Korean Life...

So it's been 7 months. Seven months living in a coutry where I still don't know the language. Seven months of teaching kids and adults English. Seven months of living on my own. Seven months of having to pay my own bills. Seven months of not being able to see my friends and family. However, I did get to see my parents at the 7 month mark!!!!

I still sometimes wonder what if I stayed in Oklahoma? Would I have passed my teacher certification test? Would I have found a job? Would I still be working part-time at the YMCA? There I go again on the "what if's". That dreaded adoptee characteristic. lol

I've made some great friends, I've gotten some amazing experience, and I'm slowly but surely learning more and more Korean words. lol Not necessarily phrases, but words.

I do still find myself incredible lonely, but maybe that's a good thing. I don't know. lol

Anywho, my parents visit was great! Had a great time with them. Not really having to spend any money. lol My mom found some great handmade Korean paper which I believe is called Hanji. Or something that sounds like that. lol She bought quite a bit. And I bought some awesome socks!! haha Socks are apparently a big there here in Korea and they sell really cute ones for like 1,000won which is like $.90. So I got some with Taeyang from Big Bang on them and a pair with Ramyun on them. haha I also did some clothes shopping and got a pair of shoes.

Tomorrow is sports day at school!!!!!! So no class and I get to watch everything!!! So I will be taking pictures and video!!! So pics and video will be posted on my facebook of sports day!!!! They really do go all out for this shindig!!!! I'm tellin ya!!!!

So, update on coming home. I will be home possibly in Feb. for two weeks. Camp will most likely start on Dec. 27 and will last for 2 or 3 weeks, not sure yet.

That's it.
안녕!!!!!!!

I've watched this video about 20 times and still love it!!!!

This is from one of my favorite shows, "So You Think You Can Dance". This year they brought All-stars back to dance with the contestants. The All-star in this one is Twitch and Alex is the contestant. Alex, the really cute Asian guy, is a professional ballet dancer and he was to dance hip-hop with Twitch. This is their routine and it is incredible!!!!!!

P.S. I only put this here because this is what has been keeping me entertained while I'm at home all alone. haha I download TV shows. It's fantastic!

P.P.S. Actual post to come this weekend when I have nothing to do!

Article about this incident below!!!!

Wow...

Here is an article from the Korean Times about this old woman who yells and grabs a teenage girl by her hair and pushes her around the subway car. Video to follow.

Brawl of old woman, teenage girl in subway car causes stir

By Kwon Mee-yoo

A carriage on subway line No. 2 turned into a fight arena when a young teenage girl talked down to an older woman who savagely assaulted the student in response.

The scene was captured by another passenger and uploaded to various websites and YouTube, causing a huge stir among netizens, Monday.

The video clip shows the old lady reprimanding the student for sitting cross-legged and the young girl talking back to her. Losing her temper, the old woman grabbed the girl’s hair, pushed her around and threw her on the seat in the car, while other passengers watched the scuffle.

At the end of the clip, the teen girl shouted into her cell phone, “I hate Korea, dad!” and swore at the old woman. Then she noticed the person recording the scene and said: “Upload it onto YouTube.”

Eyewitnesses explained other details not included in the video. They said the student sat with her legs crossed, wearing shoes smeared with mud and it had stained the old lady’s clothes.

She asked the girl to remove her dirty shoes from the seat and the student apologized twice. The old woman continued to scold her with abusive words and the teen girl then refuted and began talking back to the old lady, when the recording of the clip started.

A netizen said the old woman habitually provokes quarrels with other subway passengers and demands younger people to give up their seats for her.

Reaction from the general public was divided into three types — some blamed the rude schoolgirl for using crude language to the older lady, while the others condemned the old woman who attacked the young student and began quarreling with her.

The third group blamed the onlookers for doing nothing. “I think the people around them just watching are also part of the problem.

They should have pulled them apart,” a netizen nicknamed Mirunamu said.

I'm loving having my parents here, but once they leave I know I'll go back to having trouble keeping myself entertained. Granted I have been on a movie binge and it's been great!!!!! But, I just need to get myself out and doing something. It's a good thing I'm taking that cooking class and going on that trip. Hopefully I can meet some more people to hangout with. There's so many people in this freakishly huge city, but I've never felt so lonely in my entire life. Especially ones that speak English.

