There's an Electric Blanket in my Shower

It's cold in Busan! I'm not talking six feet of snow cold, but more like born-and-raised-in-southern-California-so-I'm-not-used-to-daily-temperatures-in-the-30s-and-40s cold. This week has been especially cold with some days actually dropping to the mid to low 20s. I'm doing okay as far as keeping warm, because I'm basically just not going outside. Only when I have to do I travel outside, which is probably three or four times a day max. In my apartment, I've been using my heated floor to keep the room warm and at school, the first thing I do when I walk in the English classroom is turn on the heater. There are two areas though in which I've been finding it hard to beat the low temperatures. The first one is my bathroom/shower. The second one is my co-teacher's car. The title of this blog gives you an idea of how I've managed to handle that first area. The second one I haven't really handled yet.

The day I was diagnosed with the flu, my co-teacher mentioned to me that she wanted to buy me an electric blanket to help keep me warm. I politely declined, because truthfully, my apartment stays very warm when I use the floor heater. That coupled with my bedding, which are basically blankets, actually keeps me so warm, that sometimes it's uncomfortable and I have to sleep without the covers on. Now, I know what you're thinking. Why don't I just lower the floor heater, so my room doesn't get so warm that it actually makes me uncomfortable? Basically, it's taken me a long time to figure out how to get the dang floor heater to work at all, so now that it is, I'm not going to mess with it. Especially since sleeping without the covers on isn't exactly a problem. So anyway, as happens often, even though I declined and even flat out said I didn't want it, my co-teacher bought me an electric blanket anyway. I realize that she's just trying to be nice, I do, but I was really upset she bought it for me. I think it just stems from months of only being able to make about 50% of the decisions in my life, while Korea and Koreans made the other 50%. Many times I feel like my co-teacher thinks I'm lying when I say I'm okay or that I don't want something or that I don't need something. Plus, you've seen the size of my apartment! I don't have room for anything! Immediately when I got the blanket and knew I wasn't going to use it, I had no idea where I was going to put it! I've had to get real creative with how I'm storing stuff in my apartment. I even have my suitcase packed, not because I'm ready to leave, but because it's a viable place to store stuff. I'm telling you, I'm out of ideas! Underneath my bed is completely full of stuff, which slightly worries me, because of the floor heater. That sure would make for an interesting blog if I was to wake up one night to flames under my bed! Let's hope I don't have to write that one sometime in the next two months. Okay so back to the blanket. This thing just sat in it's package in the middle of my apartment floor for like two weeks, until I finally figured out how I could make use of it.

Every morning when I wake up, my apartment living area is nice and warm due to the aforementioned floor heater. What's not warm is my bathroom/shower. It's actually the coldest part of the whole place. Ceramic tile everywhere does not exactly trap heat overnight, so needless to say having to walk naked into a refrigerator at 7 a.m. isn't exactly fun. And if you remember, I don't have the luxury of a constant flow of warm water from the shower either. I have to turn it on and off through cleansing and rinsing. This is honestly just the worst way to start the day, and you just feel so helpless, because there's nothing I can do about it. If I can't get regular Koreans to listen to me, what chance do I have in getting the Korean weather gods to listen to me?! I'm not overstating it when I say, my whole life changed when I realized that I could use my electric blanket to keep the bathroom warm overnight. It was the perfect idea! Plug in the blanket, turn it to max hot, lay it on the ground, close the door and wake up to a heated bathroom. I felt like a genius. So, I tested it out and for added measure, I stuffed a face towel in the bathroom window sill, hoping it would help stop any heat from escaping and any cold air from coming in. The results haven't been as awesome as I had hoped, but it's definitely alleviated the problem. Basically what the blanket does, is heat the floor of the bathroom. It doesn't have much of an effect on the overall temperature of the room, though I'd say it does bring the temperature up at least a couple of degrees. It's enough to make my morning shower experience way more pleasant than it was. Just stepping onto warm tile really helps, believe it or not. So every night before I go to bed, I wipe the floor clean of any water that might be there, then use that towel to stuff the window sill, and lay the blanket out on the ground. Then in the morning, I remove the blanket and enjoy my shower. In total this probably takes about an extra three to five minutes of my life everyday, but it's totally worth every second. Yes, this is what my life and blog have become. Sorry folks.

