Jacob's Birthday

Last week we celebrated our second birthday in London Teachers class. Jacob, my smart, emotional and tiny little guy turned Korean 6 (American 5) years old. The students were all excited for this day as they had been preparing and discussing the events for days. We had chocolate cake, bananas, brownies, chocolate candies and milk. Jacob's mom even brought him a special hat to wear during the party. It was a very fun day!


Jacob and I








Enjoying the treats

To add to the excitement, one of my old students returned to LCI. Annie had left LCI in April to move to another school. It turns out that things did not work out there so now she is back. I cannot describe this girl to you. She is so cute but very troubled. She lacks a lot of emotional and behavioral skills that my other students have. On top of this, she is very far behind everyone else in the class. This past week was my hardest at LCI. Annie added a lot of stress to my classroom. She would get out of her chair and literally run out of the room. After a few chases through the halls I just let her go and hoped that the Korean staff would deal with the situation. She is always speaking Korean which is a big no-no in my class full of students who have been learning and speaking English for 20 months. Each day when Kinder ended I was worn out and exhausted from always having to stop for her, to chase her or to tell her to stop signing out loud or turning the pages in her book. On Wednesday all of my Kinder moms came for a meeting. We talked about the updates in class and how each student was progressing. It went well but the moms commented on how I seemed flustered and stressed. They also said that they were very happy with their kids improvements and they were so excited that I am back at LCI. Little did they know about the chaos that was happening down the hall. I have had many conversations with my supervisors about my class and Annie so we will see what happens next.

Weekend in Busan

On Friday after work Fred, Steve, Steve's friend Justin and I headed down to Busan. Busan is the second largest city in Korea, at the southern tip of the country. Fred and I spent our summer vacation there when we arrived in Korea July, 2009. We would also take a bus there for the day from Pohang, which is only about a 70 minute ride. We left work and headed to the Suwon train station. Once we arrived in Busan we found a hotel and went to bed.

We woke up on Saturday morning and headed to Busan Tower. Fred and I were acting as tour guides so we tried to hit the main tourist sites in Busan in a short time period. After visiting the tower we went down to Haeundae Beach. This is the main tourist beach in Busan. It turned out that the Busan International Film Festival was taking place in Busan. We did not know this before our trip but we lucked out with getting train tickets and a hotel. There were festivities all along the beach. There were tents with magazine samples, food, beer and many other give-aways. There was even a man walking around with a cooler backpack giving out samples of traditional Korean rice-wine. We watched a little show on a stage near the beach then headed to Busan Aquarium. After this we sat outside and played cards and watched the fireworks.

Busan Tower


Busan International Film Festival

On Sunday we took Steve and Justin to our favorite temple in Korea. It is on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Sunday was a very warm and sunny day. After touring the temple we relaxed on some ocean-side rocks before getting lunch and catching our train. We took a KTX train back to Seoul. The KTX is Korea's bullet train system. We arrived in Seoul after a less than 3 hour ride (going from one end of Korea to the other) and had dinner at an Indian restaurant before coming back to Suji.

Sweet Potato Farm

This past Friday we went on a field trip to a sweet potato farm. We left LCI around 9:50am and loaded into 3 coach buses. After a thirty minute ride we arrived at the farm. We walked around the farm looking at puppies and goats. We continued on to a beautiful field full of sweet potatoes that was surrounded by mountains. The kids joined a line of others and began digging for their treasures. It was so funny to see lines of little kids throwing dirt around as they tried to dig up these potatoes. The manual labor was a great way to burn off access energy! From there we went to feed cows the sweet potato greens. The kids were able to hold long leaves out as the cows munched away. We were then loaded onto an ox pulled wagon. After a two minute ride in a circle around a smaller garden, we headed to eat lunch. The kids had all brought lunches of kimbap (traditional Korean food, rice, veggies and egg wrapped in seaweed) and other goodies. Once we were all filled up we went to feed carrots to horses. We then boarded the buses for the ride back to school. Field trips are always fun and exciting but they always feel like 8 hours. Arriving back at LCI is always exhausting as we still have over 4 hours of teaching ahead of us. Our head supervisor could see our exhaustion and surprised us by delivering pizzas around 4pm. This seemed to give us the energy to finish out the day.

