One more post before Thailand tonight!
Blake and I have had some free nights this week because our students are busy studying for their exams and don't come to CDI. Wednesday night we actually had the night off together and had a few friends over. We decided that we wanted pizza from a great pizza store called "아이완피차" which translates "I want pizza." Trouble is...I couldn't find the phone number and had to call information to get some help. The information girl's English was fairly good, but we had a bit of an issue regarding the name of the pizza store. I told her that I wanted to order pizza and wanted the phone number for the pizza shop. She asked the name and I said "I want pizza." She seemed a little irritated and said that she knew we wanted pizza, but needed to know the name. This went back and forth a few times. The NAME is "I want pizza!" She ended up getting us a number, but it didn't work. We ended up making spaghetti instead.
Thailand news...we are very excited! I tried to call the first hotel today to ask them about a ride from the airport. They put on 'the English girl,' but we weren't able to talk well. I asked her how we would know who to look for at the airport and she responded with, 'ok, goodbye' and hung up. Umm...this may be the start of a really big adventure! :)
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Phone Jail!
Koreans love cell phones! Everywhere you look people are talking on cells, texting or holding their phones so that they're ready for an incoming call. I think one of the things that shocked us the most was seeing how many little kids have cell phones too. Perhaps their parents are using it as a safety precaution, but I don't understand why a four year old would need one!
Anyways...this presents a bit of a problem for me as kids are often distracted by their phones and try to hide them during class. I catch countless numbers of kids trying to text without looking at their phone- points for talent!
Very early on I saw the necessity of what's called, "Erin's Phone Jail." If I see a phone or hear a phone, it goes to phone jail for the rest of class and cannot be used even on breaks. Today I was teaching some junior students and a phone started to ring. I was slightly irritated as all my kids denied ownership of the ringing phone. I made them all look in their bags to prove that it wasn't their phone making the noise. Unfortunately, they all proved they were telling the truth and I then realized that it was MY PHONE! How stupid do I feel!! Naturally, the kids thought this was hilarious as my phone went to jail.
We also have a very exciting announcement:
After a year of anticipation, we have finally booked a trip to Thailand and leave this Friday April26th. We will be gone for a week returning Sunday May4th. We will visit the northern city of Chiang Mai for the beginning and then will be heading south to Phuket for the remainder of the visit. We are very excited! We are armed with our camera and are rolling up our bartering sleeves....actually Blake is more excited about this :)
Anyways...this presents a bit of a problem for me as kids are often distracted by their phones and try to hide them during class. I catch countless numbers of kids trying to text without looking at their phone- points for talent!
Very early on I saw the necessity of what's called, "Erin's Phone Jail." If I see a phone or hear a phone, it goes to phone jail for the rest of class and cannot be used even on breaks. Today I was teaching some junior students and a phone started to ring. I was slightly irritated as all my kids denied ownership of the ringing phone. I made them all look in their bags to prove that it wasn't their phone making the noise. Unfortunately, they all proved they were telling the truth and I then realized that it was MY PHONE! How stupid do I feel!! Naturally, the kids thought this was hilarious as my phone went to jail.
We also have a very exciting announcement:
After a year of anticipation, we have finally booked a trip to Thailand and leave this Friday April26th. We will be gone for a week returning Sunday May4th. We will visit the northern city of Chiang Mai for the beginning and then will be heading south to Phuket for the remainder of the visit. We are very excited! We are armed with our camera and are rolling up our bartering sleeves....actually Blake is more excited about this :)
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Busan Trip
A couple of weeks ago, Blake and I went to the second largest city in South Korea called Busan. We were checking out some potential employment opportunities, but we were also very interested in some of the tourist attractions of the city. The first place we visited was the Busan Fish Market. I have heard stories of this place from the horrific smell of fish guts to old Ejemas (that's old Korean women) running down the street after an escaping octopus. However, nothing prepared me for the real thing. There were streets lined with tanks of live fish, dead fish, dying fish flopping around gasping for air, fish not completely dead, yet cut in half, dried fish, octopus, squid, crabs, seaworms, etc... I was so glad we went when the weather was a little cooler because I can't imagine how horrible it would have smelled in warmer temperatures.
