Desk Warming: Day 1

The day is here. The day I've dreaded for so long. The first of fourteen days of desk warming. What is desk warming you ask? Well, it usually occurs during breaks and is when you work the typical 40 hours a week, but have no classes, no work to do, usually most teachers/staff are gone and you literally sit at your desk surfing the net and wasting your life away. Originally since today is a holiday (for me) I tried to get this day off , but despite my efforts I was told I had to be at work. I even insisted on taking the day off without pay. That was obviously unsuccessful.

This morning I turned my alarm off fours times before sitting up in bed trying to think of ways to get out of coming to work. Mind you, this was at 8:09 am and I need to leave my apartment at 8 am if I want to be on time. Last week when talking about getting this day off to my co-teacher, he suggested to call in sick. I told him I'm too responsible to do such a thing. He laughed and informed me he will not be here today. He's not here today. After a few more minutes of sitting in bed trying to come up with a plan I worked up enough courage to call my other co-teacher to tell her I was too ill to go to work. She never answered and she's also not here. And now that I think about it, she hasn't even called me back!

I finally accepted my loss, jumped out of bed, got dressed and took a taxi to be at work at 8:32 am. It's 11:37 and I've checked my email about fifteen times, already facebook stalked people and watched one episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. I came very VERY unprepared to school today. For some reason drinking water is unavailable during breaks so we must bring our own. I forgot and only had about 2 tablespoons worth left over in the water bottle I keep in my purse. I'm also not sure if lunch is available. Being a hungry girl I naturally keep snacks in my purse. Once I got to school I had a look in my purse to see what was available. I had 2 clementines, small bag of almonds, 1 granola bar and some choco stick thing. This morning I put all items out on my desk and figured I would need to make them last until I go home. I only have almonds left. I don't think I could last on survivor. Plus, my water is gone and I'm really thirsty.

Christmas:

Christmas Eve and day was spent with great friends eating some amazing food and drinking wine. It was really nice and exactly what I wanted.

Christmas Day lunch! photo credit: Scott Kearney

Christmas Eve dinner - Lisa brought us all gifts back from the states! photo credit: MaryKate Bradley

 Secret Santa! My santa, MaryKate. Photo credit: MaryKate Bradley.

New Years:

I can't believe it's going to be 2013. WOW. To think, I originally moved here in December 2010. Time really does fly. To be honest, I'm happy 2012 is over with. This past year was full of stress, family difficulties and more. Too much stress for this one.

What I want 2013 to bring:

1. My sisters to figure out life and be on their way to adulthood.

2. My brother to have a great first year of full time employment.

3. My little brother to maybe one day know the entire truth.

4. All members of my family to maintain their health.

5. My aunt Michelle to keep up her fight and for her two kids, my cousins, to continue to have courage while they fight at her side.

Happy New Year everyone! May this year be what you want :)

Update: As soon as I posted this I got a call from another teacher. She said, "Angel teacher, come. Lunch." If you're wondering mom, I ate an actual meal today. People here can really put a smile on your face!

Just remember

It's Tuesday here in South Korea and only a few days since the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut. I first heard about this tragedy this past weekend and have not been able to stop thinking about this horrible event since. Every second I get, I check the news to see if the police have uncovered new information, but unfortunately usually only come across opinions on gun control, mental illness and who to blame.

Yes, those topics are very important and need to be discussed in order to prevent further tragedies, but can we just take a moment to remember the victims? Each person has a story and we should stop and remember those who were victims and their families. Keeping everyone affected in my thoughts.

Anything could happen

A little over a week ago, I spoke with my dad and causally brought up how I re-signed my contract for another year. I started going into the details when he abruptly interrupted me by yelling, "I'LL BE GODDAMNED! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS GIRL IS STAYING FOR ANOTHER YEAR." Now, some may be taken back by this kind of reaction, but not me. I knew he would react this way and to be honest find it kind of funny when I get his blood boiling. I chuckled at his reaction and after calming him down we not only continued to talk about life, but I had the privilege of listening to his "back in my day" stories. Mind you, he will be 49 years old this December. That's pretty young if you ask me!

After our skype conversation I began to think, do people not realize this is my job/career now and I'm staying overseas for a while? I immediately wanted to ask others. The next day or so I asked my mom and brother and both hesitantly replied, "mmm, yeah. Maybe." At that moment I realized a lot of the important people in my life back home may not truly know or even understand what my intentions are here. Although I try not to constantly think about or stress over my future I'm still me; your organized type A person who likes order, so of course I still have some sort of a plan.

