School Punishment in Korea is Strange(eeee)

Interesting school tidbits for those of you who are interested.

My school has ten minute passing periods and during every single one today this kid has had to come into the teacher's office & stand with his face against the wall. I have no idea what he did, I never have any idea what the punishments are for, I've just learned to accept that kids are going to be in the teacher's office staring at the wall or standing with their arms above their heads on a regular basis.

What I do find strange is that I had my 2nd graders (8th grade kids) soon to be 3rd graders make rules for my classroom for next semester as they will be the oldest grade. The punishments they were coming up for themselves for things were strange. Here are my three favorites so far:


"We shouldn't sleep in class. If you don't do this, you have to run a playground five times." - AKA, they have to run around the soccer field 5 times.


"We should dance at the virtual studio when we hit our friends in class." - AKA, they have to do a dance in front of the whole class.


"We shouldn't talk in class otherwise we sould have a conversation with Kate. If we couldn't answer the question, we should be do 'invisible chair'." - I still haven't completely figured this one out, I think it means if they talk in class & can't tell me why they are talking they have to do a wall sit (I only got wall sit because they demonstrated it for me).

Two weeks ago I did a Halloween theme thing with my high schoolers & I made them draw me a picture/describe the creepiest, most disgusting thing they could think of. This AWESOME girl drew a picture of a pretty girl with a meat cleaver in her head and blood SPURTING out of her eyeball, she made it even better by writing a story of how she came to be in that state. I hung it up on my fridge.

These are the times that I love my students.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving, America!

Resolution: I will blog at least twice a month.

Hello everyone!

Long time, no writing - sorry! I just got very caught up with school & my extracurricular activities (a lot of binge drinking & money spending). But, as I'm using November as a month to restore my health, sanity, and checkbook, I thought I'd also use it as a month to catch up on communication.

My life is progressing quite splendidly! I feel completely settled into Korean life and I'm 80% sure I'll end up staying here for at least another year. Some things still irk me almost daily (such as not having hot water unless I physically go push the buttons to turn it on) and I don't think I'll ever get use to being stared at. However, that is part of life & I've just learned to accept the good parts of life in Korea with the bad.

Teaching is going really well, I think I'm getting better and better everyday. Either that or I'm just getting faster at lesson planning & better at improvising things at the last minute. I've also become a master of simplifying my language, I can now speak in the most basic of terms while simultaneously miming the most bizarre actions. At this point I would pass mime school with flying colors.

I still don't really care for teaching at the Middle School, but I think that is due to my coteachers/subject matters more than the students. The Middle School is very strict about having me stick to the book's curriculum, I basically spend my classes , repeating phrases, trying to get the students to create their own sentences, and checking pronunciation. It is just repetitive & I don't feel like I'm able to use my creative side during these days. I try to bring a litte bit of fun into the classes as I can only imagine how bored the kids are.

On the flip side, I love being at the High School, it gives me an amazing rush to stand up in front of those kids. You can actually see the enjoyment on their faces & they cheer for me when I walk into the room, it is a really great feeling. The High School has given me free reign over whatever I want to do. They basically told me as long as the kids are speaking in class & enjoying themselves they don't care what I do, so I'm able to use my creative side a little.

That is all for now, I promise to the few of you that actually read this that I will do it at least twice per month.

I get paid to sit around.

Since Wednesday, September 29th, I have only taught two days. I really don't do anything, but yet I have no idea where the time goes.

I'll sum up the events of my last week (more so I can remember them in a year from now)

29th: Middle School Exams - I sat at my desk all day & tried to plan ahead. In reality, I did nothing but read things online & stare out the window. It really was thrilling.

30th: High School Exams - I sat at my desk for the first half of the day until noon when we were excused from school. After being excused all of the teachers got into cars & drove to Jinbu to go for a walk in some famous forest with lots of temples (I still don't know why we went all the way there for the walk though). It was a lovely day, I learned to pray like a Buddhist, how to recognize the different time periods of Buddhist graves, and that getting stung by a bee in Korea hurts as bad as it does in North America. After our journey through the forest, we loaded back into the cars & drove to a duck farm for dinner & drinks. The meal was AMAZING, the duck was so fresh (killed that day) & the soju was being poured freely. I was convinced to try out raw duck, which I will say has a nice flavor.