Now about my co-teacher's car. I think I've mentioned before how frugile Koreans seem to be with everything. Well, my co-teacher is like the frugile queen. Why should I be surprised that she doesn't use the heater in her car in the winter, when she didn't use the air conditioner in her car during the summer. These things are seen as luxuries. I'm not kidding, she doesn't even have an air conditioner in her apartment! Even her daughter complained to me about it once! Anyway, every morning I make the cold five minute walk up hill and wait for her to pick me up in front of a McDonald's. When she arrives, I hop in the car and remain cold, because like I said, no heater. I'm sure you'd all agree with me, that it's such an awesome feeling to get into a nice warm car when you've been standing outside in the cold. If someone is coming to pick you up and it's cold, you're just so looking forward to that moment when you get in and the heat hits you like a warm embrace from the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man. I know he was a bad guy, but seriously, imagine how awesome a hug from him would be. Or the Michelin Man! Anyway, she does turn on the heated seat function her car has, which is nice, but when I can see my breath in the car all the way to school, that's a problem. Today when we came to school, she turned on the heater for the first time, because apparently the low 20s is when it's finally okay, and pigs started flying. I swear it looked like it was her first time using it. She was messing with it so much I had to laugh. Anyway, it was a very comfortable car ride to school today, of which I'm hoping is the first of more to come. One can dream.

Earlier this week, I went out to dinner with my co-teacher, after-school English teacher, vice-principal and principal. My vice-principal, after-school English teacher and me were the first ones to arrive, so we sat and talked for a little bit. My vice-principal speaks practically no English, so it was up to the other teacher to translate for both of us. He actually started talking about how much the school was going to miss me and how he understood why I was going home. He even got into some story he was reading about a French man who visited Korea a long time ago and fell in love with a Korean girl. The man took her back to France with him and the girl had a very difficult time adjusting to life outside of Korea, and this story made him think of me. He mentioned how he was worried about me when I first got here, because it was my first time in Korea and wasn't sure how I'd adjust to everything. Because of the language barrier, I really don't get the chance to talk to him very much. I'm sure with the "translator" there, he saw it as a great opportunity to chat as well. It was just a really nice moment that we shared. Even the dinner was very fun and as I sat there I thought about how lucky I was to have been placed in a school with such nice people. Like I said, it was just a nice moment. That is of course, until the end of the dinner when the whole meal with a beverage vs. meal without a beverage debate somehow started again. It's been months since I've had that conversation with anyone, but it's now come up twice this week! The other time was when I was teaching the teachers and we were going over "habits." I was naming habits and asked them to name one, and one of the teachers said, "I know! You always drink water with your lunch." That's not a habit!!! It was the way she was so excited to say it too, not because she felt she actually thought of a habit, but because she thought it was a bad habit. I've even tried to meet them in the middle on this, by saying "Okay, so maybe some doctors say it's not okay, and some doctors say it's okay. We just each believe different doctors." Well, in Korea, logic like that doesn't work. It's one way and that's it. That's just how it is here. I explained how drinking water with a meal isn't a habit, but maybe always eating your kimchi first or always eating your kimchi last would be considered a habit. I don't know that it helped or that she cared. Like I said, I know she just wanted to bring up that drinking with a meal is bad thing to do.

I'm just a couple days away now from my winter break. The past couple weeks back from the flu have been pretty standard at school. We finished up the textbook for each grade and have been watching Christmas movies and singing Christmas songs ever since. The English room even got a Christmas tree, which is nice. I must say, there have definitely been a lot more Christmas elements around here than I expected. It's still nowhere near the level of back home, but it's been nice to occasionally see and hear the sights and sounds of my favorite holiday. I even got a package this week with a bunch of homemade cookies from my grandma, which is always something I look forward to during the holidays. Thanks grandma!

Next week I leave for a week in China, which I'm really looking forward to, despite what Mariana might tell you. It's going to be really cool to visit a place with so much history and culture. I'll be sure to tell of my tales on here when I return.