This year has gone by so fast and when I actually sit down and think about it, I really can not believe I've lived in Andong for almost 10 months. That gives me a year and 10 months living and working in South Korea. Holy crap! Since I only have ~3 months left in my current contract I (among many others who started around the same time) were asked if we would like to re-sign for another year. I of course said yes! I want to stay in Korea for this next year and for numerous reasons I definitely want to stay at my school. Technically I haven't re-signed my contract yet, but instead a letter stating I wish to re-sign. I'm basically reapplying to keep my position. I should re-sign my actual contract in January or February - fingers crossed I get to keep my job.

Just like I've told some friends and my family I really like teaching ESL and can see myself doing this for some time. I'm currently looking into a few Master's of Education programs. If I get into a program and all goes accordingly I will most likely stay in Korea teaching ESL  until I finish school. This would just be so much easier. I'm making a decent living and now have the extra time to complete my courses. I also can't believe I'm looking into going back to school. I've done the apply to grad school bit and it was extremely stressful and overwhelming. To find myself back in the same position blows my mind. However, at the end of the day I feel this is the right move for me at this time. Furthering your education never hurts and if I choose to stay in South Korea teaching I can move further up the ladder. If I choose to move to another country or even back home my experience and education background will do nothing but help me stand out - so I'm hoping! If you ask me I think I've got myself a lil' plan.

Another question I frequently get, "When will you come home?" This question may irritate and annoy others, but like Joey says, "I like it!" Sometimes living abroad can be lonely and this question lets me know I'm not forgotten.

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer to this. I can't really put an end point on how long I'll be abroad. Living in Korea or abroad in general is something you take year by year. I could wake up tomorrow and be done with Korea, but at the same time be ready to move onto another country and work. I could also wake up and realize it's time to move back home. Basically, what I'm saying is 몰라요. I don't know. I probably wont know until the time actually comes. Until that time does come I'm definitely trying to make the most out of this experience.

In other news:
This past weekend was another one of Andongs' fundraisers, this time benefiting the local animal shelter. Animals aren't really my thing, but I didn't hesitate when asked to possibly help out; helping, now that's my thing! My friend Suzanne was nice enough to let me get in on her little goody bags. She did her thing and I contributed by making mini peanut butter cups and cookies and cream fudge to add into the bags. The event turned out to be very successful and they raised 1,000,000 won (~$1,000). Go Magdel & Raquel!

 Christmas cookies by our local baker, Suzanne

Lesson learned: A few months ago I bought this, (pictured below) thinking it was powdered sugar, to make a caramelized frosting to top my homemade apple cinnamon scones. Instead I RUINED those scones. At the time I was sick and could barely taste anything, but the foul taste of that frosting still found a way through my taste buds and sent a not so pleasant surprise to my gag reflexes. My poor friends either couldn't taste it (I can't see how they couldn't?!) or just wanted to be polite and said nothing while they continued to eat their scones covered in poison. I finally brought the package to school and asked my co-teacher about it. She laughed and said, "that's poor peoples sugar. It has a lot of MSG. No Korean mom uses." I asked if she wanted it and she pushed my hands away, giggled and said "no!"

WARNING. NOT POWDERED SUGAR!

Suzanne and I both needed real powdered sugar for the animal shelter fundraiser. She found an article with a few sites listed at the bottom of the article to buy various baking goods within Korea. http://www.seouleats.com/2008/01/bangsan-market/. The powdered sugar we bought isn't exactly like home, but worked for our baking treats and tasted great!

Thanks to Kim posting this on her blog, I'm obsessed with this song!

Early last week I received the best Christmas gift ever! A few friends from home made this video for my friend Vanessa (who is also teaching in South Korea) and myself. I'm pretty sure I've watched it almost everyday! Thank-you for the video and I miss you all so much :)

Happy Thankspaydayfriday

Last weekend was insanely busy. Friday some friends and I attended the ballet show Swan Lake - yes they actually came to Andong. I could barely believe it myself. Surprisingly, there were a few foreigners dancing in the show. It was my very first ballet and I really REALLY enjoyed it. The sets were beautiful as were the costumes and of course the dancing. I could have stayed all night, but sadly the show eventually ended and we then all headed to a friends apartment for a Canadian birthday bash. I'm also now obsessed with this song:

Saturday morning came and I headed to 안동 경안신육원 (Andong Gyeongan Sinyukwon) orphanage for the fall festival. Although it was pretty chilly, the day was still great and the kids seemed to have a blast! Please check out this link to view photos. If it doesn't work, please let me know.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.448328861892394&type=1

I do have to say this little one was very energetic and quite the entertainer. I didn't understand anything he said, but he just cracked me up. Photo credit Magdel Smith.

