Sunday, July 28, 2013

Summer Vacation Time

This last week was the end of the first semester and the beginning of summer vacation.  The students at my elementary school are now on summer vacation for a little more than three weeks.  I will have some time off later in August but for now I am teaching summer camp to 4th-6th graders.  I spent a lot of time planning some great games and activities for the kids to do, only to find out at the start of camp last Thursday that I have two fifth graders in one class and one sixth grader in another class.  That was the end of all those great games and group activities I had planned!  Even after the first two days I'm still at a loss of what to do with only a couple kids who refuse to say much more than yes or no in English.  I feel bad that I'm not teaching them more and that I didn't prepare better for small groups or one on one time.  Fortunately I have some board games in my classroom so I have at least had something to do with them, though they still aren't forced to practice much English that way either!  Needless to say, even after only two days of summer camp, I think I'm already ready for the second semester to be under way!  The nice thing about summer camp is I'm able to leave at noon when the camp finishes.  I know at some schools the foreign teachers are required to stay and desk warm all afternoon until the usual 4:40 time so I'm thankful I don't have to do that! 

Eric has his week of summer vacation this coming week and is spending it in Thailand.  He got to Pattaya, Thailand Friday evening and will be back in Seoul Sunday morning.  One of his friends from back home even met him in Pattaya Saturday night.  From what he has told me it sounds like it wasn't quite what he expected when he first arrived.  Last year at this time we spent a week in gorgeous Phuket, Thailand (a resort island).  Pattaya is on the coast of the mainland in Thailand.  He thought it would be nice because it's much cheaper than one of the resort islands but still on the beach.  Well, as with all of the Thailand mainland, I guess it's a bit trashy and the beach is not nearly as nice as he pictured.  But he said they still had a fun day on Sunday finding a cleaner place to sit on the beach and walk around the area.

Since Eric's gone that means I have the house to myself for nine days.  I was not excited about that at all when he first left but it's turned out to be fine so far and I'm glad he gets a vacation now since I got one when I went home back in April.  On Friday I spent the evening deep cleaning the house by moving all the furniture and spending a lot of time on my hands and knees with the hardwood floors!  It was something I'd been wanting to do but not something I plan to do again for another seven months when we move out.  I did feel quite accomplished and refreshed going to bed that night in such a clean room though!  The rest of the weekend I was able to spend quite a bit of time with some friends which was nice.

It's hard to believe the first semester has ended and it will be August this week.  Time is sure flying by!

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Coex Aquarium

Saturday evening we decided to go on a date to Coex Mall.  Other than claiming it's the largest underground mall in Asia (it probably is because we get lost every time we go there) it's rather unimpressive with just typical stores and restaurants.  It does however also have a movie theater and an aquarium.  We had never gone to the aquarium before so decided we would check it out.  It was humid and monsooning off and on all day so we figured something inside would be more enjoyable.  The aquarium was pretty good sized and had a lot of different sea creatures and even some other animals.  Our favorite was the alligator turtle!  There were a lot of different turtles which made us turtle lovers excited!  We also learned how big manatees really are when you see one up close.  After our visit to the aquarium we had dinner at On the Border, also located in Coex Mall.  It was, of course, completely delicious and like a taste of home :) 

This is an alligator turtle.  Basically an alligator with a shell instead of a body!



Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Rain, Rain, Rain

It's been a little bit since I wrote anything because only one thing has really happened lately: RAIN.  We were expecting this summer to be miserable just like last summer because of the heat but actually the heat has not been bad in July so far.  It was actually worse in June.  July has just brought a whole lot of rain and humidity.  For more than two weeks now we have had very heavy and hard monsoon rains more than once a day usually.  In fact, it had been raining so hard and for so long it started to rain inside our house last weekend!!  We had a couple nice steady drips of rain coming in from about our window sill.  Unsure of what to do, but worried it might flood our house while we slept, we showed our landlord who offered us a motel since there was nothing he could do until it dried out (which will still be a while).  We didn't figure we needed the motel but did make sure we picked up everything off the floor before going to bed.  That was a good thing because the next morning there was water covering almost the whole floor in our bedroom!  The next day we were able to get some caulking up along the window sill which took care of the worst of the leaking until it can be fixed permanently.  Now there is just a couple small leaks which don't come anywhere close to flooding our room!  We saw on the news that the river has risen quite a bit and even parts of some of the parks along the river have been flooded.  We are quite certain it was not nearly this rainy last year.  The rainy season can last until the end of August or even into September so we still have a ways to go to try and keep dry- outside and inside!

Last weekend we were able to dodge the rain pretty well and spent time with friends.  First we went to a housewarming party for a former Korean coworker who just got married and moved to a new house.  (We took the traditional housewarming gift of toilet paper!)  After that we went to see another former coworker and his family since they just had a baby last week. 