I Have the (Swine) Flu

As any good germaphobe would tell you, there's really nothing you can do to avoid germs completely, save for living in a bubble, and I'm not talking about the metaphorical bubble that most of Korea is trapped in. That's actually the exact opposite of what I'm talking about. Anyway, despite my every attempt at not getting sick, unfortunately I did. It started with a little light-headedness and an achey feeling in my chest on Thursday night, and turned into a massive headache, with full-blown body aches and chills on Friday morning. It hit so quick I couldn't believe it. I woke knowing that there was no way I was making it to school that day, so I texted my co-teacher and attempted to rest some more, hoping that would do the trick. After about another two hours or so, I realized I was going to have to get some antibiotics, because this was no regular cold. I dragged myself out of bed with all the energy I could muster and made my way to the shower/bathroom, which was freezing cold and not helping with my chills. As I've detailed here before, I can't take a shower for 10 minutes straight with warm water. I have to turn the faucet on and off between cleanses and rinses, which made things even more difficult on that morning. Eventually I finished, dressed and then set out on what I was sure was going to be quite the experience: a trip to my local hospital.

As far as I can tell, hospitals here are one-stop-shops for all your medical needs. For example, if you have regular visits with your doctor for some condition, you don't go to an office to meet him, you just go to the hospital. I don't know whether they have doctor's offices or not to be honest. I'm just going off of what I've seen/heard since I've been here. Luckily I have Korean medical insurance and had previously asked a friend how to go about using it should I ever need to. She told me that I could go to any hospital and show them my information and I'd be fine. So this is exactly what I did. I very slowly and gingerly walked down to the subway, took it one stop over and went to the information desk at the hospital.

The place was pretty full, but it didn't take long for me to get everything taken care of. When I initially told the lady at the desk that I was sick, she asked if I had a fever and I said I didn't know, but I thought so. About 10 minutes or so later I was called to have my temperature taken, and when I did, the nurse kind of laughed and said, "You have a fever." It wasn't a mean laugh or anything, more like a "Yeah, you're hotter than my favorite spicy kimchi right now" kind of laugh. I was immediately given one of those surgical-looking masks to wear and waited for the next time my name was called. One nurse ended up taking care of me for most of the time I was there, and her English was okay, but it was nice to know that she was kind of my go to person should I have needed anything. So anyway, about another 10 minutes later I met with a doctor who also spoke very little English, but enough to understand what was ailing me. From there I was taken over to another station where they gave me a flu test. Boy was I not ready for that test. The lady sat me down and basically motioned like, "I'm going to take this q-tip and put it up your nostril to get a sample. Okay?" Okay! No problem! WRONG! This q-tip thing was about six inches long, and I'll be damned if she didn't shove all six inches of it up there. I swear I felt it in my throat! As she's doing this of course I'm scrunching my face and moving upwards as she goes further and further upwards, and she tells me to stop scrunching my face. Uh, excuse me, you're sticking a six-inch q-tip up my nose obviously trying to get a brain sample, what do you want from me?! I was honestly left a little disoriented after she pulled it out, probably more because my eyes were now completely watered and I was still feeling a little light-headed. From there it was a 30 minute wait to see the doctor and hear the results, which as you should have been able to guess by now were positive. He said, "I think you have the swine flu." Immediately I started hoping he would just prescribe me some antibiotics and let me go home. I didn't want to spend any more time in the hospital. Luckily that's exactly what he did. He gave me my prescription, I went down to the pharmacy in the basement of the hospital, got my drugs and went home.

Now, because this was diagnosed as the swine flu, it meant I received an automatic one week off of work. Those are the swine flu rules here. Stay home and rest for one week. Here's the thing though, I was and still am pretty sure I didn't/don't have the swine flu. I'm positive it's just the regular flu. My symptoms have been no worse than when I've previously had the flu. I wasn't going to try and clarify that with the doctor at the time though. Besides, I kind of got the feeling that anyone who gets the flu here these days, are just being diagnosed as having swine flu to be safe. So what I'm trying to say is that there is some good news. I'm currently enjoying a week off of work and am already almost 100% better. Who am I to argue with the swine flu rules? Now it's not like I plan on gallivanting all around Busan for the next couple days, because for one there's not THAT much to do here, but it's still nice to just be able to sleep in, stay home and relax.