As soon as the fall festival was completed a friend and I headed to her apartment to gather her things and we literally ran to catch our bus to Daegu for yet another birthday celebration! I give you Mr. Tom Bass! Hope you had a good birthday best friend. Photo credit Leandi Pienaar. 

Yeah I know, I'm getting really lazy with taking photos. Hopefully no one minds I stole their photos. If they do mind, that would be awkward now would it?!


Story:  about 8-10 6th graders surrounded my desk

student: (said in snarky tone and maybe even a little eye rolling) Do you speak Korean?
me: A little, do you speak English?
all other students: AAAAGGGHHHHH, OOOOHHHHHHHH!! while running around the classroom
Snarky 6th grader: giggles with head down 

Almost forgot how fun it is to bring preteens back down a notch.

My sister sent an email with this photo. Hope all had a wonderful Thanksgiving back home. I WANT THANKSGIVING FOOD.

Homesickness, it's a crazy thing

I'm not sure if you heard, but the U.S. presidential election was a week ago now. Since South Korea is 15 hours ahead of Iowa I was actually able to follow the results Wednesday while at work. Now, I'm actually not political AT ALL. If you ask my friends some might say I am, but if you ask my friends who actually enjoy politics and keep up on the who's who and what's going on in the political world, they'll easily tell you I don't care all that much. At the end of the day I feel it's a big game (for some) and certain important issues are ignored because people are busy trying to win the game. This is my opinion, feel free to agree/disagree. With that said, I do try and still keep informed and vote to make sure I'm doing my part in making the world a better place and using my vote to put people into office who I believe will accomplish this. I'm actually starting to get a little side tracked, okay regaining focus. So although I don't see myself as a person who keeps up with politics, this election was still important to me. Fast forward to Wednesday....

Wednesday morning came and I could barely contain myself. I was so nervous to see how the election would finally turn out. I couldn't just sit and watch the election online because well, I had to teach. I taught five classes back-to-back that morning with about ten minute breaks in between. Needless to say, every chance I could get my eyes were glued to my computer. Once classes were over, I quickly ate lunch and ran back to my classroom to watch more election stuff. I thought, finally, I can get some real watch time in! I was wrong. Two teachers took the rest of last week off to study for a certification exam they were taking over the weekend. We had a good luck afternoon snack to wish them luck. Except it wasn't really a snack. It was jjimdak. Very delicious, but I had just eaten a large lunch an hour before. Luckily President Obama was announced as our next president before this afternoon snack took place, but I still really wanted to watch his speech. I quickly had a few bites of jjimdak, but once I received my friends text telling me it's show time I got up and ran to my computer. I sat there watching his speech. I was just so happy the candidate I wanted to win was re-elected. All I wanted to do was jump up and down and scream out loud. I looked around the classroom in search of someone to celebrate with and it was just me. Just me feeling the excitement of the election. Just me who really truly cared. At that moment I realized I would have given anything to be back home with my friends and family. I usually never let myself think this way. Once you start having thoughts like this things can quickly take a turn for the worst. I immediately thought, WAIT, it's dinner night with the friends tonight. I'll celebrate than!

Dinner time with my closest Andong friends came and I could not wait to finally share my excitement. To my surprise it wasn't exactly what I hoped it would be. Out of my friends who were there, some weren't American and others kept their voting status to themselves. Not that my non-American friends weren't happy for me, but the excitement wasn't there like it would have been back home and to be fair...why would it be?! In that moment all I wanted to do was cheers my glass of wine and be merry. I wanted to be with old friends screaming our re-elected presidents name celebrating the victory. Whether you were for Obama or not, I just truly longed to feel excitement in the air. No matter where I turned to that day I kept finding myself let down. To be honest, I'm still really shocked the election triggered a bout of homesickness. You mentally prepare yourself to be okay around the holidays and for birthdays, but the ELECTION? I suppose maybe it's just another reminder on how I'm constantly missing out on things. That night I went to bed a little buzzed, full of vet koek and really missing home.