I think one of the most disturbing memories for me was watching a cute little family buying a live octopus. The family made their pick out of a tank and the old woman selling grabbed one of the legs and dropped it into a small bowl on the ground. As the family got out their money to pay and everyone was distracted, I think the octopus thought it had finally got a break and tried to escape. It crawled out of the dry bowl and made its way to another bowl of water nearby. As soon as the transaction was completed, I witnessed an incredibly disturbing scene... the lady grabbed it by a leg out of the water, ripped off the head, reached in and yanked out something round and black (heart?), plunked it in a bag and handed it to the family. Wow is all I can say.
Poor Octopus
Our good friends Andrew and Hannah accompanied us on the trip. These next few pictures are us on the beach looking out over the East Sea (as Koreans call it) or the Sea of Japan (as the rest of the world calls it).
Below: Andrew and Hannah with us.
The next place we were eager to see was the Busan Aquarium. I think I am forever scared of the ocean because there are some really huge, really scary looking things that I hadn't previously known to be afraid of! I am thoroughly convinced that God has a sense of humour because there are some bizarre looking creatures out there!
Oh...Blake wants to apologize for the poor photos as there was low quality lighting and we grabbed many of these pictures from video. :) Definitely not his fault! ;)
I think these guys have a perma- headache!
Some sort of weird jellyfish.
Below: One of Blake's favourites! The Jackass Penguin.
This fish is absolutely massive! I think it could have easily been bigger than me- biggest I've ever seen.
Yuck! Weird looking eel.
Massive Crabs!
Yup... fun day!
I think one of the most disturbing memories for me was watching a cute little family buying a live octopus. The family made their pick out of a tank and the old woman selling grabbed one of the legs and dropped it into a small bowl on the ground. As the family got out their money to pay and everyone was distracted, I think the octopus thought it had finally got a break and tried to escape. It crawled out of the dry bowl and made its way to another bowl of water nearby. As soon as the transaction was completed, I witnessed an incredibly disturbing scene... the lady grabbed it by a leg out of the water, ripped off the head, reached in and yanked out something round and black (heart?), plunked it in a bag and handed it to the family. Wow is all I can say.
Poor Octopus
Our good friends Andrew and Hannah accompanied us on the trip. These next few pictures are us on the beach looking out over the East Sea (as Koreans call it) or the Sea of Japan (as the rest of the world calls it).
Below: Andrew and Hannah with us.
The next place we were eager to see was the Busan Aquarium. I think I am forever scared of the ocean because there are some really huge, really scary looking things that I hadn't previously known to be afraid of! I am thoroughly convinced that God has a sense of humour because there are some bizarre looking creatures out there!
Oh...Blake wants to apologize for the poor photos as there was low quality lighting and we grabbed many of these pictures from video. :) Definitely not his fault! ;)
I think these guys have a perma- headache!
Some sort of weird jellyfish.
Below: One of Blake's favourites! The Jackass Penguin.
This fish is absolutely massive! I think it could have easily been bigger than me- biggest I've ever seen.
Yuck! Weird looking eel.
Massive Crabs!
Yup... fun day!
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Gyeongju
Blake and I having been working quite a lot recently and were really feeling the need to get away from the pollution and the big city. We decide to take a trip to the smaller town of Gyeongju which is about an hour from our home in Daegu. There was a Cherry Blossom Festival in this city and it's famous for being very beautiful this time of year. The bus ride cost $7 for the both of us- crazy how cheap some things are! Blake was in his glory snapping pictures of flowers and the beautiful scenery. Here are some pictures from the day.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Marathon Results
We did it-we finished 10k! Twas a good day! My students were quite concerned about us going in a marathon when we don't speak Korean and thought it was a bad idea. Sometimes I wonder how they think we've survived at all this last year in doing anything. The day started off a bit rough when no taxis were anywhere in sight. After we stood for awhile with no hope of a ride, Blake gave the thumbs up sign to a random car. Turns out they recognized our marathon shirts and gave us a lift. We couldn't really communicate well, but I think they understood we were thankful! Other than that, it was a great day and really...who needs language when all you're doing is running? Blake finished the race no problem in 1 hour. He was actually hoping to score one of the best times in the girls category- we signed up for the run on the internet and he didn't know how to change the gender to male- so he proudly ran with a 'red' number on his shirt in the girls category.