A couple weeks ago I walked outside in the morning to meet my co-teacher for school and was surprised to find snow on the tops of all the cars and other select places around me. It had snowed the night before, but hasn't again since. There's really not much of a story here, but for me, aside from vacations and trips to the mountains, it was the first time I woke up to snow since I lived in Tennessee when I was in 7th grade. It was kind of neat.

I had my first Korean basketball game experience a couple weeks ago as well and it was fun. Much like the baseball game we went to, they had this guy at the bottom of a section of seats, which I guess you could call the cheering section, encouraging everybody to cheer. He holds up signs, screams, sings, says funny things in Korean that I don't understand, etc. Well this time, we were seated in the "cheering section" and he was right in front of us the whole game. It's funny how someone can get you excited to cheer and piss you off by blocking your view at the same time. I got some video of him below. There were two other highlights of this game worth mentioning. The first is the mascot. The name of the team is Sonic Boom, so the mascot is this astronaut-looking thing. I think the video I shot of him below will more accurately describe his enthusiasm during the game than I can with words here. Also, while watching the game, I noticed that I recognized the center playing for the team from Seoul. Just as I was telling Brent that he looked familiar, he turned so I could see the back of his jersey, which said "와커." Walker! That's Samaki Walker! Holy crap! For those of you non-Laker fans and casual Laker fans who don't remember Samaki Walker, he was a member of the 2002 championship team, the last of the three-peat earlier this decade. Back home he was a power forward, but here in Korea he's playing as a center. He's just one of those players that kind of disappeared and you never thought about again. Like J.R. Reid or Travis Knight. Where are those guys!? Anyway, it was real funny and surprising to see him there. He didn't really dominate or anything either, like you would expect a former NBA player playing in Korea to. The center from Busan actually outplayed him I thought. Whatever. Good for Samaki Walker. He's still playing "competitive" basketball.

That's it for now. If you haven't received an e-mail from me yet, I'm looking to get a hold of all your addresses to send out Christmas cards. If you think I already have it, good, look forward to your card in the mail. If not, please e-mail me at robert.j.koontz@gmail.com and let me know so I can send you a card.

Take care everyone!

Korean Basketball

Is that Samaki Walker?

Holy crap! It IS Samaki Walker!!!

Pepero Day

Today was Pepero Day here in Korea. What is Pepero Day you ask? Well to understand Pepero Day, you first need to know what Pepero is. They are thin cookie-like snacks covered with a chocolate coating, and according to the box, I am one year older than the popular Korean treat. Leading up to this day, I had heard various versions of what Pepero Day actually was. Putting everything I heard together, it sounded pretty much like a second Valentine's Day. I found that there was some truth to this, but the holiday definitely isn't as restricted to couples as Valentine's Day is. Here is a description I found on the ever-reliable Wikipedia:

Pepero Day is an observance in South Korea similar to Valentine's Day. It is named after the Korean snack Pepero and held on November 11, since the date "11/11" resembles four sticks of Pepero.[3][4] The holiday is observed mostly by young people and couples, who exchange Pepero sticks, other candies, and romantic gifts. Lotte denies starting the holiday and instead states that they noticed a bump in Pepero sales around November 11th and after continued popularity they decided to then encourage the holiday with special gift boxes and other promotions.[2] Some consider it to be a contrived holiday and some teachers have encouraged children to exchange healthy snacks to help combat obesity. According to one story, Pepero Day was started in 1994 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan, where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero".

With that brief description in your head, let me tell you about my Pepero Day, which was filled with these damn chocolate cookie sticks everywhere I went. All day long, I was either receiving boxes of these sticks or being given one stick by students who wanted me to eat it right there in front of them. Don't get me wrong, I was totally flattered that all these students cared enough to want to give me these treats. It's always awkward when students do things like that in front of Mrs. Sung, but bring nothing for her. I was sure to thank all of them and show that I was appreciative, but by the time I went home I was so sick of these things, and it didn't make me feel any better that my backpack was filled with boxes of them for my own personal enjoyment at home. I guess the reason I really wanted to tell you this story is so that when some of you open your next package from me and find a box of Pepero, you'll know it's because I'm just spreading the joy of Korean Pepero Day. With love from my home to yours.