A trip to Gwangju, my old home.
This past weekend I finally went back to Gwangju. The trip was insanely long. Since I live in a smaller city if traveling anywhere other than Seoul or Busan I usually have to take a bus to Daegu and then catch another bus to my original destination. Traveling to Gwangju was no different. I left school at 4:30 to make by bus for Daegu at 4:50. Two hours later I was in Daegu boarding another bus. This time the bus ride to Gwangju was 3 1/2 hours long. By the time I made it to Gwangju it was 11 pm and I was completely exhausted. Once I actually got off the bus and started to walk around U-square the joy of being back in the Ju took over. I was ecstatic to finally be back in the place I once considered home. That night I sat and chatted with some of the best people I've met while in Korea - Krissy & Kivi! We were all pretty tired and eventually headed to bed. The rest of the weekend was filled with laughs, eating, drinking too much and seeing great friends. I was even able to see my old supervisor, Sunny who in actuality is more of a friend! I somehow also managed to crash a baby shower. By the end of the shortest weekend of my life we said our good-byes and I found myself on yet another bus thinking of all the experiences I had the previous year. On our way out of the city we passed Yongbong dong, my old  ghetto neighborhood and I started to tear up.

It's funny how one day I was sad over missing something back home, but the next moment I'm almost in tears over no longer living in a place I once considered my home in Korea.

Voting / Halloween / Talent Show

It's Tuesday November 6th here in South Korea and I can't help but feel anxious about who will be my president for the next four years. Facebook, blogs, CNN and any other social media/websites people use and read have been completely populated with comments about who to vote for and why. Which isn't really calming my nerves. I know who I want to take office, but whoever you wish to be our next president please...PLEASE get out there and vote! After days of figuring out what to do and making sure the forms where filled out correctly, I voted September 19th (fingers crossed my ballot made it). If I can place my vote from Andong, South Korea you sure can get up and vote if you are back home in the U.S. You have a voice, so let it be heard.

In other news, this past week was a little crazy. Finally had the Murder Mystery party. The night was spent eating delicious food, drinking wine (too much wine) and enjoying others company all while figuring out who dunnit'. Pictures below:

Managed to cram all in my apartment

I imagine Suzanne saying in her South African accent, "game over!" This is probably only funny to me...love you Suzanne :)

Poor fiance was murdered...

Nobody guessed the murderer, but awards were given for not getting caught, best dressed, most mulah and best actor.

Last week was also my schools talent show. I have yet to really make a post about my school and working in public schools vs hagwons. Hopefully in time I will work up the motivation to finally write that post. For now, I just want to say how proud I am of all my students. They did an excellent job!

This is my absolute favorite 3rd grade class! I was all smiles until the end.

After listening to "thank-you very muchy" it took all I had to not stand up and scream, "IT'S THANK-YOU VERY MUCH. NOT MUCHY!!!" Don't worry I didn't. I sat there and clapped along with the parents.

Shows I just can't seem to get enough of: Modern Family & Downton Abbey

What if the names were Downton Family or Modern Abbey? Weird right? Thought so.

Andong Mask Festival

My 4th graders are currently watching The Lorax, which by the way is a pretty funny  movie! Since they're preoccupied I decided why not update my blog! It's been a few weeks since the Andong Mask Festival now, but I'm feeling much better compared to my previous post and I definitely wanted to share some of my favorite moments/pictures from the festival. Enjoy!

Festival snacks:

Even Shrek masked up:

Short story - A random Korean man approached us and wanted to take pictures with us. Don't be too surprised, this happens all the time! Literally all. the. time! Being great people we agreed, except it took FORever. He (nor the person with him) couldn't work the camera on his phone so it literally took 5 minutes of going back and forth trying to figure out the camera phone, it not working, pushing buttons again, it not working...and so on. During this whole process I lost interest and stepped out of the picture to capture this moment. The other girls stayed and posed nicely for the picture - you guys are better people than I, fo-sho!

The festival not only included traditional Korean dances, but also performances from a number of countries. Costa Rica dancing:

Malaysia:

Mexico was definitely my favorite! 

