BEEF!

The past couple of days have been pretty hard without Matias. There were many times when everyone around us was speaking Korean with no translating that we would just look at each other and have our own conversation or joke about something. There have been many times that I have wanted to turn to him to say something and then realized he wasn't there anymore. It is really hard to be in a country where the language is so completely opposite than yours. We don't have similar roots or similar words. Had I been in France or Spain or anywhere similar, it would be easier to understand what everyone was talking about without even needing to know the language simply because they are related languages. 

My host parents are really sweet though and know that I love beef, and they said yesterday during breakfast that for lunch we would go out to this town about an hour away to our west and go to a famous place to eat beef! First we stopped off at this place that is famous for its green tea, and 4 of us walked around the grounds. It was simply beautiful! 

Unfortunately, I thought that the beef restaurant was located here, so I would get to taste the green tea then, but we went into the car at which point it was too late to go try some tea (it costs money to go in). Oh well. From there we headed to this area that had a flea market (apparently it happens every Tuesday). Parts were similar to an American flea market, but then you'd walk into a section of it, and people were sitting on the ground selling items on the floor. It was pretty sad to see. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look around. While some of us were wandering around the outdoor flea market, our hosts were buying the beef at this one shop. 

^ Easy to tell what was sold! :) But then we walked across a small street inside the flea market and went into this restaurant. They had...little grills I guess that you put the raw meat onto and cook yourself. It was 8 of us that went together, and they had two of the little grills (i wouldnt call it exactly a grill.... it had a flame underneath and you put the meat on this platter thing above the flame just dont know the proper name) and so one person from each side put the beef on the platter and turned it at the right time. The pieces of beef were really small so no knifes or anything were required just chopsticks. On the other end of the table, they apparently were eating pieces of raw beef in the beginning. I was invited to have a piece, but I said no. Growing up in America with all the warnings about not cooking beef enough it was hard to imagine eating raw beef. Ji Sul said that since the beef was so fresh it was okay... but I think they just don't understand salmonella. 

In about an hour i am teaching english again at the middle school. I have set up lesson plans for all the groups i am teaching today. I am writing everything for each class in this journal that i have. Since I am teaching 5 different groups its important to write down what im doing for each class so that I will remember. 

^ Funny shirt from the flea market :)

-me

Back in Usuyeong

Coming back from Seoul was easy, but when I arrived in Mokpo there was nobody waiting for me. Every time we went places we were dropped off and picked up, and I was not told otherwise, so I thought that it would be the same. I waited about 30 minutes thinking we were just missing each other, and then i got a call from Yi Sul asking where I was. After a little conversation I discovered I was supposed to get back to Usuyeong on my own. I grabbed a taxi and handed the phone to the taxi driver so that Ji Sul could explain how to get to Usuyeong. Taxi fare was $25 for the 30 minute drive. Not bad! Oh and they don't tip in Korea (not on food, nothing!). 

I got back, switched clothes, and we went to the middle school. It is STRANGE to have the kids sitting at desks with me in the front. I was really nervous and it was a rough first day because i had no idea what to do or how good their english was. Turns out it is 22 kids in the class ranging from 7th grade to 9th grade. We gave them common American names (names like David, etc), and taught them about the discrepancy between Korean ages and American ages, and also asking how they are. They learn really quickly which was good. 

We came back in time for dinner which was soup, and then it was time to teach the first group of middle schoolers. It turns out the "A group" is 3 kids... but they can't go at the B group time because they have something else. I taught them stuff about baseball, some of which they knew, most of which they didn't. The thing that got them most excited was seeing my ipod touch. I took it out to show them the American national anthem which i had downloaded, but they couldnt believe how exciting my ipod was! It was really funny. Their vocabulary is pretty good when discussing electronics.. just nothing else :) 

^ Me and Matias about to get onto the train to Seoul... it was his goodbye to Yi Sul (center right) and Samonim.

^ Seoul Tower .. my first glimpse!

