Springing Around

The weather’s gotten nicer and my ability to sit in front of my computer and write about, my now, seemingly normal and at times mundane life has become really difficult. I’m quickly approaching the 10 month mark, which I feel unbelievably prepared for, but also caught off guard by.  here’s the quick and dirty of my last couple months here in the ROK.

I like boys more than girls

Ever since I started teaching I could tell that I had a soft spot for the adorable little guys in my class, but now that they’re older and their personalities show through in every activity, every day, it’s become glaringly obvious just how much cooler boys are than girls, specifically 5 year olds boys.

On the girls side of Elephant Class we’ve been dealing with manipulative behavior, lying, alienating, bullying, name calling, jealousy--they are me 10 years ago.  These mini-premadonnas are vicious little instigators and their behavior is once again making me question their future as human beings. 

Thus, I focus my energy on the happier half of my classroom. The happy-go-lucky, fun loving, slightly out of control, yet receptive little men are light of my life. 

Not only are they easier to deal with and more fun, but they’re overall smarter than the girls. They’re even up to date on current world events.  Regardless if their information comes from their misinformed and highly neurotic Korean parents.  

Here’s a video of my kids explaining the earthquake in Japan, or “errscakes” as WoongJay calls it.  

After the earthquake and following nuclear meltdown, there was a pretty big fear of a fallout here in Korea, especially when rain clouds coming from the east covered the city of Seoul.  In this take WoongJay and Henry give a pretty scientific explanation of what happens if you get some of this, so called, radioactive rain on your head.


Overall they’re just a lot cooler than the girls.  Hopefully the ladies pull it together at some point, but until then i’ll keep talking about Power Rangers and Transformers.


Mary Takes Korea 

Mary Whiteside came to visit in mid April and along with her came a bag full of goodies and treats from the states.  Mom, the Brita water filter has completely changed my life.  Dead serious.

We ate a lot of food...

Some of it was really bad. Like the messy disaster of sauce and seaweed shown below.  I don’t know what we were thinking when we decided that out of all the food trucks, in all of Gangnam, we should select this squid and octopus fried delicacy.  It was far from tasty and we ended up throwing it out after 2 bites.  

She’s laughing because it’s disgusting...

 We went and saw the cherry blossoms and rode some bikes...

We drank tea...

Took pictures next to an ox made of grass...

Then Mary got lost.  I had gone to the gym in the morning and had made plans to meet her at the main intersection and we’d walk to Reggio together.  Somehow she got mixed up in the ping pong ball machine looking streets of my area and took a right when she should have gone left.  About 5 minutes past our planned meeting time I used my friends phone and gave her a call to see if there was a problem.  She had panic in her voice, but I thought nothing of it because there had been a twinge of panic in her voice since before she left the states.  I tried to stay calm, asking what she saw around her.  “Holly’s Coffee on my left” she replied.  I said “Good! Keep going straight.” completely overlooking the fact that there are Holly’s Coffee’s roughly every half block in Seoul.  After waiting a bit longer and running around trying to find her, I decided to hustle to school and try to call her again.  Once at school and on the phone with her, we realized what had happened, I instructed her to a cab, had a Korean give directions to the driver and within 15 minutes she was at Reggio, this didn’t stop the tears though.  Oh there were tears.  And frustration.  And a little scolding.  But after the panic attack subsided everything was fine and the kids were very very excited to see her.  

Then we went to Seokcho on the East Sea.  Our first night we went to a traditional Korean fish restaurant.  At one point there were 4 plats of food that were still moving.  I had some trouble with this meal and Mary didn’t eat much at all.  Fun experience, but i’m not looking to ever do it again.

We got fireworks.  The devil’s fireworks.  They were the kind you light, hold in your hand, and they shoot out balls of exploding fire.  These particular fireworks must have been poorly packed because even if held straight, the fire balls would boomerang and explode on the ground directly behind you or somewhere else in the near vicinity.  So there you are with a stick of gun powder and fire, petrified with fear, firework shrapnel flying everywhere, unable to decide a plan of action that might take you away from this perceived harm.  Looking back on it now, we very easily could have placed the fireworks into the sand, but that option didn’t even occur to anyone at the time.  

Did a lot of seashell hunting.

Went hiking. 

Then after 12 glorious days Mary went back to the states : (  

The Ostrich Farm 

I don’t know who gets the ideas for some of our field trips, or where they get these ideas from, but the trip to the ostrich farm was one for the books.  I spent the whole time freaking out trying to keep my kids away from the ostriches.  I can’t say i’ve spent much time around ostriches, but they are truly disgusting and frightening creatures.  They stare at you, much in the way that the velociraptors stared at prey in the movie Jurassic Park.  Simply terrifying.

Then we got to feed bunnies, which was a welcomed change from the vicious birds of prey.



Thankfully we made it through the day with no breakdowns, bites or injuries.  Some classes weren’t so lucky.  Shota in Dolphin class got to close to a horse and it bit his little arm.  There was mass hysteria amongst the Korean teachers followed by a trip to the hospital.  Fortunately for me and the Elephants, the day was all smiles.

Then we went on another field trip.  This time to see Dibo and the Super Band.  During the show they turned off the lights, gave out glow sticks to all the kids and had laser lights fit for a Vegas club.  It was like a rave for little people.  It was pretty overwhelming for a lot of the kids and WoongJay spent the whole time on my lap crying.  Poor little guy.

Seoraksan...again...

Just two weeks after visiting Seokcho and Seoraksan with my mom, a group of us went back for a long weekend.

I climbed inside a statue of a man outside of Emart....

We hiked. Again.  This time was far different from the leisurely hike I did with my mom.  This hike is intense and challenging, with some 800 stairs going up a sheer rock face.  I’ve done it before, which is why I continually questioned why I suggested we do it again.  

Took some videos documenting our progress.  

But we made it to the top! 

All in all it’s been a busy and bustling past 2 months.  Filled with a lot of fun and a good amount of homesickness.  At times damn near debilitating homesickness.  Thankfully that has passed.  Summer seems to have arrived and i’m about to sign my second contract.  See ya someday USA.