I finished 1 hour and 14 minutes and I am extremely sore now! My goal was to simply finish and not really worry about speed or time. I kindof felt like the slow turtle passing all the fast little bunnies who got tired half-way through. So vindicating! The day ended with us finishing the race and then going to the foot massage hut where they had students give us a great massage- it was so wonderful! Here are a few pictures from the day. Please note the spelling of depository in the first picture! :)
Here are a few pictures of the Daegu World Cup Stadium where the race began and ended.
Here are some shots of some of the runners. We had to put our camera in a locker so we don't have any pictures of us during the race.
After our run posing with the weird big head dude. This shot followed quite a hilarious scene where a bratty little boy tried to pull the head off the mascot and nearly succeeded.
Below is Blake and I with our 'finisher medals ' at the end of the run. We handed the staff our computer chips and they handed us finisher medals for the 42.5km run instead of the 10km. They must have assumed because of our incredible physique that we were in the full marathon. Easy mistake! :) On these rare occasions, the language barrier works to our advantage!
I finished 1 hour and 14 minutes and I am extremely sore now! My goal was to simply finish and not really worry about speed or time. I kindof felt like the slow turtle passing all the fast little bunnies who got tired half-way through. So vindicating! The day ended with us finishing the race and then going to the foot massage hut where they had students give us a great massage- it was so wonderful! Here are a few pictures from the day. Please note the spelling of depository in the first picture! :)
Here are a few pictures of the Daegu World Cup Stadium where the race began and ended.
This is a picture of Blake and I early in the morning before the race. Blake looks really sleepy!
Here are some shots of some of the runners. We had to put our camera in a locker so we don't have any pictures of us during the race.
After our run posing with the weird big head dude. This shot followed quite a hilarious scene where a bratty little boy tried to pull the head off the mascot and nearly succeeded.
Below is Blake and I with our 'finisher medals ' at the end of the run. We handed the staff our computer chips and they handed us finisher medals for the 42.5km run instead of the 10km. They must have assumed because of our incredible physique that we were in the full marathon. Easy mistake! :) On these rare occasions, the language barrier works to our advantage!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Update
Hey Y'all! Thought I'd give a bit of an update. The rhythm of school continues to go well- we love working with these kids and have been growing in many skills. I have recently been 'voluntold' to do a parent presentation next Wednesday on the program of CDI. While I am very confident infront of a group of kids, I am quite nervous about being infront of a bunch of parents. There's quite a bit of pressure as these are paying parents who are very interested in their kids education!
Blake and I are also gearing up to run in a marathon tomorrow morning. Blake has been pumped about this ever since he heard about it, but I have never really enjoyed running- I just get so bored! Anyways...being the supportive wife that I am...I signed up too. I figured that this year has been a year of pushing ourselves beyond our comfort zones so we decided to add a mini-marathon to the mix! We've been training at the gym most days and Blake has been doing really well- he'll make 10k no problem. I on the other hand am a little concerned! I'm still seriously considering just going for the t-shirt! :) We received information about the marathon the other day in the mail and it included a microchip to wear on your shirt so they can track how far you go. I wasn't too happy about that! Today one of my little guys in class told me he was in the marathon too. He said he'll run with me so I have someone to talk to because I'm sure Blake will be way ahead! Now I have to finish- I can't let one of my students beat me! *Sigh*
This is a picture from the marathon last year. I don't know if I'll ever meet up with Blake if we split up! Thank goodness for cell phones!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
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