Traditional Korean mask dance:

Our turn to make a mask:

Finished product:

Everyone showing off their hard work:

Handmade t-shirts:

By far the best thing I saw that weekend:

Our downtown has a face lift! When I first arrived the downtown was in ruins. For months we've walked on dirt or carpet covering dirt all while dodging large holes so we wouldn't fall in. BUT GOOD NEWS...all of the construction is complete and it looks fabulous!

Next on the agenda, Fall Festival on Saturday and HALLOWEEN. Can't wait, I absolutely love Halloween - it is by far my favorite holiday! A friend and I are hosting a murder mystery party and I'm not only excited, but a little nervous considering I've only ever attended one and now I'm hosting. I'm sure it will go well! HAPPY FRIDAY!

This song is taking over the world...

My eye sockets hurt

It's Friday 2:30 pm and I'm sitting waiting for the clock to strike 4:30. Why? I want to go home! Yes I did just have five days of vacation, but who doesn't like time off?! Plus, I haven't felt too well the past two days and am ready to not work or be around sick children who just keep reinfecting me. Note to self - next week a lesson on how to sneeze/cough covering mouth. I don't really know what's going on with my body. Am I getting old? I am a whopping 26 (soon to be 27) years old. I also just can't seem to get over this tendonitis; it's either in my knee or my foot and now I think I'm getting the flu. Last night I laid in bed with an ice pack on my right foot, heating pad on my face while moaning "my eye sockets hurt, my forearms hurt, my left palm hurts, my insert body part hurts." This went on for a while until I stopped myself and finished season 10 of Friends. I don't know the last time I've been so pathetic. It's Andong's big Maskdance Festival this weekend and my friends and I have literally planned since moving here to experience the festival together. With that said, I need to snap out of this sinus infection/flu/tendonitis thing and get back to normal! I also can't believe I've never had the desire to watch Friends until recently. People have always said it's a great show and I would just roll my eyes and say "mmk". They were so right. What a great show! 

Chuseok was a great mini vacation. Like I've told a lot of people at home, it's similar to our Thanksgiving holiday and since it's only really celebrated by Koreans most foreigners see this as an opportunity to travel within and outside of South Korea. I myself ventured to Busan! Only 2.5 hours away and plenty of sandy beaches to lay on. The weekend was filled with a birthday celebration (hopefully you had a great time Steven), great food, shopping, drinking way too much, seeing old and new friends and spending WAY too much money! All worth it. I did unfortunately encounter some weird experiences. Before the actual weekend really started I did have a conversation with my friend Suzanne and I was telling her how I don't like talking to strangers. Not because they're dangerous (I'm sure some are), but because every time I open that door something weird happens or I can't get rid of them.

Weird encounter 1: Myself and friends went to Wolfhound (a pub) and barely started our night when this guy (I believe his name was David) comes over and points out another guy and screams, "Who's attracted to him because he wants to get L***." Just imagine my facial expression at this point. I don't really remember what exactly happens next, but this guy was clearly really intoxicated and feeling a little bad for him I laugh it off and ask the usual questions, "What's your name?" "Where are you from?" I figured by ignoring the question and moving on we could stop the situation from escalating. I was wrong. I've blocked most of this out of my memory so I don't really remember the details, but there was a lot of rubbing my love handle, back, shoulders etc. Also a lot of kissing my cheek except not just a simple kiss but his lips lingering on my cheek. I do recall at one moment I pushed his face away and screamed, "STOP TOUCHING ME!" Things basically continued until his friend came and took him away. His friend did say, "I'm not gonna let you disrespect my boy anymore." REALLY! I don't think you know the definition of that word Mr. Friend.

Weird encounter 2: I was lucky enough to have this weird encounter the next day. We of course decided to go out again and within ten minutes okay maybe thirty a girl comes up and wants to join in. I say why not, I don't ever really mind when more people want to join in. Right away she is clearly hitting on me. I didn't know what to say so I was just nice and kept simple conversation. HOWEVER, as the night went on she literally pissed everyone off. She was being very crude (I'm not even going to write what she was saying) and obviously saying things just to piss people off. She continued to hit on me and at one point I had to be blunt and tell her that I'm not a lesbian. I think she got the hint, but at the same time she kept asking really personal questions and I kept finding myself saying, "that's none of your business." By the end of the night I couldn't dodge the inappropriateness and went back to the hotel...alone. The girl stayed and continued to make friends annoy others.

New jam thanks to Tom!