^ Mmmmm starbucks!

^ Matias' last night we went to a place for Karaoke. it was fun!

Well I am back in Usuyeong. Saying goodbye to Matias was extremely difficult. I had a lot of fun with his mom, mom's boyfriend and him. It's hard to explain how Matias and I became so close in just the 12 days we spent together, but there's a bond thats created when you throw two people together in a country where nobody speaks your language. We were constantly talking to each other while the others were talking in Korean. But anyways we had a lot of fun together, and the 10+ weeks i have left are going to be extremely difficult without him around. 

Bye Matias!

Seoul is some kind of wonderful!!!

Wow, I think I am kinda in love with Seoul right now. I wish I was closer to here than where I volunteer right now, because Seoul really is my kind of city. Seoul reminds me a LOT of Boston. It's not the grid kind like New York City or some of the others, its a LOT like Boston where streets curve a lot, its hard to tell where you are sometimes, but then when you least expect it you have a majestic view of the city, and you enter this little part of the city which is just amazing.

Matias and I left on the 11:10 train from Mokpo to Seoul. He had to say goodbye to everyone at the center because he wasn't coming back which was really sad. Yi Sul had to hold back tears. The train ride was really quick. When I was going from Seoul to Mokpo, it felt like the train took 10 hours. Every like 20 minutes it felt like I was in a worse and poorer place, and I wondered how much worse it could get, and I wondered what I was getting myself into. Part of the reason why it felt like 10 hours was because I had just been traveling for so long, that it just added onto the time of traveling. This time though, Matias and I played cards, and talked for the entire trip. It felt like 20 minutes when we arrived.

Matias and I parted from there, he was headed to see his mom and mom's boyfriend who were at the hotel after a long flight, and I had stuff I needed to do in Seoul. We agreed to meet up tomorrow at the Seoul tower which is very close to my hostel. It took me a long time to figure out the metro system. It's very similar to Bostons with the different colored lines, but you have to pay based on what stop you're going to, and trying to figure out where I was, and where I wanted to go and which train to go on took a long time. In the end though, I got on the right train which I was really proud of. After a little bit of getting lost time (... this always happens to me i just kinda plan it into the schedule now) I found what I was looking for.. the US Embassy. After circling around (its a huge building) I found the main entrance, only to be told by one of the guards that today was a national holiday, meaning it was closed. Huh? I still have yet to figure out what this so called holiday was. Anyways, I was going there so I could get some english maps of the city, and get help trying to get to where I was going. So much for that plan.

After that and not even knowing where the nearest metro stop was, I kinda just started to walk around Seoul, figuring that eventually I would run into a station. The metro stations really aren't obvious at least to a non-Korean speaker. Also, on major road intersections, there arent crosswalks, there are little underground things, which kinda look like the entrance to a metro station, and the first time i went down the steps into one, i thought thats what it was until I figured out I was just going down, under the road, and back up the other side of the road (There are 4+ exits that you can take depending on which side of which street you want to be on). Finally I went down one thinking I was just gonna end up on the other side when I discovered that lo and behold, I was at a metro stop! yay! I was also on the line to get to the youth hostel, so i figured that was a sign to not try to find any other location and just head towards the hostel. So I did. On the train ride, Matias had explained to me that I would look for the hotel Astoria, go a bit past that, take a left go up the hill and under the bridge and that the hostel would be there. Had it not been for his help, I would have gotten lost! But I did not, and after walking up the hill (its a steep hill and its not a short distance) I finally arrived at the Youth Hostel.

The woman working at the front spoke pretty much perfect english (although its just been 1.5 weeks since I arrived, pretty much any english speaking sounds perfect to me because of how little everyone at the center speaks if any) and explained everything to me. I went upstairs, found my room (im in a bottom bunk in a room with 7 other beds although they might not all be full), put my stuff in the locker provided, and decided to head for Dinner.