Eric leaves for his vacation in Thailand a week from tomorrow and the first semester at my school ends in less than a week.  It's hard to believe we are nearing the six month mark on our second year already!! 

Monday, July 8, 2013

The 4th of July in Korea

Eric and I have started the tradition of doing something "American" on the 4th of July since we have spent the last two of them in Korea.  We can't do fireworks or watch other peoples fireworks.  We can't have a real BBQ with our family and friends back home or have the day off.  So instead we go to McDonalds.  That's about as American as we know how to get on the 4th!  So that's what we did.  And as we were eating our hamburgers and french fries we planned next year's 4th at home to make up for the last two we've missed.  We did actually get to have our BBQ because on Saturday we had a few friends over and we BBQ'd up some burgers on the little charcoal grill that we have.  After enjoying these burgers (American style) we had our monthly poker night.  And yes I won again :)  I made a profit of about 8600 won!  It seemed like everyone had a good time again so we will be planning another Saturday poker night in August.

On Sunday we spent the morning and afternoon around the house relaxing and playing video games.  In the evening we went to a trivia night with some friends.  It's held in one of the foreign bars in Itaewon (a big foreign area) every Sunday night.  We had six people on our team and came in 4th out of 8 teams.  I am horrible at trivia so I was of no help to my team unfortunately!  But it was still fun so we might have to check it out again another weekend.

It has been SO rainy here the last week or two.  Last week I got caught outside in the middle of a monsoon twice and was just drenched (even with an umbrella!).  Sometimes the monsoon will come quick and leave quick.  Other times they stick around for a while.  Yesterday it seemed to monsoon all day long (fortunately it let up when I was going to work and when I was coming home!)!  It looks like it may be that way for a while too according to the forecast.  We also have to keep the windows closed in our house when it's raining because otherwise the rain will blow right in.  It seems like this rainy season has given us a whole lot more rain so far than the last rainy season but I don't know for sure.  We will just continue to trek through one more of these Korean summers!

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

The Human Race

Here is some food for thought that was provoked during a recent discussion I had with some friends from several different countries and backgrounds… (My thoughts are in no way meant to criticize Korean culture or Korean people.  They are simply some thoughts (scattered thoughts at that) and observations I have been pondering about myself and all people everywhere)

Honestly I find it amazing that is 2013 and we still cannot accept all people for what they are: People.  We are all the same species.  We all live on the same planet.  We are all the same race: human race.  But for some reason that isn’t enough.  Growing up I remember learning about diversity and how the country of America was founded on the principle that all men are created equal.  I remember hearing people talk occasionally about feeling discriminated against because of their skin color or gender or whatnot.  I always shrugged it off thinking no, it’s the 21st century now.  Discrimination doesn’t exist anymore.  Oh how wrong I was.  It wasn’t until I moved somewhere where I was the minority that I realized not only does discrimination exist everywhere, but I, myself, have plenty of stereotypes for different groups of people back home as well.  

Korea is an extremely homogenous population.  When we first came here I knew we would be the minority but I didn’t realize just how much we would be the minority.  In the area of Seoul that we live in especially, it is very rare to see another non-Korean walking the streets.  Therefore, when they do see a non-Korean, many of them to tend to stare.  And stare.  And stare.  Even after sixteen months of it, it can still be uncomfortable at times, especially when I stop to think about why they are staring.  I’m a human being just like each one of them so what’s to stare at?  Well my skin color is different and my face looks different and my hair is a slightly lighter color.  Basically I don’t look exactly the same as all of them.  A Korean friend even explained it like this to us before:  “Sometimes they’ve never seen a foreigner in person before so they want to get up close and personal and just stare at you since you’re the first one they’ve seen.”  People stare, people point, sometimes little kids even cry, all because we don’t look the same as them.   Yes there is the point of the stereotype and reputation that westerners in Korea have that contributes to this as well.  But I feel like the root of it comes from the fact that we simply look different.

I have a Korean friend who was born and raised in Germany.  German is her first language, Korean and English came after.  When we were talking this last weekend she mentioned how in Germany she really didn’t feel like she fit in because she was Korean and not German.  She always figured that when she went to Korea she would fit in just fine since those are “her people.”  When she came to Korea she was not accepted by the Korean people at all because she was not born and raised there.  They can tell by the way she speaks Korean.  She says that in a way it seems like she has no home.  She is not very well accepted in Germany and is not very well accepted in Korea either.  How sad that a person, a human being just like you and I, cannot feel accepted because of their nationality or where they were raised.

It really causes me to stop and think about all the stereotypes that I hold and that are accepted for different groups of people and how wrong those stereotypes are.  I think it’s really hard to understand discrimination and stereotypes until you are in the middle of one.  It definitely was for me.  When it comes time for us to return home to America I will definitely take the value and importance of understanding diversity with me.  In the meantime I will continue to ponder these thoughts of how important it is to accept everyone for exactly who they are: a human being.