With the chocolate cookie stick holiday serving as the background, my school had an English speech contest today for 4th through 6th graders, and an English storytelling contest for 1st through 3rd graders. I can't even begin to describe how unbelievably cute the storytelling contest was. Try to imagine these little Korean kids reciting stories they memorized in English, with some of them even dressing up, using props and getting VERY animated to help the audience capture the essence of the story they were telling. Never in the entire time I have been here have I been so upset that I didn't have my camera with me to record some of these students. I'm so bummed that I don't have those moments permanently recorded, because they really deserved to be. I did have my iPhone with me, so I was able to snap some photos, but they just don't provide an accurate measurement of the adorability of these students. Anyway, I was a judge for both the speech and storytelling contests. As soon as the first student started going with her story, I was upset that I had to pick a winner. You'd be amazed at what these kids can memorize in a completely different language. I was blown away, especially by the first and second graders. I mean seriously, they haven't even mastered Korean yet and they're up there telling me about the three little pigs in English! The speech contest for the older students was obviously a little more serious in tone. I counted at least three speeches either about global warming or protecting the environment. The speech that stands out the most though, is one where a student talked about the many kinds of strange foods eaten around the world. Here's why it sticks out. He opened by talking about how eating dog meat is very delicious and many people outside of Korea can't seem to understand this. Talk about your attention getter. He even showed a picture of dog meat, which I'm almost positive is the first time I've actually seen it, because I've never bothered to look on the Internet or anything and I haven't been in the presence of it here that I'm aware of. As he started to go through the various types of strange foods eaten around the world, he finally got to America. What do we eat that could possibly be considered strange, let alone deserve to be in a presentation alongside dog meat? Barbecued turkey. Now, I know there are probably some vegetarians out there who might agree, just based on the fact that they're both meat from an animal, but seriously. It really makes me wonder what the Korean population at large thinks about turkey meat. I honestly don't know. I know that it's a difficult meat to find here and maybe that's why. Maybe turkey meat to them is like dog meat to us. To be honest, I'm probably most shocked that they would think any kind of food is strange, because from what I've seen, the line between what's edible and what's not is pretty dang thin. I'm not kidding, sometimes at lunch we're served these vegetables that look and taste like grass. Unless they put that nasty kimchi sauce on it, in which case it tastes like grass with poo on it. Man, I need some Olive Garden breadsticks stat.

I posted recently about the upped level of concern over the H1N1 flu virus and it's still riding a pretty big wave right now. A handful of students at my school have officially contracted it, with some having already returned from their hospital stays and others still out. Those medical masks are more regularly seen now and the school has installed hand sanitizing dispensers on each floor for everyone to use. Lucky for me I have about 15 mini bottles of my own hand sanitizer, courtesy of my dad. You better believe I'm putting those suckers to good use. I'm using that stuff just about every chance I get, because the last thing I want is to be spending time in a Korean hospital. I'd rather that not be part of my year-long cultural experience. I even purchased a can of Lysol-type disinfectant, which I spray all over the English room constantly. There's no doubt that I'm going overboard (Seriously, I went through the can in two weeks), but I just don't want to risk it. Plus, it's good practice for when I finally cross the line from being a guy who likes things clean to a full-fledged germaphobe. It's only a matter of time, I know it. I continue to have to remind everyone, adults included, how important it is to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze. I would be so happy if I left Korea knowing that I convinced just one person here how logical it is to cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. If they just figured that out, it would eliminate the need for them to wear those masks, which even now don't do much, because if someone sneezes in your face, you're only blocking your nose and mouth. Your eyes are just as susceptible to catching those germs floating around. The next problem to solve then would be getting them to wash their hands properly, with soap and warm water. Running your hands under a cold faucet doesn't do a whole heck of a lot Korea! I know. I did a science project on it in fourth grade. And now that I've unfortunately let you look into a shaded window of my life, I should go before I become the crazy germ-obsessed friend you used to have.

Take care everyone!

The boxes of Pepero sticks, either awaiting my consumption or delivery to one of you.

4th-6th Grade Speech Contestants

1st-3rd Grade Storytelling Contestants

3rd grader Angela, my vote for best storyteller

A first grade boy telling the story of the three little pigs, dressed as a pig.

Halloween and Hiking

Greetings from Korea!