Kookin' in Korea - Bacon Avocado open sandwich

I really wanted to make something with avocado and after searching recipes for a few minutes I came across this. Not only does it look absolutely amazing, but I was inspired to try it out! What you see pictured below is my attempt at creating something similar. Doesn't look much like the website, but it was still pretty tasty and worth a post. Plus, I went through the effort of taking pictures so I'm posting it. For the most part this is a pretty simple recipe and not hard to put together; except for the egg bell pepper part. I had a little anxiety going into that and as you can see I had a lot to worry about.
 

Need:

sliced bread

bacon

avocado

bell pepper

eggs

lemon, salt, parsley

  

The ingredients are pretty basic and easily located at any mart. Avocados can be a little difficult to find, but are usually at Home Plus or Emart. I know I've randomly seen them in other marts so you just have to look around. They are a little pricey here. At home they are 2 for $1 (I think, it's been a while), but here in Korea they're more like ~6,000 won for two which is between $4-$5....I KNOW EXPENSIVE RIGHT?!

First, fry up that bacon! I like mine a little crispy, but it really doesn't matter how well you cook it - just get it cookin'.

 

Use any color of pepper you would like. I only had two options at Feel Mart. Moldy red or wrinkly yellow. I went with the yellow.

Next, cut the bell pepper. I originally saw this on Pinstrosity and didn't understand why so many people had difficulty doing this. I soon found out. I'm not sure if it's because I didn't cut the bell pepper wide enough our if it's because I flipped it; either way it did not look like the picture. I also don't care for sunny-side up so flipping was a must.

Still edible.

Once the egg disaster is complete cut the avocado. For this part feel free to go crazy. I chose to have long slices, but you can also cut the avocado into chunks or make a spread. Go wild!

Toast the bread...

...and let's start piling on the ingredients. Bacon!

Avocado: after placing them on the toast, I sprinkled salt and squeezed lemon juice on top. I just love what salt and lemon does to avocado.

And now the finale...egg/bell pepper mess. I also squeezed a little more lemon juice and added a little more salt and parsley.

I suppose it wasn't too much of a disaster. It still tasted pretty good and aside from the 4 pieces of bacon and 2 slices of bread pretty healthy! If you try this at home good luck with the egg!

I found monsoon season

I mentioned in a previous post that monsoon season had yet to arrive. Don't worry I found it. It arrived almost two weeks ago and has even unpacked it's bags to stay a while. I was planning to go for a power walk tonight, but canceled due to an oncoming headache. Thank goodness I did; I would have been really upset getting my baby blue Nikes wet.

Right before vacation my 4th graders started unit 5: How much is it? Yesterday was my unofficial official day back to school and it was not only filled with a full day of class, but me actually teaching. To start class, my coteacher first reviewed the previous units where I then took over and picked up where we left off in unit 5. To start today's lesson I showed a Talk Talk Talk clip, which is a 2 minute video of a role play on the book's CDrom. The clip included two sets of friends; two young boys who wanted to buy a kite and two young girls who wanted to buy a doll. This particular part plus the students reaction absolutely cracked me up. The clip begins with the two girls hovering over a table looking at various items to purchase. One girl is gazing looking at various object when all of a sudden her eyes widen as she says, "It's so pretty!" The video then quickly jumps to a doll laying on the table. GASP from students. The gasps and comments from my students didn't stop at the initial sight of the doll, but continued as the video slowly and creepily zoomed in. The doll from the video basically looked like the doll pictured below except it had long disheveled strawberry blonde hair with bright blue crazy eyes. When I first saw the doll I didn't think much of it, but as the day went on and the fact that every, and I mean every, class either reacted by gasping and screaming "TEACHER, CHUCKY!" or all of the above I started to realize these students were on to something. Don't worry I handled the situation by telling my students it was not Chucky, but instead his sister.

This Sunday my friends Lisa and Leozanda attempted to spend the day relaxing on a boat, but instead somehow ended up on a six minute speed boat ride. Needless to say I was not ready for that situation and basically had a panic attack the entire six minute ride. A few minutes into our speed boat ride the captain quickly turned and said, "camera." took two photos and was back in his seat driving speeding away.

The behavior charts seem to be a HIT! All classes are up to par and know what is expected. For some reason the students were really impressed with my artistic abilities and even applauded me while chanting, "Bravo teacher!" This made me blush.

What. a. month.

