Cheny's Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Cheny's birthday. She came to school in a very fancy pink and black dress, complete with matching pink hair bow. Her mother brought a snowman cake, birthday hats and pre-packaged trays of food for each student. We had muffins, candy, yogurt, cake and orange juice. After each student was full, Cheny opened her presents. She got lots of art supplies, hairbows, pencils and stockings. We had a great day and it was a nice way to celebrate before vacation.

Jingle Bell Rock

Here is my class singing Jingle Bell Rock.

Fred's Christmas Song

Here is Fred's class singing Up on the Housetop by the Jackson 5. Two of his students left for the day right before we started singing so they were down a few key members.

Santa Comes to LCI

Today Santa came to LCI. Each class got to see Santa and get a present from him. They were all very excited and full of Christmas joy. After a visit from the young Korean man dressed in a Santa suit, who was speaking and acting as if he was 85 years old, we all went back to our classrooms to practice our Christmas songs. After lunch we all got together for our Christmas song competition. I am sad to say that neither Fred or I placed in the top three! Here is a video of the entire Kinder population singing Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer in Korean at the beginning of the song competition.

Staff Christmas Party

Last night we had our staff Christmas party. After work we all headed to Jeongja, an area near to Suji, for dinner. We rented out a huge room at an American style Chinese restaurant called Rok'n'Wok. We had eaten at this restaurant before and it worked perfectly for our event. We have been exchanging secret santa gifts over the past few weeks and last night we gave our final gifts. Fred had one of our supervisors, Joanne, who also had him. He received movie tickets to go see "The Tourist" this Tuesday night. I had another supervisor, Michelle. Our head supervisor, Lucy, had me. She gave me a very nice set of fur lined gloves. After dinner we went to a Noreabong which is Korea's version of a karaoke room. It was a wonderful night and a great way to celebrate together for the holidays.


Fred and I at dinner

Me, Lucy and Michelle

Joanne and Fred

Michelle, Ann, Me, Maria, Britney

Middle of December

It is hard to believe that it is almost the middle of December. The past few weeks have been really rough at school. We have struggled with our classes and our daily life at LCI. There has been an overwhelming feel of exhaustion within the office. We are all getting worn down by our lack of positive reinforcement at work and our overall workload. Fred and I have questioned if we made the right decision on coming back to LCI. However, things are now looking up as we only have 9 school days left until we go to the Philippines for 9 days.

On Friday after work we headed to a western style buffet. There were great salads, pizza, gnocchi, pasta, steak, soups and desserts. It was so nice to fill up on food that reminded us of home. Today we went into Seoul in search of new cameras for our trip. Fred ended up buying a new digial Panasonic and I got a Canon DSLR camera. I do not know a lot about high quality cameras so I chose a model that is easy to use and takes great pictures. I upgraded the lens so I have one nice lens and will not have to switch lens while taking pictures. We are excited to try out our cameras and get some great pictures from the Philippines.

Saying goodbye to students

This past Friday both Fred and I had to say goodbye to a Kinder student. Kevin, in Fred's class, left LCI because he is moving to Japan. His mom came into school on Friday after lunch and their class had a going away party. Many of the students in the class were crying and avoiding having to say goodbye. Fred's class has been together since they were 5 years old, for a total of three years. They have a pretty tight bond and it was hard for them to lose a class member.





My class had to say goodbye to cute, troubled and social Annie. She is moving to Seoul. All of the students made going away cards for Annie and we spent most of the day playing and enjoying Annie's company. Her mom came at the end of day and brought cakes for the teachers and a present for me. Although Annie has caused stress in my life she is going to be missed. She is always cute and full of love and kisses. As teachers we know that our kids will come and go but that does not make saying goodbye easier. We spend 4.5 hours a day with these Kinder students and we really fall in love with them. It is hard to know that our classes will now each be missing a member.

Thanksgiving 2010

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving but being so far away from our family and friends made it feel unlike our usual Thanksgiving days. We woke up early on Friday morning (Thursday night in MN) to Skype with our families. It was so nice to talk to everyone but if left us both feeling very homesick. The day continued on and we focused on our own celebration. Most of our co-teachers got together on Saturday to celebrate. We bought two pre-made turkeys in Seoul and all got together at Steves on Saturday afternoon. Each person brought a dish to share and we ended up mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, pasta salad, corn, bread, pomegrante seeds, tomato-basil-mozeralla salad and apple and pumpkin pie. There ended up being about 18 people at the dinner. After we ate and watched football from Freds NFL package we all played charades. After the games we headed to our local bar. All-in-all we had a great Thanksgiving but we really missed our families. Now we are looking forward to the Philippines in about 3.5 weeks!


Our meal

Enjoying the food and football

Fred and I

Ann and I

The group at the bar

North Korea Attack

Just a quick update since the recent attack from North Korea. Yesterday afternoon the North attacked an island that lies near the border. This island gets attacked often however this time people were killed and injured. As of now the South says they will only attack if the North takes more action against the South. Everyone here is discussing this however most people are not too concerned as of now. We have heard more helicopters since the attack however we have not seee much else. Fred and I will keep you all updated on the changes. Here is a link to the most popular English newspaper out of Seoul. http://www.koreaherald.com/ Feel free to look here for more updates from the South Korea perspective.

Apartment Update

Our apartment is finally feeling like home. It has taken some time, but now our home for the next 9 months feels like ours. Last weekend we orderd and received our new couch. We ordered it from a company near our area and had it delievered. It also folds into a futon for our hopeful future guests!




This past week at LCI was very hectic. Every 3 months we have to complete a detailed status report on all of our Kinder students to send home to the parents. We had to have them done by Friday which added a lot of work on top of our exisiting spelling tests, weekly Kinder reports and essays. We were all relieved to hand them off to our supervisors on Friday evening.

Today we headed back into Seoul and are now heading to see a movie. This upcoming weekend we will celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday with our co-workers. It is hard to believe that we have already been back in Korea for 3 months! Only 4.5 weeks until we head to the Philippines!