1st: High School Exams - Went for a long walk with KM in the morning, then sat around until we were excused at noon. Went and ate buckwheat noodles (a Pyeongchang specialty), they weren't that great until I poured wasabi and manu kochu (hot peppers) all over it. Friday afternoon brought my first Korean lesson at which I had my only useful lesson of the year. I will learn NOTHING in Korean class. All Korean will be learned with KM or on my own time, the class will be an hour and a half of socializing with the other NETs.

Skip forward to Monday, I'll write about the weekend next time.

4th: I actually taught one full day. It was standard teaching day. After school KM and I went to dinner. We had fish & makoli (frozen rice wine).

5th: School Field Trip to Gangneung. We went to the Thomas Edison/largest collection of gramaphones in the world museum, some other place (no one told me what it was) and for a drive past the sea. We were supposed to go to the sea, but it started pouring during our picnic lunch. The day can basically be summed up as, I spent the day with 12 year olds who kept giving me candy & taking pictures of/with me.

6th: I taught a full day and then had to stay for three hours to practice "Summer Night". All I can say is, F you John & Olivia.

7th: The No Sung (Old Castle) Festival starts in Pyeongchang today, so I am sitting at my desk doing nothing for the whole morning as the students are all at the opening ceremony. I think I teach in the afternoon (we'll see though).

Tomorrow I am skipping school to go to the Pyeongchang English Festival for the day.

Basically, my weeks consist of doing nothing & getting paid. My weekends are a little more involved & would take too long to write about now. So, some other time.

7-11

I have returned to the world of the working (sort of). After only teaching one day last week, I now only have had to teach two days this week (Monday & Tuesday) as it is exam week in South Korea. Although I don't teach nor do I moderate exams, I still have to be at school. I am being paid to read things online & eat lunch - two things I'm extremely good at. Actually in the next month I don't teach a full week at all, I think I'm going to have a tough time adjusting to teaching five straight days.

Chuseok vacation was really good. I did America proud on Korean Thanksgiving - I drank, ate, and laid around like a true patriot. I also went rafting and ate at Dunkin' Donuts (a highlight of my week).

Thanks to my friends in Yeongdong, I have found the most trash-tastic venue to drink at. The 7-11 and yes, I do mean the local convenience store. In Korea, all 7-11's have plastic tables & chairs outside where you can spend hours drinking cheap beer & eating food, both of which you can buy and prepare at the 7-11. So, basically you go in, buy 40's and cups, go outside, finish one, go inside buy another & some snacks (normally microwable dumplings or chips), and repeat the process until either the drunk Koreans start becoming creep, it gets too cold & I turn blue, or the 7-11 runs out of beer. This needs to start happening in the US.

That is the only interesting thing that happened to me in the last week. I just found out that tomorrow all the High School teachers will leave school early to go on a hike together before we eat, I'm not too sure how I feel about that. Miss Jung (Korean Mom) said it'll be fun, so I'll trust her.

Next week I get to go on the middle school field trip which I'm sure will be me having to take a lot of pictures with students & being incredibly confused as to what is going on around me. But, that is basically my life, I hardly ever know what is going on around me. I just follow when I'm told to.

Happy Chuseok

Today is Chuseok (Korean T-giving), so I have four days off of work. Everyone goes to their eldest relatives house & they make a ton of food which they then offer to the graves of their relatives as offerings.

It is only day 2 of my 6 day break and it feels really good. I am going to spend the next six days with other NETs (specifically my two favorite people that I met at orientation). I'm assuming their will be a lot of binge drinking, eating, movie watching, and then Friday/Saturday we are meeting up with a big group to go rafting in a city near my town.

I know I've only been teaching for a month, but it is physically and mentally exhausting. Planning & teaching is a lot of work. Not to mention, it is hard to be constantly nice & cheerful for more than 40 hours a week. I will say that all my years of waiting tables and being fake nice for hours on end is finally being put to use.

I have a very monotonous routine during the week. Wake up, walk to school, teach, eat lunch, teach more, walk home, watch movies online, eat dinner, bed. My life is boring during the week, but I have had some interesting weekends.

I spent most of last weekend with my Korean mom, Miss Jung. We went on a long hike Friday after school, 2.4 km straight up hill and then 2.4 straight down. I was exhausted & super sweaty towards the end while Miss Jung seemed fine. I've come to the conclusion Koreans don't sweat much or at all. It is probably why deodorant is not widely available and why Koreans can wear long sleeves & pants when it is SUPER hot outside.


