a.delightful.thursday.

***(Post written: 9 March 2012)***

Yesterday was full of excitement! The students were testing, so there were no classes, but that didn't stop the day from being full of laughter and exciting events. Lots of lesson planning in the morning, cute scenes at lunch with two of the special boys at our table, a drunk driver driving his car around the track at school and parking it on the track (during lunch/recess, I might add) and ending up with a 5,000,000 W ticket (so my CT said), checking marking on students' tests... oogling over kim soo hyun (my love) and the drama called the Moon Embracing the Sun (my now favorite, tied with Dream High--which also starred kim soo hyun, consequently enough). As if this was already a fun day at school, after school all the teachers went out to a duck restaurant as a sort of welcoming/new school year dinner. I ate delicious duck until I was completely stuffed, and then we all headed down the street for some noraebang. It was so fun to just be with the teachers OUTSIDE of school and see all their personalities and share in lots of fun and laughter. I spent 6 hours after school hanging out with the other teachers and got LOTS of Korean listening practice until my head felt like it was going to explode from all the input and processing! But, I did consider it a success that I am able to understand so much more conversation that when I started out here. It's encouraging, to say the least. As so....after a long day of work and play, I went to bed with a smile on my face. What a delightful Thursday, indeed. ^^

street food

Street food in Korea: where do I even begin? Eating on a budget? Craving something delicious and easy? Head out to the streets!

**I will write more on this topic later, but for now, I just wanted to post this video I took last weekend with Jenna.**

After church, we went around Indong, and I introduced her to lots of new things. Here is our street food experience:

welcome.new.english.teachers

Over the past couple weeks, we have had another rotation of English teachers arrive in Gumi (and all of Korea, for that matter). It has been fun to meet some of them and get to know them. Even more exciting, for me at least, is being able to BLESS THEM! I remember when I first got here, and I had to somehow make what little savings I had last me for my first three months in Korea. God blessed me so greatly and exactly when and how I needed it during this time and really led me to greater reliance on Him to get me through each day. After making it through those first three months and receiving favor and blessing, I have been waiting anxiously for the opportunity to bless new incoming teachers. As with Abraham, we are "blessed to be a blessing." This is still true even thousands of years later: the Word is a living Word, Amen!


The LORD had said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you.
"I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, 
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you." ~Genesis 12:1-3


One teacher, in particular, that I had the chance to hang out with is Jenna. She came to church on Sunday with us, and then we went out afterwards, and I showed her around Indong. We tried all sorts of foods and sweets, walked around saying hi to friends, and ended the night with a Korean movie at Megaline (러브 픽션). What a blessing! It's an amazing blessing how God puts people in your path at exactly the right timing. We share so much in common: we are both music majors from the USA, we love to sing, we both Latin dance, we like to travel, explore, and be adventurous, we both like to try all kinds of new foods, we're both in love with the Lord....and the list goes on. It's really a blessing, and I cannot wait to get to know her more and more! Oh, and be sure to check out the next blog post on street food where there is a video of her trying out real street food for the first time in Korea. 


And so, again, welcome!! Blessings to all of your teaching and Korean adventures!

Samhansaon~~삼한사온

I cannot take credit for writing this (thank you to Allen Choi for posting this on Daegu Free Korean Class' facebook page), but I DO still think this is TOO good NOT to share with all of you! Isn't this so interesting?? (haha, I wonder if this can sort of explain the Ozarks' weather, too??)

"Climatic characteristics of South Korea in spring.
Samhansaon(삼한사온, 三寒四溫, 3 old 4 warm)
Samhansaon takes place in Korea and northern China and eastern Asia.
In a week, the weather is cold for three days and warm for four days. This weather is called Samhansaon.
And, above all, due to the large gap between low and high temperatures each day, you should be careful not to catch a cold.
Even though the weather is warm, you should always wear or prepare thick clothes. If you drink ginger or lemon tea, it is helpful in preventing colds.
And if your room is dry, it makes it easy to catch a cold, but before you go to bed or ordinary times, if you hang a wet towel or set a humidifier in you room, it is also helpful for preventing colds.

