh every day. I really do love my job through the good and bad, I at least know I'll make it through the tough parts with such fun and loving kids!

Goodbye Muffin-top

Jon's been fighting me all summer to not cut Molly's beautiful, fluffy hair. But, I guess I finally convinced him it was important for her to not die of heat stroke and also become a more fashionable Korean dog by changing her ragamuffin appearance. I feel like Molly is the ultimate street ragamuffin dog, strutting like she is on a mission, a mission to possibly find pigeons to torture, but on a mission none the less. But now, she is no longer that cute ragamuffin who can't even see the treat in front of her face because her bangs are so long. She is.....um.....a rat with big eyes, fluffy ears, and a feather duster for a tail. I'm a little self-conscious bringing this rat outside, but I found that the Korean women love her and squeal in delight at how cute she is. They used to make motions about how big her fluffy head was, but now, it's just her tiny, cuteness that catches their attention. We both still love her, but we like her ragamuffin look a little more.

Before I close, I do have to tell you about my communication with the vet and groomer. Jon really didn't want her shaved like last time, so I was going to try to tell them not to cut it too short. This is how our conversation went.
"Try not to shave her, please."
"5 mm okay?"
"Ummm, just not too short."
Korean dialogue and laughing on the side.
"So, you want make pretty?"
"Yes, sure, here, make my dog pretty...."
Later the vet called and said something about 3 mm and I didn't really understand it (it might have had something to do with her mini dread locks on her butt/back). But, I went down three hours after I had dropped her off. But when I picked her up, she sure looked different. All I know is that I dropped off a grayish/black dog and got back a white dog with 0-3 mm of hair on her. Don't worry Molly, 'it doesn't matter if you're black or white', we still love you.

Little rat girl.

Jon must have been exhausted.

Caribou!

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered a Caribou Coffee down the road from Molly's vet. I was really excited about this because I had heard that there were two or three in Seoul, but never got around to finding them. Although we do have coffee at home and occasionally at the Dunkin Donuts downstairs, we miss having coffee dates at our beloved Caribou. To get to Caribou, we only need to take a 30 minute bus ride; how great! Michael and Sarah also came with us and so we had some good hang-out time. On this day, Molly also had to get her stitches out, so she tagged along as well. Coming into the Caribou, I felt like I had stepped back in time and was in MN again. All the decorations were the same, even the little furry, animal footstools. Our beverages of choice were a Caramel Cooler and a White Raspberry Mocha. I think I was a little too excited for Caribou because I got the biggest Cooler size they had and I definitely felt sugared-out and somewhat sick. Well, I don't think the bus ride back with Molly bouncing on my lap helped either. But, hopefully we will go back sometime soon and have some free time from our regular scene in Mokdong.
-Thank you Caribou for branching out to Seoul; you don't go south in the US, but you made a good choice to build in Asia!

I have some pics I will put up, when Jon gets them on the computer!

Cloudy, With A Chance Of Kimchi

While Molly was healing the first couple of days, she was very sad about not going for walks. But, now that she's all better, we decided to go on a further walk down by the river. Before I left, I wanted to see what the weather was like outside and if it was overly hot, so I asked Jon to check the weather. Jon replied with, "The weather report says, 'Haze'." Ha, that's never good. I'm sure all you people from the Midwest have never heard a weather report like this. Well, this is a regular report here in Seoul and it gets worse when it's humid and hot like it has been the last few months. Lately, the sky here has been so hazy that I can't see the mountains from our apartment window, the traffic lights are all fuzzy like it's foggy, and you can just feel it as you breathe in and out and walk: it's gross. But, looking on the bright side, I guess it's not as bad as in New Delhi as Mike and Sarah have told me, where the air coats your nose with black gunk, so that's great! (Reminder to self: never go to New Delhi).
So as much as I'm trying to enjoy my earlier hours by walking after work, I want to spend as little time outside as possible and prevent any asthma issues. Oh sigh. Anyways, I thought you'd like to hear what our forecast has been. How's your weather?!
Anika

Molly Update

The last update you have heard from Molly is having her surgery. So, let me quickly update you. Molly's surgery went great as well as her after care. As you see a couple posts down, Jon made a great ramp for Molly and she loved it! Sometimes she wouldn't even lay on the futon, but instead, she would act like a queen on her thrown, laying on the very top. She's such a daring pup that she ignored the ramp at first and tried to jump onto the futon. This was a funny thing to watch because Molly still didn't realize she had a cone around her head. Another example of how Molly didn't realize the new width of her head was when she walked underneath one of our chairs during the middle of the night. I heard her because I had been sleeping on the futon with her because she would walk circles around the barricaded bed nonstop if I tried to sleep there. So, we decided, we'll spoil her and I will sleep with her; this immediately eased her worries. Anyways, I wake up to this scratching sound and look around and I see Molly's cone reflecting in the moonlight and her beady little eyes peeking out behind her fluffy bangs. The poor little thing kept trying to push forward without any luck because her cone wouldn't fit through the chair. Molly could have easily backed up and had no problem, but she persisted in trying to fit. Eventually, Molly backed out and got out and back onto the futon to cuddle.
Last Saturday, Dr. Kwon took out her stitches and Molly was very grateful. She also got to say hi to Dr. Choi, who loves her very much. In Dr. Choi's broken English, he said, "Molly is my lover." I replied in saying, "Oh, do you mean you really love her?" "Yes, I do. She love me." I got a kick out of this, oh we love our vets!
So, thank you for any prayers towards Molly, she's her ol' chipper self again and we are happy to see it.

