Happy Suwon

So despite not being too fond of where I live, becuase it is quite far from my oh so lovely other 7 beings, I live in a quite beautiful little place.

I live in Suwon, on the outskirts. Its on the border of Suwon and Ui Wang. Yep, try pronouncing them. ahhaha.

My scooter is also named "Happy Suwon" to be reminded that I am happy to live in Suwon. Enjoy.

Halloween

So, a little behind, but better late than never right? As they say!

So, the 8 of us girls (the typical group) decided to go and visit our friends in Taebek for Halloween. Taebek is about 2 hours away Southeast of us. We rented a van and had our fellow friend, Rueben be in charge and started out trek. It was an uneventfu trek, praise God, but my was it beautiful. The colors were out of control beautiful. We got to the little town of Taebak, and low and behold it was just like a Grass Valley, but a little Korean style. Our friends had rented a condo on top of hte mountain that overlooked the town and it was absolutely beautiful. It was quite cold, but so worth it! So, we celebrated Halloween in that small town with a few good amigos, some good music, good food and drinks. It was a good Halloween. The next morning we woke up, had amazing apple dumplings made by our very own Simon. We went for a small hike, bout 3 miles, so worth it, quite cold but we survived. (it ended up snowing later that day). But it was such a good weekend, to enjoy with the best people here and away from the city. Loved it.

started coughing, better go to the hospital

I was teaching one of my classes today when the principal walked in and said that Dave (my boss) was on the phone and wanted to talk to me. I thought I had done something wrong, but he informed me that because I was coughing that I need to stop teaching and go to the hospital. Becuase of the seriousness of swine flu these days, he wanted to make sure that I wasn't a carrier of it. I told him that I felt fine and that I had a cough because my throat was scratched. (Truthfully I feel fine and I've been coughing because my throat is scratched because I've been yelling at the students all day...)So I go to the hospital (who know taught the rest of my classes?), but got to the hopsital and the doctor said 'Well, you look fine, just a small sore throat.' And I said to myself, yep thats exactly what I said in the first place.

My boss then went on to tell me that I need to take a rest tomorrow and not come into work. He said swine flu origninated from a group of foreigners and that many parents specifically dont send their children to insitutues with foreign teachers becuase foreign people are more likely to attract swine flu. So, that if the students see me coughing they will tell their parents and their parents might remove them from the insitute. Interesting.

So, I'm going to enjoy my day off tomorrow (even though it counts as one of my sick days-and I only have 3 total for the whole year, gotta use the rest sparingly I guess). I'm headed to Korean folk village to enjoy some traditonal Koreans!

safe up above.

Every morning around 10 o'clock there are jets that fly over my apartment. These jets are part of the Korean Military and I get scared every time, I'm not used to seeing/hearing these things fly over every day. But, what I have found out is that the Korean people feel safe knowing that these jets are flying over ahead. It is a sense of security for these people. Its quite interesting.

yes, i do love them

I am so blessed, I absolutely love these girls.
Whitney Aggasiz
Tayla Caple
Mindy Horr
Kelsey Phillips
Charissa Walton
Anna Vaughn
(Kelly Hogan)taking the picture
These girls are my life here in Korea, I am truly blessed. We are here to encourage one another, guide one another, challenge one another, laugh, cry, break bread and drink.
Yes, my life is so much better and more beatiful because these girls are in it!

STOP TALKIN!

If I had a penny every time I said "stop talking" I would be filthy rich, only after 2 months. But I was enlightened by another teacher at a different Hagwon a way to discipline the kids. So, I took it into consideration and tried it out on my class of 6 boys who are around the age of 12. After asking them to stop talking and moving kids around I told the class to lift their hands up over their heads. After about 5 minutes of having their hands up they got the message that this was not comfortable and to stop talking. So, a good 15 minutes later of having their arms up they did everything I told them and were silent. One of the kids said, "teacher Katie, my arms are hurting" I told him, well you will get some muscles. And he said, "But teacher Katie I don't want muscles." So, that is what I will be doing from now on, either the kids are going to catch on and stop talking or by the end of the year they all will be rather strong becuase their hands will be up during the entire class!

You NEVER know what you're gunna get...

Forest Gump was true in saying "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gunna get".

One of my best friends and I went out to lunch a few days ago to one of the restaurants down my street. It looked appealing from the outside so we decided to go in and try the local cuisine. As usual, we walked in took our shoes off and sat down at one of the tables. (and I truly mean sat down-sitting in tables is rare in Korea) We were given water and towels to wash off our hands, then a menu. As normal, we can't read the menu so we just pick out one of the meals that looks appealing. This has yet to be a bad idea, because all the other times prove to be yummy results. We were next handed about 10 side dishes (this is common), they are like appetizers that get refilled. Next we were brought our main course. It was a soup/rice dish with fish eggs, shrimp and octopus tentacles. The tentacles (thank the Lord) were not still alive, but rather big with the suction cups quite noticeable. My friend couldn't handle the octopus so she gave me her portion. I ate the octopus and it was surprisingly good. I mean, I would never go and cook octopus on my own, but I wasn't repelled by the taste.

All in all, the shrimp, octopus, fish egg soup/rice dish was not so bad, but I can say that I probably won't go back to that restaurant again!