After work a few of us went out for galbi, Korean beef and mushrooms which are cooked on a grill in the center of your table. It turned out to be a very exciting day as we were able to enjoy the beautiful fall weather outside with our students.


Jacob and his sweet potatoes


Digging for potatoes


Wagon ride


Audrey and Judy


Galbi for dinner

Jeju Island

We recently celebrated Chuseok, Korea's most important holiday which is similar to our Thanksgiving. Due to this we only worked on Monday and had the rest of the week off. Fred, Josh and I headed to Jeju island on Tuesday. Jeju island is the southern most part of Korea. It is regarded as Korea's verision of Hawaii. Seoul ended up getting a massive rain storm, at one point we got 8.5 inches an hour! Our original flight was cancelled. The plane was stuck somewhere so we were told to leave the airport and go back to check-in. After talking with the airline, they refunded our departure flight. We then had to go to another airline, stand in line and hope to get put on a later flight. After what felt like 3 hours we were booked on another flight at 6pm. The rains kept up so we got delayed 3 more times. We ended up leaving Seoul around 8:30pm. After a quick 55 minute flight we landed in Jeju and took a cab to our hotel in the southern part of the island. On Wednesday we woke up at went to Jeongbang Waterfall. We explored the area and went into a museum. We then tried to rent scooters but there were already rented out for the week.

Jeongbang Waterfall

On Thursday we went to Jeju World Cup Stadium, a hedge maze and to a go-kart track. We then headed to Yeomiji Botanical Gardens. We were able to see tons of plant life and climb to an observation tower which overlooked the ocean. From there we went to Cheonjeyeon Waterfall. We were able to see the ocean and two waterfalls.



On Friday morning Fred and I woke up early and went to a green tea plantation. Once we arrived we were able to tour the grounds and drink an unlimited supply of green tea. The plantation was on the side of a hill overlooking the ocean. Within the plantation there was a green tea hedge maze. We enjoyed the wonderful views and the delicious tea! We even had green tea cookies and green tea ice cream.

View from the tasting room

We then headed back to the hotel and changed for the beach. We spent the entire day relaxing at Jungmun Beach. The water was clear and very warm! For dinner we met up with our co-teacher Nathan and some of his friends. Friday ended up being my favorite day of the trip. It was relaxing and beautiful, a true vacation day!


On Saturday morning we checked out of our hotel and took a bus along the eastern side of the island. After about 90 minutes we reached our destination, Manjanggul Lava Tubes. This is longest system of lava tubes in the world. The tubes were dimly lit as we walked around. We were only able to walk about 1 kilometer into the tubes. From there we took a taxi to Jeju City, the main city in the north. We found a nice hotel and had dinner.

On Sunday we woke up and explored the area before catching our flight back to Seoul. Overall our vacation to Jeju was fantastic!

Chuseok 2010

It is hard to believe that it is already time to celebrate Chuseok. Chuseok is similar to American Thanksgiving day. The holiday actually falls on this upcoming Wednesday but we celebrated at LCI on Friday. Most of the students arrived at LCI wearing Hanboks. Hanboks are traditional Korean clothing items that are wore for special holidays and events such as Chuseok. We had a very brief morning lesson, about twenty minutes, then we made Songpyeon with our classes. Songpyeon is a traditional Korea rice cake treat filled with sugar, beans and/or sesame seeds. As the kids rolled the rice cake and fillings together I stood back and took pictures. Our Korea bus/lunch teachers were there to oversee this activity and teach the kids the proper Songpyeon form in Korea. After all of the rice cake was rolled, and the kids were covered in a sticky mess we cleaned up and started class. Our lessons for the day were very casual and laid-back. Once Kinder was over the students were not dressed in Hanboks. Last year this day was one of my favorites at LCI and this year celebrations were just as memorable.


My entire class


Fred's class




Audrey and I


Making Songpyeon

Our Apartment

After almost two weeks in Korea we are finally starting to feel at home. Our apartment is still missing some key pieces of furniture, like a couch, but are now getting settled in. This past weekend Fred bought a new TV which makes the apartment feel more like ours. Here is a video to give you the grand tour.

Back to Suji

On Saturday morning I headed back to South Korea. After 3 flights and many hours in airports I finally arrived in Korea. I was met by a driver at the airport who took me to my new apartment. Fred was waiting for me once I arrived around 11:30pm. After realizing that our apartment is missing a few essential things, such as towels and hangers, we gave up on unpacking all of our things. I had a very sleepless night, spending most of my time thinking about my time at home and my future year in Korea.