It's Squid Time!

Some of you may know that I really enjoy calamari. Because of this and the fact that I have so much seafood around me, I decided to finally try making it on my own. I think it turned out really well, despite filling the apartment with smoke with my first oil batch. One thing I am not good at it frying/cooking things in oil. I guess I will have to learn from my husband, the pro!

How to Cook a Squid....

Step 1

Buy fresh squid from your nearest fish market. If possible, have your
market Adjuma chop the head off and pull out the innards
with her gloved hands and frightening cleaver.

Step 2
Remove tentacles, eyes, and left over slime. Then,
remove the beaks from the center of the tentacles.

Step 3
Now, it's time to peel the slimy sucker! I had no idea that you could
skin a squid, but you can! I found that the process is much
easier if you use one hand to pull up and the other to
push and separate the skin-just in case you want to try yourself...

Step 4
Next, cut squid into your preferred shaped and toss them in a
batter of flour, garlic powder, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Step 5

Lastly, throw them in the fryer for about one minute
until light golden brown.

Step 6
Prepare peppercorn ranch dipping sauce while preparing
your taste buds for some seafood goodness!

I am really proud of my Jonathon for branching out and trying things he didn't think he would like. A couple of years ago when we were first dating, I ordered calamari and was disgusted that I ate tentacles or squid at all. So, you can see, he was still a little scared and hesitant.


But, he quickly tore into them and had no
problem finishing the plate.

I'm glad the calamari adventure turned out well and
that I was able to enjoy a favorite treat of mine with Jon.

No More Puppies for the Pocket.

Awhile ago, I had said that Molly Pocket had to be spayed soon and that day came. There will be no more puppies for the Pocket, which is kind of sad since she's such a sweet little doggy. But, now she is one step closer to coming to the States. Before the operation, she had a blood test for any problems with her organs or any other diseases and she was cleared of them all, which was great news! But, getting that blood and having the IV inserted proved quite difficult. Dr. Kwon always says that Molly's spoiled. I don't really know why he says this, except that she doesn't like getting poked and prodded, but then who does? Dr. Choi, Molly's favorite doctor, wasn't there and I think she was a little sad (as was I). Molly does really well when Dr. Choi gives her shots. I seriously don't know how I'm going to do when Jon and I have kids and they get sick because I was on the verge of tears the whole time she was getting ready for surgery. I don't do well seeing others in pain whether they are animals or humans. Oh, I felt so guilty coming home from vacation and then the next day bringing her to get cut open; poor thing. While she was being spayed, Dr. Kwon also scaled her teeth because she was in desperate need of teeth care.

Poor little Pocket

Right away, Jon set up a barricade around our bed so Molly wouldn't jump up.

Molly was only satisfied for a little bit, lying on a pillow on the floor.
So, Jon made a ramp for her to walk up and down. What a good, Papa.

Jon was so sweet with Molly, talking and singing to her while he pet her. I know that he will be an great daddy someday and Molly is good practice.

Sokcho Vacation!

This last week, we had our first vacation since Christmas. Whew, that was a long seven months! I was starting to miss my school days of having long breaks during the year (including for deer hunting) as well as three months off in the summer. Although the Korean schools have a month break right now, the hogwans do not. Instead, we have intensives. Intensives are two, fifty minute specialized classes that are added into our regular class schedule, but are not required. After our class' regular 100 minute class, they go to their intensive class with another teacher. The intensives usually focus on grammar and writing since ELL's struggle in these areas the most. But, we also have a debate intensive for the GT3's and GT4's. Unfortunately, I didn't get the debate skills my brother did, so I let that class go. Instead, I teach a low level grammar class. Jon is teaching two intensive classes for GT1. From what I hear through the wall that separates our rooms, he has fun with them and likes having a change in the schedule. Our work hours are also earlier for this month. Usually, our work hours are 2-9 PM, now they are 9:40-7; so almost normal hours. There are definitely benefits to both and I definitely enjoy getting off work when there's still daylight to go! Intensives are usually a crazy and busy time of the year and we were definitely in need of a break, especially after not having one for seven months.