Saturday I went to Miss Jung's mentor's house up in the mountains. I'm still not sure what the whole mentor-student relationship is, I think the idea of it is not easily translated into English. My co-teacher goes there every other weekend to visit her & she told me she wants to retire to the area (completely understandable, it is GORGEOUS).




Mentor (I don't know her real name) is a tiny sixty year old Korean woman who lives up in the mountains with her driver/right hand man. She has been living on this property for ten years and she recently just started farming the area, the eight years before she meditated all day long. Miss Jung told me that Mentor "meets" people when she meditates - apparently she always meets with Buddha, frequently meets with Jesus, and sometimes meets with E.T. (like Spielberg style E.T.). When E.T. comes, he leaves marks on her arms that disappear after a couple of days. As many of you know, my emotions are written all over my face and it was hard for me to contain myself when I heard E.T., it was the highlight of my weekend.

Besides learning about E.T. I picked & sorted peppers with a bunch of Korean people for three hours, ate a lot of delicious food, and played with a German Shepherd puppy (made me miss my puppy). I was invited back whenever I want to go because according to Mentor I bring good luck to the house as the price of peppers went up twice the cost of last year after I had some dream about ticks. I'm still confused about how my dream brought them luck, I just go with what people say and nod/smile a lot.

I'll probably go back since I like the food & the dog so much and I want to hear more about E.T. You know me, the crazier people are the more I enjoy them.

Cheers!

I wish they had Homecoming in High School

I now have internet in my apartment! I have no idea how I survived so long with out it. I am WAY too addicted to technology. However even with my internet, I don't know how often I'll write. I'll try to do it at least once a week in an attempt to cut down on the length of my entries.

Anyways, I LOVE HIGH SCHOOL. It is the best two days of my work week. My reasons:

(1) The students are not ever disruptive during class, they are SUPER engaged, and so friendly. I walk down the halls and have pleasant conversations with my students. I don't know if they are still fascinated by my " new foreign-ness" or if they actually do love me.

(2) The school lunch is 284985329 better than at the Middle School, they have a nutrionist on the payroll to plan out the meals everyday. The food is organic & amazing, the only exception is the days they serve mini hot dogs with sardines, it seems to happen more often than it should. They always serve rice, two main dishes, kimchi, and SOUP.

(3) My Co-Teacher AKA my Korean Mom. She leaves chocolate on my desk daily & I'm not talking about Korean chocolate, I'm talking American chocolate. She is like my own candy dispenser. In addition to candy, she gives me gum, crackers, and KOREAN BLUEBERRIES (which are much better than North American ones). Last week she arranged a special dinner for me with world famous Pyeongchang beef and some speciality pear wine that her mentor made for her. It was AMAZING - the beef never gets frozen & it is SO tender. I've never had better beef or pear wine (granted, I've never had pear wine before). This woman makes my week better, I adore her (however she does not compare to my mother at all - shes DA BEST).

(4) The High School staff treat me like a person, not a child - I'll go into that more next time.

Basically, life is going well. I'm slowly getting into a routine during the week & I am planning on traveling almost every weekend. I get a very good chance next week as it is Korean Thanksgiving and I get six days off! I'll post pictures soon.

I feel the love.

As I promised last week - welcome dinners & Love.

I was lucky enough to have two Welcome dinners the first week I was here, one for each school. They weren’t solely for me; they were for all the new faculty & the faculty who are leaving.

Side note – in Korea teachers switch schools at least every five years and Principals every four years. I still can’t decide if this system is good or bad, I’m having an ongoing debate in my head about it.

Anyways, the dinner was AMAZING. I think the restaurant is considered “THE” fancy restaurant of Pyeongchang City. I went on Tuesday and then again on Thursday. The meal consisted of duck, ham, and chicken, as well as a plethora of side dishes (Kimchi, tofu, beans, HOT peppers etc.), a cold noodle dish or rice & soup. One interesting thing about Korea is at most restaurants you cook the food yourself at the table, they bring you a wok/grill thing and you cook at your own pace at the table. They usually will bring the side dishes right away and then you eat those as you wait for the main course to be complete. All of the food is laid out on the table & you don’t really have a plate, you just eat from all the wok or from the dishes, everyone eats out of the same containers (I’ve stopped thinking about the germs).

I also learned the CORRECT way to pour and receive Soju (Korean alcohol – similar to vodka but it tastes better). You are supposed to finish your glass, offer it to another person, pour the bottle with two hands, wait until they finish (they can sip it or shoot it) and then they pour one back for you. Korean men LOVE Soju, the women don’t drink much in public. All of my male coworkers were running around the room carrying bottles of Soju and pouring for anyone that had finished their drink. I think I made a lot of friends with my ability to take lots of shots, especially with the lunch ladies, they LOVE me now.

