New changes at work

It's now the 4th week of the new quarter and all the new changes that happened. Here are the new changes for us: we no longer have our own classroom, the lowest level to see the native teacher got new curriculum, and we now teach 27 (me) and 28 (Jeremy) classes (up from just 23 or 24 when we started). Though it seems like very few changes have occurred, they are fairly big changes. With no classrooms it means that we move to all the homeroom classes to teach and must tote around our things. Thankfully we have a USB drive as well as like a file folder to hold our books and papers. We are still trying to get into a routine of things, which we've pretty much done, but for some reason the classes are just getting harder to handle. The students seem to be more out of control than before, and with more classes than before, we just aren't able to stay sane for some of our days. On Mondays we have 6 classes in a row, but it's not bad because the students themselves aren't too bad. Wednesdays, Jeremy has 6 classes in a row plus one more. It's a very, very hard day for him. Fridays we both have 7 classes total, and Jeremy has 5 in a row. This day is extremely tough for me, and somewhat for Jeremy. We are now at the 2 month hump, and we can see the end in sight which is probably contributing to us having a harder time with work. We are just plugging along, counting down the days. Starting July 21 we will have summer intensives until August 19. Our time schedule will change: we will begin at 10 a.m. and end either at 7:40 or 8:20 p.m. We won't have extra classes like winter intensive, but we may have one extra class for 6th graders or 1st/2nd graders; we don't know yet. We, well at least me, are hoping that time will go by just a bit faster during the week so that we will be finished here. Here's to 2 more months.....

Insadong

 

Last Saturday we went to Insadong with our Korean instructors. Insadong is pretty much the center of Seoul and they want to keep tradition, so most shops sell traditional things and all shop names are in Korean (as you can see from the first picture of Starbucks). It was interesting to see all the traditional things sold, except for the fact that many of the things you can buy anywhere in Korea. After walking down the traditional street in the rain, we went to dinner. Our instructor wanted us to try a traditional, and boy was it traditional! There was tons of food that included whole fish, eyes and all. Of course, Jeremy and I didn't eat that or much of anything really. But the experience was fun. From there we headed to the King's Palace. It was the evening time so we didn't have much light left, but it was still pretty to see it in the dark. The palace is still as much the same now as it was when it was being used as the royal family's residence -up until the last century I think. The palace is huge so we didn't get to see it all. And the fact it was dark didn't help either. :) It was still a fun trip!

Hanbok

                                    

Woohoo! My Hanbok is finished! A Hanbok is a Korean traditional dress. A long time ago, this is what Koreans wore when they got married, and maybe for some other special occassions. Now, some still wear it when they get married, women who are married can wear it to weddings, but mostly people wear it on Chuseok (Thanksgiving) and/or Sol Nal (New Year's). I looked through many books to find the colors I wanted, with Jeremy's help of course, and then told the lady what I wanted. She brought fabrics that she thought I would like, but I was only interested in one combo: navy and red. The stitching on the navy top part is of flowers and butterflies that are actually hand-stitched! Neat! The Hanbok has many layers: underneath you wear pants, then an underskirt that makes it poofy, then the red top skirt that has a tank top like top, then an under jacket in the same shape as the top shirt/jacket, then the navy colored shirt/jacket thing. Oh and to top it all off..... the official Hanbok shoes with the socks! I wasn't wearing the socks because apparently they can be difficult to get on and off. The lady also threw in a free clutch purse, a cute turtle pin (it means long life), and a tassle that hangs under the top piece. I was so excited to put it on! It felt like I was putting on a wedding dress again. :) To stand in it, you have to roll your shoulders forward and place your hands infront of you. Sorry mom, I can't have good posture wearing this. :D For me, it's the best piece of Korea that I will take back home and cherish forever. Thank you to the best husband for having such a wonderful idea for my birthday present!!

Flowers and Airshow

This past week/weekend was the Ansan Street Art Festival which was held right out infront of our place. We were intending to go to it at some point, but on Thursday (the first day of it) the weather was extremely gorgeous and warm. We had planned to hang out with another couple from the church that day, and they thought we could hang out at the festival. It was a great plan! The festival was interesting. There were a few bands playing that weren't even Korean music, many booths that had activities for children, and many food vendors along the street. On one end of the whole festival were some carnival rides for kids. Our group had lunch together, and some one thought, hey let's eat in the middle of the street! Ha! We really did, and it seemed like we became part of the festival because many Koreans stared at us and even took pictures of us! So hilarious! :) Later we decided to go see the airshow. On the way Jeremy and I discovered where the Reed's Wetlands are. We've been wanting to go this place for awhile. We got to the airshow around 4 which turned out to be just in time to see the end of the airshow. :( It was still fun though! Hanging out with friends in the sun was fantastic. The other flower pictures are of tulips that grew out infront of our place. They were really pretty when they all finally came up and bloomed! Don't worry, that brown you see, it's green now. :) It just needed some water, haha. The last picture is of the coolest flower ever -BI-COLORED! When we first saw it, we seriously thought it was fake. The dividing line is literally down the exact center of each petal. It was the ONLY flower of it's kind. ONE OF A KIND KOREAN BI-COLORED TULIP. :D

Miscellaneous photos

Jeremy's Teacher's Day gift

What a sweet Valentine's Day gift

Don't they look delicious? They were!

First time ever making cinn. rolls.

Our first rose bush :)

Juniper! May he R.I.P.

For Valentine's Day

All I can say is: HAHAHA!

It's a giant lollipop!

Chef's salad in a huge seashell!