hangman

This literally just happened, it was just too hilarious to not tell you guys about.

I was playing hangman with my last class and a boy came up to the board... he wrote 3 blanks, and almost immediately all the kids were screaming "S" "S" S"! The first letter was S. So of course next comes "X"!! leaving...

S _ X

at this point everyone is dying laughing including me, and my face turns BRIGHT red. so then all the kids start laughing at me and my red face. awesome.

the kid finished and the word is SIX. obviously. smartass. all in a day for middle school teacher i guess.

enjoy some pics of cherry blossoms

Camping.

Spring has finally arrived in Korea, after one of the longest winters ever, or so i'm told. The first weekend it was around 60 we decided to take advantage so we packed up our stuff and headed 3 hours south to Songnisan National Park. We got there and had a nice meal of bi bim bap, pajeon, and rice wine (makgoli) and then found our campsite. Rebecca and I had bought a tent at the market the night before and it turned out to be a good purchase. After we set up our tents we headed to the Buddhist temple in the park. There was a huge buddha, which was really impressive, plus some of the oldest buildings in Korea. We walked around, took a buncha

pictures, and hung out by the river.

After the temple the women (Rebecca and I) headed back to camp to make guacamole while the boys went to town to buy beer. That's how it's supposed to work right? After we ate our snack of amazingness, we turned to our task of building a fire. It took all of us a really long time to get a fire started, but after lots of effort involving fanning it with a frying pan we got it going. We stayed up telling ghost stories and drinking around the campfire. Now let's just say that it wasn't the best night's sleep I've ever gotten. The water we had with us was frozen when we woke up so I'm guessing it was around 35 degrees that night. We were all freezing. But we survived. That Sunday morning was Easter so we set up our easter egg dying kit, hard boiled some eggs on the fire, and dyed away. We cooked brunch and then packed up and headed to Seoul. It felt really good to get out of the city for the weekend, plus I love camping. Hopefully there will be many more camping trips this summer.

pen pal letters

This week in class I am having my kids write letters to American students that I am "actually going to send to America". The letters have obviously been hilarious so I though I'd share my favorite ones...

To: Friend

Hello! My name is Dong Ju-Shin

What is your name?

I am 15 years old and I live in Gwangju, South Korea.

In Korea, it's spring here.

How's the weather in America? and where do you live?

You! Girl? or Boy?

I am a boy.

And I love to eat the brain of monkey and bear's bile.

Taste it ~ it's very good for body.

Do you know "Rain" who is a famous singer in the world.

He is my father

And my mother is lady gaga.

I'm mixed person. HaHaHa.

And my grandfather is 200 years old. He is the oldest man in the world. But he is very healthy, yesterday he got the baby.

My hobby is playing outside with my friends.

How about you?

It's time to say "Bye~Bye~Bye"

I hope to you send a letter to me.

ps. Would you like to go to Africa with me?

here are some other notable quotes:

"Korea's president in Lee Myeong Bak. I don't like him. He looks like a mouse."

"kimchi is very famous korean food. I don't like it but it is sold to Japan."

"Dok Island is Korean's. But Japanese people calling Dok Island is Japan's. You should know the Dok Island is our land."

"I know lady gaga... she is very nice!"

"My nickname is Goddess because I have many secret."

"I want to be a fly." (he meant pilot)

"I have not girlfriend. maybe you are girl become my girlfriend please"

"I learn English, because my message know every world people."

"my hometown is another world"

"my favorite food is fork"

"my favorite dream is get tall"

"I smart, elite."

"I am 14 yewsold"

"fuck japan"

"you may think our people only study and sleep less"

"girls and women aren't quiet and feminine, we are brave, powerful more than boys!"

"i'm 185cm and 46kg. I'm not finish diet... let's diet together."

"i respect Newton"

"i look like is puppy"

"P.S. If you are a solider, I'm sorry to hear that."

"He is my friend. He looks like panda. He got the polio in 1999 when he 3 years old but he is healthy now. bye~"

"I don't know who you are so I love you"

ahhh Korean children... love em

nom nom nom

I thought I'd do a post on Korean food, since it is what I eat for almost every meal and you all with have to deal with me eating it all the time when I get back. In almost neighborhood there is a restaurant that sells the Korean version of "fast food". It's sort of like the American Diner, me and my friends always go to them after a night out, or I pick up takeout on my way home from work. Here are some of my favorite foods to get at a place like this...

Kim Bap (김밥)
Kim bap is Korea's version of sushi. Kim means seaweed and bap means rice in Korean. I call it ghetto sushi because of the random things they put in it. Kim Bap doesn't have raw fish in it like sushi, instead it has fried egg, veggies, fake crab, ham or spam, and then something you choose. My favorites are tuna (참치 chamchi) or cheese (치즈 chee juh). When I say tuna though, its like the canned tuna you eat on a sandwich at home.. and the cheese is just like Kraft Singles. Hence, why I call it ghetto sushi.

Jjigae (ㅈ지개)
Jjigae is a spicy soup that comes in many variations. My favorite is Kimchi Jjiage which is spicy broth with kimchi cabbage in it. It also usually has tofu and zucchini in it. It's pretty spicy and has a lot of flavor to it, so for cabbage soup it's actually really enjoyable.

Bi Bim Bap (비빔밥)

Bi bim bap is probably my favorite Korean food, which seems to be true for almost all foreigners. Bi Bim means mixed vegetables and Bap means rice so it translates to mixed veggies and rice. Basically it's a bowl with rice on the bottom, topped with veggies (the traditional being mushrooms, spinach, carrots, radish, lettuce, zucchini, soy bean sprouts, and cucumber) and then with a huge dollop of spicy bean paste hot sauce, and finally a sunny side egg on top. The way to eat it is to break the egg up and mix the whole bowl up really well so when you take a bite you get a little of everything. This dish is pretty spicy as well, which I why I love it.