Now, the LOVE

The Love Motel was one of the more hilarious experiences of my time so far. It isn't fair to call it a motel as it is nicer than most hotels in America. You can rent them overnight for about $35-$50, and from the outside they all appear lavishly decorated. By lavish, I mean horribly tacky.

I had to go with my head co-teacher to Wonju City (county seat of Pyeongchang County) to get my Alien Registration Card that enables me to work here. It was my first business trip, ever. Moreover, the trip itself is a prime example of how I have no idea what is going on around me & just follow whoever like Mary's Little Lamb.

My "business trip" was full of surprise. Surprise number 1 was finding out that I'd be spending the night after we finished. I figured I'd stay with her as she lives in the city. Nope. Surprise number 2 came after dinner when she led me down the street full of motels and finally into one that reminded me of a very low grade Caesar's Palace.

After she checked me in (courtesy of Pyeongchang Middle School) I had about 50 more surprises, it was like Christmas in September. The surprises are also some of the reasons it is called a love motel (I'll post pictures of everything later)

#3 - a TV with channels in English
#4 - my own computer with Internet
#5 - free mini bar (only had juice & cookies)
#6 - the TWO complimentary pairs of slippers
#7 - stocked tolietries, with both men's and women's items
#8 - the two pressed, freshly packaged robes
#9 (my favorite) - a sealed package on the bed containing 2 toothbrushes, toothpaste, 2 razors, 2 condoms, and lubricant

The room had other sweet electronic features that made up the other +40 surprises, but the "Love Motel Gift Bag" could not be topped.

Interesting things about Korea:
- You should never write anyone’s name in red as they think this means they will die
- For high tech this country is with some things (car elevators for parking garages) their bathrooms are severely lacking. Most places have Eastern toilets. If they do have a Western toilet, they don’t usually have toilet paper. The toilets don’t flush automatically, they use bar soap, and no hand dryers/paper towels. Yes, I’ve put a lot of thought into the bathrooms here.
- Schools have cleaning time everyday for twenty minutes during which the students have to clean the school
(sweep, empty trash, mop, etc.) It is my favorite time of day.
- Love Motels
- Adding the E sound onto the end of English words that have no E's. Example - Lunch is pronounced as Lunchie
- Being asked within the first five minutes of meeting someone if I'm religious

I’m sure this list will get longer and longer as I notice more and more things.

Next time - my triumphant return to high school (if they had Prom or Homecoming, I'd be the EMPRESS hands-down) my new best friend, meeting the other NETs, and Korean beef

Kate Teacher

Alexis nicely informed me that I haven’t written on this thing in awhile. So, I’ll just give a short update as I have to run off to school in a few minutes.

I’ve started teaching as of last Monday (30th of August) and have been kept really busy doing that. Last week was mainly introductions to the students, letting them get to know me, me figuring out the electronic equipment, eating lunch in the cafeteria (amazing food) etc. This week started “real” teaching, which is a work in progress. Monday was rough, Tuesday was better, and I think by Friday I might enjoy it. The only problem is my throat is killing me by the end of the day (I’ve been shouting at Middle Schoolers, A LOT).

I teach 4 classes a day – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at the Middle School (Grades 7-9) and Thursday, Friday at the High School (Grades 10 and 11). I have to be at school from 8:30-4:30 every day, which is nothing compared to the students. High School students are at school from 8:00 A.M. – 9:30 or 10:00 P.M., they have nine hours of classes a day and then mandatory student time. It sounds horrible.

The Middle School has a set curriculum that I have to teach to, so I’ve been busy reading their textbook and making lesson plans that incorporate the text book with some fun. I personally find the text book to be redundant and horrible. It is not cohesive & the actors they have for some of the videos make me laugh. I’m trying hard to make it a little fun for them.

The High School gave me free reign to do whatever I want as they want their students to have some fun during the day. My co-teachers told me as long as the students have fun & speak during class they don’t care what I teach them. So if you have any suggestions what 15 and 16 year old Korean kids want to learn about, please share them!

So, yeah, I’m keeping busy. I was at school until 9 P.M. last night as the school is preparing for the English Festival. I still have no idea what the English Festival is, but I was told I’m to help with it. Helping apparently means teaching the lyrics and choreographing a dance to “Summer Nights”. I’m just hoping I don’t have to perform with the students.