봄에 한국의 기후적 특징.
삼한사온
삼한사온은 동부 아시아에 한국과 중국 북부지방에서 발생합니다.
한 주를 기준으로, 날씨가 3일은 춥고 4일은 따뜻하기 때문에, 이 날씨를 삼한사온이라 부릅니다..
그리고 무엇보다도, 일교차가 크기 때문에, 감기에 걸리지 않도록 주의해야합니다.
날씨가 따뜻하더라도, 항상 복장을하거나 준비 두꺼운 옷을하고 생강이나 레몬 홍차를 마시면 감기 예방에 도움이 됩니다.
그리고, 방이 건조하면 쉽게 감기도록 만들지만, 자기전이나 평소, 방에 젖은 수건을 걸어 놓거나 가습기를 둔다면, 그것은 또한 감기 예방에 도움이 됩니"

a fun weekend studying Korean, practicing English, and making new friends

Man, this weekend I've felt like I was on Cloud 9. I had so much joy in my heart and just had a peace about my spirit and in my soul. God is so good. I wish I had more time to write and wish I could replay every detail for you, but I guess those things will just be tucked into my memories to cherish and hold onto.


Friday, I started the next level of Korean classes with Sogang 2B (there is 1A-5B). It's so crazy, really. I feel like I've learned so much so far, and yet, I feel like (because I DO) I have sooooo much more yet to go. Some days I just want to QUIT! I wish I could just speak Korean and have casual conversations and just be automatic in speaking (rather than having to think and translate from my English thinking into the completely different sentence structure of Korean) every time I want to talk. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, and yet, God is here with me through it all. He can speak Korean better than any Korean, and He is living INSIDE ME! Now, that is a lot of talent waiting to be grabbed a hold of! I am thankful for my teacher and her amazing patience with me and tenderness. She is exactly what I needed. Even though I take the long trip to Daegu every week (4 hours of travel/waiting roundtrip for a 1 hour lesson), I would not trade her for anything in the world. 


Saturday I had a whole new set of experiences. I got to relax a little bit in the morning and then go down to Daegu around 3 for an English conversation group. I just happened upon this group on facebook, and it was amazing! We met at a coffee shop and discussed a topic together. This week, we talked about bullying. It was a mix of foreigners and Koreans. It was so encouraging and spirit-lifting to be able to spend this time getting to know them. I really feel like I've made a close group of Korean friends now, much like What's Up, Korea was for me in Seoul. I am definitely going to make the trip back to Daegu on Saturdays to hang out and share life with these new friends! We even went to dinner and hung out downtown afterwards...all the way until my last train to Gumi at 1242am. Ohhhh....and should I tell you what I ate?? I should have taken pictures, but...at the time, I didn't think it was anything special. hahah. Just found out this morning from my co-teacher what I ate. >.< Not that eating weird things bothers me....I mean, I'll be down for most anything at least once lol. This time,  I ate a little (although it didn't really suit my taste) of it. Our Korean friends didn't really know how to translate it, so all I knew was that it was some sort of chicken. They kept telling me it was the "sand stomach," but clearly, that phrase held no meaning whatsoever. Really, I should have thought twice about the name of the restaurant...I knew what it meant, but I thought to myself...That's strange what the name of the restaurant is...but no, it can't accctually mean that....wierd...maybe when they put the two words together, it carries a different meaning or something....boy was I wrong! IT was EXACTLY what the name was! --->>>>>>>> 똥집 (which means "Poop House"). Come to find out...the part of the chicken I was eating was the chicken's "poop house"~~the area right around it's butt! Daaaaang! Well, no wonder it was chewy. It tasted a lot like pig intestines (막창) in that it was quite chewy.I found this picture online~~I think this is the place we went:  (It's right across from "President Chicken.")