The fall weather is making for some very comfortable temperatures these days, which are getting shorter and shorter. I think the sun goes down around 6 p.m. or so now. It definitely makes me a little more homesick, because this atmosphere is the precursor to holiday festivities back home.

Speaking of holidays, today is Halloween! I've found that most Koreans have a general knowledge of Halloween, but don't really celebrate it. The Target-type store we shop at here was selling a limited amount of product, which was nice, because it gave me a chance to buy some stuff and teach my kids about Halloween. When I asked my students what they knew about Halloween, the first answer was almost always "Candy!" It seems that without even celebrating it, the children here have found the biggest benefit of Halloween is the sweet aftermath of trick-or-treating. Well, this past Friday we had a Halloween day, which included very little English at all. Let's just call it a cultural lesson, okay. Between the stuff that I bought and some costumes that my co-teacher had purchased, the students had a pretty good time. We had enough costumes for everyone to put on as they entered class and they just loved that. We also played a Halloween-themed BINGO game and used toilet paper to turn four students in each class into mummies. As you can imagine, this was quite the hit. It was really funny to see how easily the girls figured out what they needed to do to turn their teammate into a mummy, while the boys just seemed lost. They would start to pull the toilet paper around their teammate's ankles, it would break, they'd start over, one boy would yell at another boy, and it would start all over again. It was really funny. I took some video and pictures, which are posted below.

After school Friday, all the teachers went on a hike at the tallest mountain in Busan, Geumjeongsan. I was less than thrilled about going, because hiking really is not fun for me. I had gone once earlier this year and that was enough, but as I've mentioned before, you can't really say no to this stuff. So at about 3 p.m. we set out on our hike, and as we started, I looked up to the top of the mountain and saw some people up there and what looked like bridge. I jokingly pointed up to it and said to my co-teacher, "Are we going up there?" She said, "Yeah, can you do it?" I said, "Sure!" Now, I totally thought we were joking together about this, but apparently the real joke was on me, because I'll be damned if we didn't climb all the way to the top of that freaking mountain. I found myself in quite the state of shock when I realized that's what we were really doing. I would look up there and think, there's just no way. Well, by the grace of God, I got up there. It was pretty scary up there, with little cliffs and rocks that would simply drop off for hundreds of feet. I could almost sense that my dad was having trouble sleeping, but not knowing why. After all, he's the guy who freaks out when you get too close to a window in a tall building. I'm sure had he seen where I was he would have had a heart attack. Anyway, it felt good once I got up there to look down and see the spot where I joked about actually climbing this high. The wind was a lot stronger up there, and with those drop-offs that I mentioned before, it was a little nerve-racking. Like I told Brent, if it were Mariana up there and a strong gust came by, she may well have been gone with the wind. (So cool that I was able to make that joke.)

On the way back down the mountain, it got fun. We went down a different path that included different kinds of obstacles, including climbing up certain points with ropes, sliding down steep rocks and going through little cave-like tunnels. I took some pictures of all this stuff and some video as well. Also on the way down, I ran into another EPIK teacher, so naturally we started talking, because like I've mentioned before, it seems like that's just what you do. He was from England, which excited me, because immediately I thought, "Cool, I can talk about soccer with this guy." In my head, I also thought of how awful that was. It's like meeting a black person and just assuming they want to talk about basketball. Lame. Our conversation did eventually get to soccer, which I may or may have not started. A strange thing that I noticed as I was talking to him too, was that I caught myself twice getting into a British accent! Holy crap! How does that happen?! It's like infectious. I'm not sure he caught it all, but it was so weird. It was really quick and just a couple words, but still. I felt so weird about that happening.

The countdown now stands at seven and a half weeks until winter vacation and China. After that, it's a cake walk back to America.

This is where I was when I made the joke about climbing to the top.

Fun obstacles!

2,629 feet

The winning mummy group

One of my second grade classes after the mummy contest

OMG! It's Girls Generation!

When you start getting into your late twenties, which I guess I can officially say I am, you start being less and less interested in celebrating your age. Birthdays kind of just become another day, not really because you don't want to be celebrated, because let's face it, we all love that one day a year belongs to us, but I think because you just don't want to acknowledge the new older age. I'm probably starting to paint a more dire picture than how I actually feel, but when I think of the number, 27, it does kind of bum me out. I hear that number and just can't believe that's how old I am. I mean I feel I just graduated high school, but that was almost TEN YEARS AGO! Jeez!