I met the other NET (Native English Teachers) in my city yesterday and all of us that live in the county are going out to dinner tonight to get to know each other. I’m looking forward to the break from my school-dinner-sleep routine that I’ve made.

That’s all for now, I have to be on my way. It isn’t a long walk, but I get distracted by stores I’ve never seen & things on the street.

Next time – my two Welcome dinners, Love Motel, and more about teaching.

Hope all is well!

Pyeonchang

An-yeong-ha-seoi-yo! (Hello!)

It is pronounced “ahn-yaw-ha-sa-yo”, or at least that is how I’ve been pronouncing it along with a small bow to the person you are greeting. I like the bow, I feel fancy, I kind of wish it was curtsey though.

Anyways, a lot has happened since I wrote last Saturday. I’m not going to go into day by day specifics because that will take forever and parts of it were super boring; I’ll just highlight the parts I liked the most/the most important events.

Sunday EPIK took us to a traditional Korean Folk Village in Yongin City, Gyeonggi-do – “home to numerous collections of Korean cultural artifacts… provides a venue to promote traditional Korean culture…developed to convey the wisdom and the spirits of Korean ancestors” – excerpt from the brochure

Favorite Parts of the Village:
-Farmers music & dance: a choreographed drum number in which each of the performers was wearing what can only be described as a ribbon on the top of their head; they were surprisingly in-sync with the ribbon movements, I’m going to call it the best Ribbon Dancer commercial that has been yet to be made.
-Acrobatics on a tightrope: the guy was super old & some of the movements made me cringe for the pain I imagined he was in.
-Lunch: traditional foods like mixed barley rice, tofu with kimchi, pan fried pancake; also had traditional Korean Rice Wine (super delicious & refreshing, a little potent)
Least Favorite Parts of the Village:
-It was over 100 degrees & Korea is HUMID.
-The group looked like a summer camp, we were wearing matching Carolina Blue Polos.

After the village we went to the Gyeonggi Arts Center where we had instructors teach us how to play the janggu (Korean drum) as well as how to do a traditional Korean flag dance (for which I won a prize for being the best dancer – I think it was the rice wine) The dance reminded me of a strange bird mating ritual, I’m willing to perform it for anyone that asks in the future. After the “classes” we were treated to a performance of “Break Out”, basically breaking dancing through the ages meets a group of convicts escaping from jail. I still don’t really get the plot, but the dancing was awesome.

Lets skip forward now to my new favorite activity, NOREABONG. It is Korean karaoke and it is taken SUPER seriously. It is probably one of the best things, ever. I can’t get enough of it. Many of you know, I don’t sing when people are around, but I have turned into a karaoke whore. You pay for a room that can fit up to twenty people, so you aren’t performing in front of random people & it is BYOB. Once it comes to the US, it will blow up and be unstoppable.

As it is taken so seriously, I was advised to have at least one song that I can sing and be completely serious in doing it, I’ve decided it will be “Thank God, I’m a Country Boy” or my preference “Battle of New Orleans” if they have it.

Skipping farther ahead…I am no longer in Seoul, but am settled into my studio apartment in Pyeonchang (pronounced Peonchung) nicknamed “Happy 700”. The town is nice; it is settled in the mountains and is surrounded by gorgeous forestry. The area is bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics, so there is a lot of infrastructure improvement & bad-ass ski areas 15 minutes from the main part of town. Look it up online, there are a lot of websites about the area.

I arrived in the city on Friday and was promptly taken to my school and met all three of my co-teachers, all of whom I like immensely, along with a variety of other office staff & teachers (none of who I know the names of). I was also informed that in addition to teaching middle school three days a week, I will also be teaching high school classes two days per week. Yeah, high school, the kids are only 4-5 years younger than me – I’m sure I’ll get a lot of respect.

I have a desk in the Vice-Principal’s office (common practice here), next to the Home-Ec. teacher and behind the music teacher. I didn’t get much of a chance to look around the middle school and still haven’t been to the high school.

After all of the introductions/overwhelming information I was taken to my apartment (10 minutes walk from the middle school, 20 from the high school). I live on the third floor of a walk up of a nice little complex (my bad weighed 80lbs) & the super lives directly beneath me; she is a cute older Korean woman.

Two of my three co-teachers (my head co-teacher lives an hour from town, so she promptly left after giving me the keys to my apartment) took me out to dinner that night along with my desk neighbor (Home-Ec) and the Director of some Department at the school. My older co-teacher is 27 and the other is my age but in Korea she is 24, which means technically I’m 24 for the duration of my stay (bizarre age system they have here).