Mandoo (만두)
Mandoo is a Korean dumpling. They are really delicious and Koreans eat them plain or sometimes put them in their soups or with ramen.

Ddokkbokki (돜봌이)
Ddokbokki is Korean rice cakes in spicy sauce. When I say rice cakes I don't mean like quaker oats. Rice cakes are rice ground down into a paste and molded into things, kinda like pasta. They're chewy and have an interesting texture. This is one of the only Korean foods that is really just not good for you.

Kimchi (김치)

Kimchi is the most famous Korean dish. Koreans are more proud and protective over this one aspect of their culture than you can imagine. Kimchi is a crunchy vegetable (traditionally cabbage) fermented in really spicy sauce. My favorite isn't the cabbage kind, but instead made with raddish. Basically what I have learned is that kimchi isn't really a main food item, but more of a way to break up the meal. It's sort of like when you go to a perfume store and they make you smell coffee beans in between perfumes to clear your pallette. Kimchi works kinda the same, it's a crunchy and spicy pause in between main food dishes.

There is obviously more Korean food than this, these are just a sample of the kinda things I eat on a regular basis. I would venture to say that these foods are the college kid's diet because they're all really cheap. A roll of kim bap costs me 2,500 won ($2) and a whole bi bim bap costs me 5,000 won ($4). Eating in Korea is really cheap. I actually really love the food here, which I am happy about. Happy eating in America.

kpop update

for those keeping track there are some new songs out:

firstly, my favorite group Girls Generation has a new song called "Oh!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzVFyWNzjtE&NR=1

in this song they talk about how they love "opa" which in Korean means "older brother" but thats a loose translation because it's used to show respect to any older man, and girls call their boyfriends it as well.

also, i am kinda obsessed with a song called "Marshmallow" by IU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_6WgsXMXkE

and lastly, my other favorite group 2NE1 (pronounced 21 or two N E one) has a new song called "Try To Copy Me".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCPFvY4ZbLM

In the chorus they say "Iro Kay" a lot which translated means "like this" when you are telling someone to do something. kinda like "do it this way". thats a word i've learned!

back in the land of kimchi and converse

I've been back from vacation now for over 2 weeks. It already feels like forever though. From now until the end of July I only have 2 days off, so it's gonna be a long haul.

The first weekend I was back I decided to pick up my Korean traveling weekends again. Rebecca and I decided to go to a national park area in the middle of the country. We took a bus on Saturday morning and it took around 2 hours, when we got there we found a hotel and then

headed out on our adventures. First, we went to a cave and took the tour, which was cool. We were headed out of the cave when we noticed a sign for clay shooting so we of course were

intrigued. In Korea, a civilian owning a gun is illegal so they have a certain fascination with them. My dad has shotguns in Michigan and I have shot them before, but Rebecca had never shot a gun. We got to the range and the Koreans who worked there probably thought we were

crazy... i mean, just imagine two American girls walking into a gun shooting range in Korea. But we got right down to business. The guns in Korea and the whole process was definitely different than in America. First of all, the guns had no safeties on them, you loaded them, shut it, and it was loaded and ready to be fired. I hit 4 out of 10 clay pigeons which is a personal rec

ord for me. haha. After we shot the guns the men even took pictures of Rebecca pointing the barrel at the camera, which I knew my dad would NEVER let happen with his guns.

After the shotguns we decided to head to a temple nearby.... nearby being what we thought. We got in a taxi and after about 15 minutes started to count the money we had on us. We counted out 26,000 won which was including all of our coins. We started freaking out once the meter hit around 23,000 and eventually had to tell the cab driver to stop and explain to him in

broken Korean that we didn't have enough money to keep going. The cab driver laughed at us and told us he would take us the rest of the way. Nice people do exist! We got to the temple and were a little freaked out since we had spent every last won (literally) to get there. We joked in the cab that we would have to go to "Buddha's ATM" at the temple to take out money so we

wouldn't be stranded. As we walked into the temple we looked to our right and inside the

temple walls was A BANK! We were so lucky that this Buddhist temple was apparently a

modern one and had a bank inside. So random! Anyways we took out cash, and with the

newfound assurance we wouldn't be stranded in a random Korean Buddhist temple or walking home we headed in. This temple is one of the coolest ones I have seen so far in Korea. It is built into a valley and you had to walk up steep hills to get to the top buildings. The view from the top, therefore, is really stunning with the rest of the temple below you.

The next morning we had planned on going paragliding, but the weather was kinda crappy so we decided against it. We want to go back to this area once it's warmer out. Instead we took a walk across a huge bridge near the hotel, and then we went to a place called Aqualand.

Aqualand is an indoor waterpark/sauna and it was really funny. We spent most of our time there sitting in the hot tubs outside, since the actual waterpark was literally crawling with Korean children.

After our day at the waterpark we went out for some pizza and beer and then watched Indiana Jones in our hotel. We went to bed and I woke up at 5AM to watch the USA vs. Canada hockey game, which was really exciting, but sadly we lost. We headed back to Seoul that morning and went to our favorite spot - Myeongdong - and met up with our friends John and Q. The first ever H&M had opened in Seoul 2 days prior and we wanted to check it out. There was a red carpet, line, and the whole shabang but just like H&M in America it was kinda lame. Q is Korean and knows some of the better spots to shop so he introduced us to some new stores off the beaten path which was fun. We went out for sushi and then went home. School started officially the next day.

Hopefully I'll be doing more traveling and interesting things like this instead of just going out in Seoul every weekend now that it's getting warmer out. Chao for now.