Oh and I forgot to mention... the first thing I did when I arrived in Seoul today? Discovered a Starbucks and had a mocha frap there (they didnt have my ice tea lemonade but still!) and a blueberry muffin. I must say, their blueberry muffin put anyone else's to shame. It had been warmed up, and was AMAZING. So back to dinner. I decided to head back to the main road and turn left instead of right, and what do I see like as soon as I turn left? AN OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE. Would I go anywhere else? NO. Had the most AMAZING steak and baked potato and diet coke before heading back to the youth hostel where I am now.

OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE!!!!! It was just the icing on the cake for me! Tomorrow I am going with Matias and his mom and mom's boyfriend on this tour of the city... its a 10,000 won bus that you can get on and off of at your leisure whenever you want during the day (thats like $6-$7!) and stops at all the touristy places. Should be a lot of fun.

I took a picture of the Outback Steakhouse sign, and my dish so ill upload them when i return to Usuyeong. Off to my bunk where I'm going to listen to music and read the new Jodi Picoult book I bought for $10 on the kindle for the ipod touch (its a free app! thanks dad!!!).

I love Seoul, I love Seoul, I LOVE SEOUL!

-me

it's genius i tell you!

I have been struggling for a week now trying to come up with a way to teach the middle schoolers english in a way that might get it to stick. it really seems like nothing that has been tried has worked. english for them is a struggle, which is understandable considering just how different the two languages are. I am also finding it difficult because the middle schoolers that come to this center are all guys except for 1 female and all 13-14 years old. I was really fighting myself trying to come up with ideas on what to do, and couldn't come up with anything. I have always been full of ideas for the elementary school students because they are young and love the little games and gimicks. Learning for them is still fun, and they are attentive and easy to teach for the most part. I was just sitting reading a book today, when an idea popped into my head, and I knew that it JUST might work.

What do the 14 year old boys and I have in common? A love of sports. They especially love basketball and ... BASEBALL. Which is what got me thinking. The point of this experience isn't just to teach them English. It's also to teach them about the culture of where we live, etc. Well, at first I was just thinking of things like basic geography, politics, and other boring things, but why not teach them about American SPORTS. All these thoughts culminated in this:

I can teach them all the different sports terms, especially in baseball, including the names of all the positions, balls and strikes (they actually do know ball and strike!), strike out, pitching terms, etc. Then it occured to me that the BASEBALL season starts in April!!! I am going to teach them all the different teams in the MLB, and then have them PICK ONE. And since I will be teaching TWO middle school groups at the center, i can have one group pick from the American League, and one group pick from the National League. We can set up standings, and have a little contest. It's going to take a lot of work, but it also enables me to follow the baseball season and consider it a part of work stuff :)

If anyone has any more ideas to add to this, it would be welcome, but I really like this idea! Of course I will teach them other english too, but i can build it around sports as well (when it gets warmer we can play a baseball game, and teach them tenses like i am running to first base and then i ran to first base... etc)!

Okay feedback welcome just dont dash my hope i really really really think its good.....

-me

Seoul tomorrow!!!

Mokpo today

Today my host parents (Moksanim and Samonim), Yi Sul, Matias and I went into Mokpo, a nearby city that i went to earlier this week to go to the lotte (its a grocery store, but its more like a target mixed with a grocery store and a costco because it has clothing, electronics, groceries, and samples that you can try!). Moksanim had some business to attend to there, and matias and samonim went to the public bathroom (its a sauna) but Ji Sul gets rashes from them so i decided to go with her around mokpo. we wanted to see a movie, but when we arrived at the cinema (its huge! .. over 6 stories) the only movies we could see were the unborn and Dragonball evolution (which i just wikipedia'd and it turns out it actually comes out in april in the US ha!). we decided to walk around mokpo and did that for a bit before we went back to the lotte and i bought some pens and we hung out at this fast food restaurant in the lotte. i got a lemonade and mozzerella sticks which were good!