Anyway, my first birthday to be celebrated outside of the United States without all my closest family and friends was pretty cool. On the actual day of my birthday, Brent and some of our other friends took me out for dinner and to this board game place, which has become one of our favorite activities here. They all got me awesome gifts and we had a good time just hanging out.

On the Monday after my birthday, which was on Sunday this year, I was walking into school with Mrs. Sung and she told me that we were having computer class that day, because there was a problem with the computer in the English classroom. So I went straight to the computer classroom and set up shop for classes in there that day. Well, just after the bell rang at 9 a.m., she came in and said the computer in the English classroom was fixed, so we could have normal classes that day. I grabbed my stuff and headed with her to the English room. Well, little did I know that when I got there, the room would be completely decked out with balloons, while my students would be donning party hats and holding party poppers to surprise me with a cake and birthday celebration. One of my fifth grade classes spent the morning decorating the place and setting up for the party. It was really a cool surprise and I was totally blown away. They even made me this "happy birthday" banner using the best English they could, which of course means some pretty hilarious comments. Anyway, it was really fun and overall I couldn't think of a better way to have spent my birthday this year.

This past weekend was the Chuseok holiday here in Korea. This is the biggest holiday of the year, and apparently it's similar to American Thanksgiving. The last day of school before we went on a mini-break definitely had a holiday feel to it. You know kind of like how it feels the day before you break for Christmas? You could tell everyone was just happier and excited to celebrate and spend time with their families. Of course for me this day was like any other day. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled to be having the next four days off, but I wasn't in a holiday mood. Speaking of those four days, I took full advantage of them, sleeping in late everyday and just relaxing as much I could. The earliest I left my apartment on any of those days may have been 4 p.m. It was really nice.

Last night marked the opening of the 14th annual Pusan International Film Festival, and thanks to our Korean friend Faith, who had some connections, we were able to get tickets to the opening ceremony and movie premiere. The event was held outside near Haeundae with approximately 5,000 people ticketed to see the ceremony, and many many more outside screaming along the red carpet when their favorite Korean celebrity made his or her entrance. The massive crowds outside along the red carpet area made for some confusion for Brent and me trying to meet up with another friend, but eventually we figured it out and got inside. Unfortunately we got there about 15 minutes or so before the event was to begin, and it wasn't assigned seating. We walked in, saw no empty seats and began mentally preparing ourselves to be standing for the next two and a half hours. By the grace of God we managed to find four consecutive open seats near the back corner of the floor seating area. It truly was amazing that we found these seats, because this place was packed. I have no idea how they were passed up by other people. Anyway, the opening ceremony part of the night was an unexpected treat for us. Of course it all happened in Korean, but there were English subtitles on a couple of the screens set up in front, so we knew what was going on. The only recognizable American celebrity in the audience that they showed on the screens was Josh Hartnett. Random I know. He got a pretty big scream from the girls though when they showed his face, so I'm sure that made him feel right at home ... if it were about eight years ago. He should have known there wasn't going to be a sequel to Pearl Harbor. There were fireworks and other little elements to the ceremony, but by far the biggest surprise and most enjoyable moment for us was when they introduced Girls Generation to the stage. We, nor anyone else in the crowd, knew that they would be there performing, and if you remember, we are both fans of their song "Genie." Now, before you go to that place where you're imagining Brent and I screaming like little girls and saying "OMG" over and over, stop! We weren't THAT excited. Though there was a point during the performance where Brent noticed his favorite girl wasn't there and got genuinely upset. I was filming at the time and really hoped that his rant would be audible in the video, but it's really not. I have the video attached below, and if you listen carefully towards the end, you can just barely hear him say, "She's not here, there's only eight of them." The group has nine total members, so Brent's girl was the only one missing. Anyway, it was just cool to see a famous music group perform, because we see and hear all these groups a lot, and we knew how cool it would be to tell our students. The fact that it was Girls Generation performing a song we like was a bonus.