I've done quite a bit of retail therapy while my parents have been here and it's been GREAT!!!! haha But, even that doesn't help with the loneliness. It just puts more crap in my apartment.

Grrrr...rant over!

8 days and counting!!!!

My parents will be here in 8 days!!!! WHOO!!!! I'm so excited to see them and to get me some more clothes from home!! haha I'm pretty sure people at school are getting tired of seeing me in shorts and a t-shirt everyday. But, it's been too dang hot to wear anything else! However, it's been rather cool the last couple days, thank goodness!!

I started my adult class this week. Monday was the first day and I had one of the most horrible days since I've been here. It was HOT, I was extremely tired because the night before didn't get any sleep, it was my first day with my new co-teacher and the 6th graders and she was not what I was expecting, then in my adult class a couple of the students complained because the questions I was asking about what they were expecting from the class and what they wanted to work on were too hard. I almost started crying right then. When I'm that tired and that hot, my whole resolve will just crumble. Luckily I refrained and Wednesday was a bit better.

Now let me tell you about my Wednesday! haha So after class one of my students, Anna, came up to me and needed help with something on the computer. I was happy to help, but I wasn't really sure what she was needing until we got upstairs to the classroom. Her husband imports golf club grips from the States and China and he tried to buy some from GolfWorks, but it didn't go through and they had gotten an e-mail from them and she wasn't sure what it meant. So, I read it and basically it just said that they still had stuff in their shopping cart. But, when we went to the site, there was nothing in there. So her husband said it was because the IP address was different, so she wanted me to go to her house to see if I could figure out what was wrong. So, since I didn't have anything to do last night I was happy to help. So, we went to her house and I figured out that they had put an @ in the address line and that's what was messing it up. So, after I figured out what was wrong her and her husband wanted to take me out to dinner. I will never turn down a free dinner!! haha So, we waited for 1 of their 2 sons to come home from Academy so we could go to dinner. I have both of her sons in class. One of the 6th grader and the other is a 4th grader. So, we ended up going to a samgapsal place (Korean BBQ). I ATE FOR PROBABLY 3 PEOPLE. haha It was sooooooooo good and they just kept ordering more. I especially liked the grilled kimchi! AMAZING!!!! Then their 2nd son eventually showed up and he was totally taken by surprised and didn't look happy at all. haha They were really giving their sons a hard time for not talking to me. And I totally understand why they weren't. And I felt super bad about it. Then after that we went and have chicken and beer. OH MY GOSH!!!! They expected me to eat MORE!!! So I had like 1 chicken leg and some ttok, which is the rice cakes. The 4th grader started talking a bit more. He said a couple things to me later in the evening. He is just too cute and I want to just put him in my pocket and take him home. lol So after dinner they drove me home as well. haha Overall it was a very good evening. Anna, my adult student, her husband can speak a little English, but not much. But he was trying and I kinda feel bad that Anna had to translate the whole night. lol But it was great spending time with another one of my adult student's family.

So, I'm making myself go out and do more things in order to meet people. I'm taking a Korean cooking class and then going on an Adventure Korea trip with the girls to ride ATV's, learn to make cheese, and visit a Temple. It's an overnight trip, but it's only for foreigners! So, it should be a rockin good time!!!! And hopefully will get to meet some great people!!!!

Well...that was a pretty long update, so I'm gonna end right here. lol

Probably won't update until after my parents leave, so hope all is well with ya'll!!!!!

Part 2 of the Adoptee Article

So first week back is almost over. I've only taught 6 classes all week. The first two days we just did preparation. Yesterday was a normal day. Today...because of the apparnet typhoon that actually came at about 6:00 this morning school was delayed 2 hrs. Some schools even cancelled classes. It's supposed to get back later in the day, but I hightly doubt that is going to happen. I think it has passed. I did end up waking up at 6:00 this morning to heavy wins and loud rain. But that was about it. By the time I was on my way to school it was just misty and a bit windy, but nothing I'm not used to being in Oklahoma.

Tomorrow I will have my normal 5 classes and then bowling with a group of friends!! Which should be so much fun...HOPEFULLY!!! lol

Like I promised...here is the second part of the adoptee article.
Part 2 of Adoptee Article