We then went out to lunch (its very common to go out to eat ... happens probably every other day) at this place that nobody will believe i ate at. It was all seafood. i had crab and octopus (well a leg... and it took like 2+ minutes to finish chewing it... its tough) and shrimp. I'll eat it since i have to here, but not something im crazy about. its always good to try new foods though.
we came back from mokpo, and discovered that they are installing a shower in Matias' room! well it had a shower head, but no hot water thing so it was just cold water that came out. today they are in the process of putting in the hot water heater (i guess its like a gas heater... you turn it on and flames appear inside the box!)!! when matias leaves, yi sul and i are getting his room, so yeah we will have a shower in our room instead of having to walk down the hall to the shower in the office. Poor Matias.

In class today with the elementary school kids we worked more on the different clothing items and they are really getting it! I took some pictures of the drawings that we made to show the kids what they were. There is only one girl who really is having difficulty with this. I have worked with her twice now when we went into small groups, and I can't figure out how to help her anymore, so i talked to yi sul and matias who said that they think this is actually the first time she has ever learned english. she is very attentive in the class and is always looking straight at me and following my lead which is great. i hope we'll be able to get through to her soon!



^ Matius by our white board before the elementary school class. We were writing down all the different vocab we had been working on the past few days.


^ one of Matias' drawings with my labels on the drawing as to what everything is. it helps them to understand the terms to see it written and drawn on the board. Notice the t-shirt has "Boston" on it. It was Matias' idea he didn't even tell me he was doing it!!! I swear!!! I nearly died.


^ This is the shower attached to Matias' room. The box is where I guess the gas/whatever is that turns on the flames inside of it. It's pretty nifty but kinda weird to shower in the bathroom like that. The toilet is just off to the side out of camera range but yeah. Oh and notice the shoes right inside the bathroom door... we wear those whenever we go into the bathroom. its because the floor is always wet since the shower is right there with no boundary. Definitely something to get used to.

I have more pictures to put on, but I am now on Yi Sul's laptop and all my pictures are on the big PC in Matias' room so when i get back on that computer ill put on more.

Oh and this weekend im going into Seoul with Matias and touring the city with him and his parents. It should be fun!

-me

Wow...past couple of days

Yesterday was such a high for me. A few days ago, Matius Yi Sul and I taught the elementary school kids go fish. They love that game! They had to ask "do you have a _____" and then respond with "yes i do have a ______" or "no i do not have a ______, go fish!" Sometimes the end part of that was left off, but they were really understanding it. Then yesterday surprised the three of us immensely. There is this 5 year old boy who is the brother of Che that i mentioned earlier. He is the youngest in the class by a few years, and I thought it would be hardest to teach him. Yesterday though without any aid from anyone he would say the entire line of yes or no. Everyone else would either just say yes/no and go fish, or would finish the sentence with help. Yi Sul and i looked at each other with amazement! We were so happy that he grasped the lesson so completely.

Today Matius and I were hanging out in his room and he decided to go for a walk so Yi Sul and i went with him. This "walk" turned into a huge hike! First we went all around the town to a part of the town I had not seen before with the wealthier houses. then we went by this farm, and then we started to go off the road we were walking on, and Yi sul and i followed. we proceeded to hike a LOT up this mountain-y thing. It wasn't a cleared path or anything and it was STEEP with no footholds most of the time. But then after a lot of sweat and cuts on our body we ended up at this fortress that overlooks our town. The view from there was GORGEOUS. Following are some pictures from today.



^ The fortress we hiked to.


The big white building is actually right across the road from where i am staying.


^ What a view!


This is like a 10 minute walk from where i live but still my town! Im so lucky.

OH and i found a new favourite food and it costs $0.33 !!!!!!!!!! (that is 500 won) Yes... that is right. 33 cents. It's called hotteok and yeah. I could have it every day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotteok

Oh god... its loaded with sugar of course which is why its so good and unhealthy so yeah guess i wont be eating it every day but YUMMMMMMMMMM. the article cant even begin to describe the yummyness. ill take a picture the next time i get it.

-me