And here is a picture I found online of the "chicken" we ate:

If you are interested in joining our English Conversation group in Daegu, please join the Facebook group (there is also a free Korean conversation group that meets at "Buy the Book" beforehand at 2pm) "Daegu Free Korean Class." For the English conversation group, we meet at 3:30pm on Saturdays at Apple Tree (사과 나무). If you go out exit 9 of Banwaldong Station and turn right down the first street you see, look for Appletree on the right side about a block up. It looks like this: Apple Tree. And here is a map from the subway exit:

first week of the new school year

A short little post early in the morning...


So, in Korea, the new school year starts in March. It goes from March-July, then a one month break. Second semester starts August-December, a two month break, students come back for two weeks in February (and 6th grade has graduation at the end of that), then a week of spring break before the new school year starts all over again. ...A little different from the August-May school year in the USA. 


It's so exciting to get back in the swing of things. After teaching winter camps ALL winter break, it is nice to have all the students back running through the halls, causing commotions, girls and boys playing....seeing how even by going up just one grade level, it changes their attitude. I still can't believe that our 5th graders are now the 6th graders! With that in mind, I do miss our 6th graders. It makes me sad that I won't see their faces around playing soccer or coming in during lunch period or after school in excitement to try and talk with me. But, nonetheless, I am filled with great memories. 


And so....the start to a new year brings many changes.


I don't teach with the same two co-teachers I had before. My main one went to be a 3rd grade homeroom teacher, and the second one is now my "main" teacher, but I will not be teaching with her at all. In this case, we have added two NEW co-teachers. I'm still in the first week, so it's hard to judge the outcome, but it's definitely going to be an adjustment and learning experience and another opportunity to practice some of God's patience. One teacher is my age and has only taught for one year. Her English is very low (lower than most of my students, even), so I am worried about the students. I co-teach grade 5 and grade 3 with her. For grade 3, I am not as worried because some Korean is definitely necessary, but for the grade 5s (one of the highest levels in the school, actually) who have spent the past year with only English being used in the classroom (and VERY minimal Korean), I worry that they will become slack or unmotivated or discouraged from learning English if they are backtracking and having lessons in Korean. But it's only been a couple days, so hopefully it can improve.


As for my other new co-teacher (who is older than me), I will teach grade 6 and 4 with her. I have yet to teach with her, but I did sit in on her introduction class for grade 6. Granted, it was only them taking a test and filling out an "About Me" worksheet, but already, I can tell that she is going to be a great teacher to work with because she is really good about timing for the lesson and keeping the students on task. I look forward to my first class co-teaching with her.


Lesson planning, in this case now, is going to be a little different. I find that it will be more "co-teaching" of the lesson and not me coming up and teaching the entire lesson for the days I co-teach. I do like the idea of this model, and it is definitely something new to experiment with. From what I can see from trying to talk with them about lesson planning, it looks like they will be teaching from the book for the first half of the class, and I am in charge of the game from the book or creating new ways to practice the material (my personal preference). I am thankful for this because I can have some "control" over the level the students are at. For instance, with grade 5, the first lesson is "I'm from Brazil." Students learn to ask and say what country they are from, and it will work on spelling names. An example dialogue:
                      A: Where are you from?
                      B: I'm from India.
                      A: What's your name?
                      B: My name is Neru.
                     A: How do you spell your name?
                     B: N-E-R-U.


This is basically the sum of the next few weeks for 5th grade. Although learning country names in English may be new, for most of them, this is a really easy concept, so I feel it is going to be fatiguing for them to be doing this for so long. Also, my focus for this semester (something that I wasn't very good at doing my first semester) is on student levels. Now that I've been here for a semester, I have a better idea of what level students are at, and I want to work with that. I want to help the lower level students (and I will have after school classes 4-5 days a week for low level grades 2-5, as well), while at the same time, challenge the upper level students and make it still fun for them. For the first period of this grade 5 lesson, "I'm from Brazil," the co-teacher was able to teach the material from the book, but then I was able to up the level by adding many more countries to the mix during the game. Thanks to the help of my dear friend, Jeremy, I've had a fresh look on creativity in activities for the classroom. He's helped me get my creative juices flowing! Thanks, friend!