At first, we wanted to travel overseas, but because of the swine flu, we were advised not to leave the country. So, we decided it would be good to travel outside of Seoul to the sea and country of Korea. I discovered a city called Sokcho, which is on the East Sea, not too far from the DMZ, but has lots of great seafood and beaches. We also had company because Michael and Sarah had the same vacation as us, so we all traveled together! To get to Sokcho, we took an express bus and it took about 4 hours to get there, unfortunately on the way back, it took 5 hours because of traffic. We stayed in Sokcho from Monday-Friday at The House Hostel. I was so excited to find this place because it had great reviews, great prices, and was basically a bed and breakfast which most are rare in a hostel. The cost was less than $30 a night for your own room, tv, AC, and bathroom. The hostel was great and Mr. Yoo, the owner was very kind and helpful. Everyday, he would answer any questions and give us directions as well as give us bottled water and a beach mat. The hostel provided free laundry, free bike use, a common room and kitchen, and a breakfast of toast, tea, coffee, and cereal. Here are some pictures from the hostel.

Part of the porch from the kitchen

Entry and Communal Room

Kitchen

The area in which we stayed was also right outside of Seoraksan National Park. This park is full of beautiful mountains covered with lots of trees and jagged rock popping out in the sky. Driving through the mountains was wonderful because there was mist hovering over the tops; it was so gorgeous that it looked unreal. We were planning on hiking some of the trails during the week, but I realized I forgot my inhaler and was worried about aggravating my asthma with the climbing. I was upset about this, but it ended up being fine just relaxing on the beach. Jon and I are hoping to go back during a three day weekend in October to hike and take-in the beautiful fall leaves. Because we didn't hike, I didn't have any pictures of the mountains. But I still want to show you what they looked like, so here are some pics courtesy of Google images.

So, you can see the kind of view that we had on our travels; pretty nice. The main request of us four travelers was to have a beach to relax at and we definitely accomplished this. We spent some time on two beaches, one being small and at night with basically no one there. But, the other one we spent most of our days at and was covered with Koreans and their sun-protection tents. Even though it was busy, we were able to have fun in the fairly cold water and relax on the shore. In the water, we either played volleyball or body surfed on the big waves. On shore, Sarah and I took some cat naps and chatted while our guys played in the water or made sand castles. We had a lot of fun watching Jon and Mike play and enjoy the sea.

Jon trying to stay warm in the cold water.

Jon, Michael, and Sarah doing some body-surfing.

The beginnings of the first sand castle.

The end of the second sand castle that took a couple of hours
working with hands, feet, and a Frisbee.

My favorite picture of Sarah after the men in Speedo's came up to talk to her. They said in English, "I am a native Korea speaker". Sarah, "That's nice." Speedo men, "It was a joke." Sarah, "Ummm, oh, okay."
By the way, Speedo's are a huge deal in Korea, everyone has them.

One other exciting thing that happened on the beach was watching a fishing boat drop their nets and then later drag them in on shore. I ran over when they were pulling up the net as at least a hundred Koreans were surrounding it trying to help and grab fish out of the net. This was pretty fun because I was in the front and in the middle of all the action. I have never seen people grab fish as fast as I have in Korea. Even while swimming, if they saw tiny fish, they would collect them and eat them later.

Our last night in Sokcho, we went out for some fresh crab. Mr. Yoo suggested an underground fish market where the locals go to eat. This market was full of small, open restaurants vying for your attention to their tubs full of fish, crab, shellfish, and eel.

The start of our meal.

The adjuma showing us how to tear the crab correctly

The end of our meal.

The underground fish market.

There are many other fun stories from the trip, but this is already a huge post. I wanted to give you an overview of where we went and what we did. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and videos of our little Korean vacation.

Ice Cream Social

I feel so behind in my blogging, so I'll have a couple of updates at one time. Here goes #1 of the updates.
Almost two weeks ago, we had our first annual ice cream social at our church (Global Generation for God a.k.a G3 Ministry). Along with ice cream, we had a Jeopardy: Korean Style game, information for newcomers to Korea, and music by the Riley's and Jon. At our church, we only have five regular attending foreigners, the rest are about 40 or so Koreans. There is a larger number of foreign teachers in Mokdong, but few go to church. So, we wanted to have an outreach and have some fun. Latasha, one of the other teachers, started the idea and we invited a couple hundred foreigners. During the previous weeks, we also prayed a lot about God bringing who he wanted there. We ended up having one of Tasha's friends come, who was a strong believer and was a wonderful encouragement. So, we were a little sad that we didn't have more visitors, but we know that God honored the time we were together. We are hoping to have another outreach and go bowling by the end of the year.

Below, you can see and watch some parts from the social.

You can see Pastor Ahn's four children.

Korean Jeopardy!