Dinner was AMAZING. I told them that I liked spicy food and the spicier it was the happier I’d be. It was phenomenal, second best dish I’ve ever eaten, one of the girls started crying because it was so spicy for her. It was spicy octopus that you cook at your table (another common practice) with bean sprouts. The server brings you a wok-type thing & all of the necessary tools to cook with and you go to it at the table. I think my co-workers think I’m insane as in addition to eating half of the octopus, I ate all of the peppers on the table which were refilled twice for me.

The director of some department came to dinner (and paid – Korean tradition in which oldest person at the table pays for everyone) and he is awesome. He is probably around 60, speaks 50 words of English, and loves to drink Soju. He and I were have a grand old time through our interpreter.

Saturday & Sunday I spent exploring the town; it is pretty small and very quiet on the weekends.

Randomly came across a long hiking trail and walked on that for a couple miles up into the mountains.

That is about all, this week is my first official week as a teacher, but I’m not teaching until the following week; just planning – whatever that means.

I’ll try to write more often (it will help when I have internet at my apartment), to keep the length down on these.

An-yeong-hi Ga-seoi-yo! (Good-bye)

Hello to my very few followers!


I'm not sure what I should write about and I don't want to bore all of you. I'll try to keep this short & I'd appreciate any feedback of what to write about. I think I'll just give you a breakdown of what I've been doing since I left LK.

Departed LK early Wednesday morning, had a very uneventful trip via San Francisco to Seoul. Boring flight, bad movies, horrible amenities on the plane. I guess that is what you get when you fly US based airlines who don’t care about customer service or the customer in general.

Upon arrival, the EPIK (English Program in Korea) staff was there to greet us and put us on buses to the orientation site in downtown Seoul. I attempted to stay awake to see the sites along the way, but failed miserably and fell asleep within the first five minutes. I should mention the airport is about 60 minutes from Seoul on an island called Incheon.

Thursday night was really easy, we did check-in, room assignments, and DINNER (which I will get to later). After dinner a couple of girls and I went out for a walk around the area. I was really out of it from jet lag and lack of sleep in the three days before, but the highlights were – carved topiary bushes, stumbling across a side street full of brothels, and cocktails served in Capri-punch like pouches on the street. We came back around 9 PM as we were all too tired to stay awake much longer.

Friday we were assigned to our classes, which were based upon what province you are going to. Within five minutes of being in my group, I met a very nice couple who hail from Kansas City, which led to a very conversation over Lawrence, Kansas City, and of course KU sports (I mainly listened to that part). Even better than having a bit of Kansas here is that they have already taught here for a year and were very liberal with advice and patiently answered all my inane questions.

In the afternoon we had our official welcome ceremony, highlighted by a world famous Tae-Kwon Do troop made up of little kids with very VERY dirty feet and some high kicks, we also a traditional Korean music performance, and a lecture over the history and politics of Korea. I missed a lot of the lecture as my jet-lag was still keeping me down, I will say the professor had some very interesting insights into the NoKo-SoKo conflict.

Last night my roommate and I decided neither of us had the energy to go anywhere or attempt to do sight-seeing, so instead we watched Entourage and fell asleep pretty early.

I just completed my very involved medical test which included – BMI, sight test, hearing test (fastest one I’ve ever taken – she told me to raise my hands when I heard the beeps which came immediately after I put the head phones on; nothing like those long ones that we were forced to take in elementary school), we had blood drawn, and a chest X-Ray (on some sort of large bus that they brought to the University). It was like a machine the way they moved us through each station. They have done 150 involved medical tests in less than 3 hours, I was thoroughly impressed.

Now, for my favorite part. FOOD. I will post the menu for this week later in picture form and discuss my favorite parts in a more involved break down. But, I will tell you this. I LOVE KIMCHI. It is a spicier, tangier, crunchier, more heavenly sauerkraut. As many of you are aware, I have an addiction to sauerkraut and would eat it with any meal, including my cereal, but this seems to be frowned upon/grosses people out in the US, but in Korea kimchi comes with EVERY meal. The more I eat the happier the Koreans get, as it is what they are none for and are very proud of. Kimchi has officially taken the number spot in my heart of favorite food.
If you made it to the end of this, thanks. I found it boring when I re-read it. So, PLEASE if you have suggestions, let me know!

Bye bye!