Fred and I headed to school around 9am. We were happily greeted by the Korean staff before we settled in to get organized. It turned into a very hectic morning but everything went off well. My Kinders were very excited to see me. I was greeted by smiles, hugs and a few shocked faces. My old Kinder student, Samuel, ran and leaped into my arms yelling, "I missed you!" That just about made me week. The afternoon moved at about the same speed. I am not teaching a first grade class to students who have only had a few months of English. There are ten students and they are all very sweet. Right now they are speaking a lot of Korean but I hope this will stop once they get more comfortable with me and their new books. I was happily surprised to find out that I will still be teaching my old second graders. My supervisor told me that they were upset to find out that once I got back I would not be teaching them. I guess they would not stand for this because I am now teaching them. I have been teaching them since I arrived in Korea, July 2009. I am so excited to be their teacher.

After school Fred and I headed out to go shopping. We went to two stores to stock up on apartment essentials and after many bags full of goods we are getting organized. We picked up two traditional Korean foods for dinner and relaxed in our new apartment.

Today we are heading to school to continue to organized our books and lesson plans. I have learned that I will still be teaching my VERY smart third grade class which is exciting. Their English is so good that we usually debate or just talk about things related to our lessons. I am no longer teaching a fourth grade class so on Tuesdays and Thursdays I will finish teaching an hour early, at 6pm.

I will post apartment pictures soon!

The end has arrived

It is hard to believe that I have been in Korea for over a year. When I first arrived I honestly did not think that I would last four months and now it has been over a year. Time really has flown by in a blink of an eye. I have had the most amazing twelve months in Korea, filled with hard times and great times. The new teachers arrived this week, which made it all the more final that my year is up.

I have spent the week cleaning, packing and just enjoying my final days. I know that I will be back in Korea in five weeks however it feels so strange to leave. Once I return I will have the same Kinder class but all of my elementary classes are going to change. Ann, one of the new teachers, will teach my class during August then start teaching a new class once I return. I wonder what it will be like to leave and return. How will things have changed? Will the students be the same and will they seem a lot older and wiser?

Today was my last day teaching three of my classes that only come to LCI on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It was hard to say goodbye to them yet it didn't seem real. It is even harder to believe that I will be home in three days! I know that my time in the states will fly by and soon I will be back in Korea!


My third grade class on my last day teaching them. I have been teaching this class for my entire time in Korea.


One of my third grade classes on my last day teaching them.


My first grade class on my last Thursday teaching them.

Middle of July

It is very hard to believe that it is already the middle of July. I was warned that my year here will go by quickly but I was not really ready for how fast it would past. In just a few days I will have been in Korea for one year!

This past few weekend I headed down to Pohang. Josh came with me. We left on Friday after work and headed to the train station. The weather was a little rainy on Saturday so we spent the afternoon at the movie theater. We then had some western food, sandwiches and fries, for dinner before heading to the beach to light off fireworks. On Sunday we relaxed, had lunch and packed up. I filled my hiking backpack with most of Fred's winter clothes and carried his huge winter jacket in my arms. We have been trying to move most of the stuff he will be keeping in Korea to my apartment. I will then pack it into boxes and carry it to Josh's place to store for a month. Overall it was a great trip and I cannot believe that I will only make the journey once more!

The previous weekends Fred had came to Suji. We spent a lot of our time, including the 4th of July, in Seoul buying a few gifts to take back with us. It didn't feel like the 4th since there were no American flags, red, white and blue, grill outs or fireworks. Last year we were in Maine counting down our final days in the US. It was hard to believe that a year has already passed! We also went to the COEX mall and visited the aquarium. We later found out that one for Fred's kinder moms had seen us at the aquarium but was too shy and unsure to approach us.

Today is the morning of my second to last Monday. This is my last Monday before the two new teachers show up. It is going to be a busy final two weeks!


Johnson and I


Jacob and I


Young and I


Fred and I shooting off fireworks on the beach this past weekend

Kinder Video

Here is a video that I took one morning. We were about to start "Show and Tell" which Young had this morning. Toward the end of the video the kids start touching his dinosaurs so he begins screaming, "no touching!" Enjoy!