And so...I should leave it here for now. I will update you at the end of the week, but now I must get back to planning.


"Train a child in the way he should go, 
and when he is old he will not turn from it." ~Proverbs 22:6

one man's trash is another man's treasure

One's man's trash is another man's treasure...This well-known phrase has never rung so true as it has in Korea. Let me introduce you to some of my "treasures": a tall bookcase, a small/round Korean table, an awesome/huge white, thick-matted wall frame, and the cutest vintage turquoise-y blue night stand you've ever seen. Yes, it's true~~these are all things I have found on the side of the road as someone else's "trash" (minus the blue night stand...Jade found that on the street, and I inherited it). I would never have believed it myself, and I was still apprehensive my first time just grabbing furniture off the side of the road and lugging it up the stairs to my apartment, but now, strangely enough (an embarrassingly enough!), I find myself scanning others' trash piles for some "new treasure" I might uncover. Most of the time, it's just rotten food or piles of recycling and waste or the crazy wild cats that roam around my neighborhood (more on that later), but every now and then, you get some real treasure! 


Ok, so let me explain this a bit further for those of you who are simply stumped and lost right now at what I am saying. Here in Korea, things work a little differently. Garage sales and flea markets (except for a few HUGE ones in Seoul or a special event here and there) are NOT common here...and soooo....when someone doesn't want something anymore--be it a table or blanket or chair or bookcase or closet or whatever--they just put it out on the street along with the rest of the trash (In Korea, there are not trash bins: you just put your trash in a special color/kind of bag and lay it on the side of the street wherever you see other trash piling up. See my upcoming blog on **Trash and Recycling in Korea 101**). These things they throw out sometimes even look brand new, but they simply wanted something new and were getting rid of the "old." It's stunning. Now, I would not have known about this if I had not read about it on someone else's blog before I came here, and even still, as I said, I was a little apprehensive. In the USA, if there was furniture outside, you would never take it unless it had a "free" sign taped to it or it was CLEARLY heading for the dump (especially not perfectly good/new looking things!). 


Haha, well let me tell you about my first time finding a "treasure." It was in the evening and I was walking to the market, and this big pile of trash/rubbish across from my apt catches my eye. I see this cute bookshelf and think about how perfect it would be in my apartment. With a little work...well, it definitely had potential...I think. I'm not certain because--yes, have fun imagining this one--at this point, I am trying to catch quick little glances out of the corner of my eye so it doesn't look like I am scanning it out. I mean, I don't want to have someone seeing me gazing and grinning over a pile of smelly trash! How embarrassing!  Thankfully, though, it is dark by this point, but I still try to casually (or not-so-casually lol) look ahead of me and behind me to see if there is anyone in the street witnessing my crazy behavior. I felt like I was in a movie scene where the lone girl is walking down a street under the dimly lit street lights...a set up to where the person hiding in the shadows jumps out and makes his move. I look ahead of me, carefully scanning my surroundings and then turn to the back...Although not seeing anything on first glance, I am still unsettled and get this feeling perhaps I'm not alone. .....Haha, but in my case, wheeeew, safe. No one around. And yet, it was still too weird to me to just TAKE a perfectly good bookshelf off the street and march back home with it. It just doesn't make sense. I bargained: Ok, Laura, if this bookshelf is still here when you get back from the market and putting your things away, you have to snatch it. 


And well, you know the ending to that story: my first "treasure" is now sitting in my front room proudly displaying many plants, pictures, and books.


So....moral of the story (?)...when in Korea, one man's trash really IS another man's treasure!

These photos are from near my apartment last week. Look at all this stuff!