I have so much to talk about this literally might turn into a novel. I’m apologizing in advance, but August was a bitch of a month. Yes technically I’ve been on summer vacation, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t work or that it was any less crazy. Okay so let’s catch up:

1. Summer Camp – I worked one week at my school which was actually not bad at all. I was able to finally work with 1^st and 2^nd grade. I realized how much I love working with little ones and also how much I miss my kinder kids, but I've talked about this camp in my last post so now for the good stuff. I worked two more camps through my POE (Province of Education). I’ll be honest; I did not have a good attitude about working these camps. Usually I can choose my attitude and go with the flow, but lately I’ve had a really rough time accomplishing this – more on that later. Anyway, POE camp – when I first arrived to Andong I was told I was required to work two of the three weeks of POE camp. Being naive about working with public schools I said, “Ok” and went about my business. I soon found out it was not required to work the POE camp at all, but they just didn’t have enough teachers. I also learned the camp was located about 40 minutes outside of the city and buses were rare so I would probably have to stay during the week. Not finished yet….I was also told there was NO AIRCON, no hot water so I would have to take cold showers and I would have to sleep on the floor. Obviously, the more information I was given the more ecstatic I became. I probably could have had a better time, if my classes for both weeks weren't fussy 5^th and 6^th graders. I wasn’t lucky enough to get the over achievers of the group. They were more like the class rejects and the “too cool for school” bunch. It was a very difficult two weeks. Not to mention, the first night of week one the 5^th graders were given energy drinks at 8pm resulting in one student vomiting all over the hall floor. Did I mention it was a very difficult two weeks? The only thing that saved me from going crazy was having the weekend off between the two camps. Overall, I do have some good memories including one of a girl named Olivia who was a riot! I’m pretty sure the other students didn’t like her and she was possibly known as the smelly weird girl. But I absolutely loved her. At one point all teachers were in the teachers room having a meeting and Olivia decided to walk pass the door not once, but three or four times while imitating various animals. Or maybe they were dinosaurs? Needless to say I lost it right then and there!

2. Traveling – I can’t believe I’ve traveled the past six weekends. I am so tired. Between birthdays, Seoul, Busan and Daegu I’ve been a pretty busy girl. Most of the trips were very successful, but there were a few that just wouldn’t work out. It was a lot of running for buses, full buses, no aircon, 100% humidity, no transportation at the time you want, etc. The only thing that saved me from going insane was seeing my friend’s faces once I made it to my destination.

Wicked was great! Loved it! 

 My friend Ravi from ISU came to visit!

3. Finally my actual vacation – Since my vacation wasn’t until the end of August I was REALLY looking forward to relaxing. I planned, a month in advance, to go camping on Sokcho Beach August 17^th to whenever. I was so excited to finally have time to just sit on a beautiful beach and do nothing. I could stay for as long or as short as I wanted. This was my vacation and I could/will camp for as long as I want, right? The weekend of my camping trip came and unfortunately so did the rain. Camping was canceled. It literally rained the entire week. I ended up staying at a Bed and Breakfast in Yoju for a few days called Vanessa’s (pictured above) Casa. She went to work and I slept in late, ate pizza and read. I also tried to make Kimchi Chigae, but that was a fail. After my stay at the B&B I came home and continued my laziness until the weekend. I tried to reschedule camping for the next weekend, but according to the forecast there was a 60-70ish% chance of precipitation. Instead I went to Daegu and ended up having a fabulous time with my fellow Andongers. It didn’t rain that weekend. 

I don't like the hand, but it's the only group photo I have.

4. I’m sorry – The past 5-6 months have been a little difficult for me. For some reason I’ve been on a roller coaster of emotions. This roller coaster has not only unfortunately lead me to take things out on others (including ajummas in public restrooms), but also made me into a debbie (or is it debby?) downer. Who wants to be around that? I’m not entirely sure of the exact reason. Like I've said numerous times, I’m really not made to handle this heat or humidity. It's made me a very cranky and bitter person. Not only has this summer been really difficult, but there have also been some personal things happening. With this said, there's still no excuse for the way I've been and I just hope people understand. With THAT said, this semester is looking good. This week was my first week of school and I was not angry, agitated or bitter. I was, gasp, a very happy camper!
 It could have been the lack of humidity or even the fact that I didn't teach any classes the entire week! Or maybe because I'm finally letting some things go and realizing people are who they are and I can't change it. I just have to go with it. 

The only productive thing I've done all week - Behavior Charts for grades 3 and 4.