After the opening ceremony concluded, the festival officially premiered its first movie, "Good Morning President." It's about three Korean presidents and their terms in office, covering everything from the politics they had to deal with to issues with the personal lives. It was fiction of course, which you'd know right away when you saw that one of the presidents in the movie was a female. Our Korean friends assured us after the movie that this would not happen in our lifetimes. They are just a tad behind on some social and civil rights issues here, but let's save that for another blog. The movie was actually pretty good. It had a good mix of comedy and drama and was genuinely entertaining throughout. That was actually the first of a total of five movies we'll be seeing throughout the festival. Hopefully the rest will all deliver the same satisfaction.

I'm back at school now for the "stretch run." I've got 11 straight weeks until the winter holiday with no breaks or extra days off. From there it's a trip to China, winter English camp, about two weeks left in the school year and then my return flight home. I'm expecting to cruise through these next 11 weeks, seeing as how fast the rest of my time here has gone. I hope you all are doing well. Take care!

That big screen did eventually turn upright when the movie started.

This is the entrance to the seating area.

My student, Krista, made this puppy for me.

The fifth grade class that threw me the party

The funny thing is that she bought me this shirt as a birthday gift after having seen me that day. I wonder what could have inspired the purchase.

Fear the Flu!

Greetings from Busan! Not a whole lot is going on in these parts nowadays, but I still thought I should check in and give what updates I can. So here goes...

I suppose the biggest news right now is the H1N1 flu virus. It's got Koreans in a panic, which has an upside and a downside. The positives are that they are more worried about germs being spread, so they're taking some necessary measures to help prevent against that. This includes installing paper towel dispensers in the bathrooms at our schools, so we don't all have to share one disgusting bath towel that probably is washed about once a month if you're lucky. Obviously it's ridiculous that it took the threat of this flu for them to do what's been practiced in western countries for decades, but at least they figured it out. Hand sanitizer is also more readily available at school now and our students have their temperatures checked every morning before they are allowed in the building. Some schools, including Brent's, are even checking the teacher's temperatures every morning too. Now, this sounds like a good idea at first, but leave it to the Koreans to confuse you as to whether they truly understand how germs are spread. I say this because when checking students temperatures every morning, they use the same ear thermometer without a cover on it for every student. You'd think there would be some sort of plastic cover that would get used once, popped off and thrown away, before a new one was placed on to check the next student. Unless there's something I don't know, like maybe germs can't be spread from ear to ear, this just seems to defeat the purpose of the daily checks. I've confirmed with other English teachers here that this is the same method practiced at their schools and we're all quite baffled.

The biggest downside of this whole flu fear is that we're kind of trapped here. Middle school teachers have actually received word from their education offices that they cannot travel out of the country. There's a big holiday coming up called Chuseok, which is like their Thanksgiving, and we get a couple days off of school. Basically we end up with a four day weekend and some people were planning on using that time to travel, but now they can't. Even Brent and I briefly considered a quick trip to Japan, because it's so close, but had to nix that idea when it became apparent his school wasn't going to allow him to go. My school was a little more relaxed about letting me go, but I'm sure they would have been nervous. Anyway, it's just kind of a bummer to be stuck here for that long weekend. We thought a Korean road trip might be fun, but the problem is that practically everyone in Korea is traveling during Chuseok, because it's tradition to go to your hometown and visit ancestor's graves. This means traffic everywhere, which is not something we're interested in dealing with. So it's going to be a long weekend in dynamic Busan!

With the flu being a hot topic around these parts, I decided it was finally time for me to prepare the health lesson I've been wanting to do almost since the first month I was here. My desire to teach a lesson on healthy practices stems from the staggering number of people I see everyday who cough and sneeze without covering their mouths. It's quite amazing to watch people get coughed and sneezed on by other people and not even flinch. Gross. I feel it's my duty to help educate these youngsters on how not to be like their parents in this regard. So I showed a couple videos and some still frames of sneezes, coughs and germs spreading that proved to be a real eye opener for not only the students, but my co-teacher as well. In fact, she mentioned my lesson to the vice principal and he requested one of the videos I used to be shown to the whole school during the weekly announcements. That was indeed a proud moment for me. Of course the lesson had English components, because quite frankly it had to. After all, I'm not the health teacher, if that's even a thing here.

Here's something totally random for you, but something I've been meaning to mention for a while and keep forgetting. Shopping carts in Korea rule! You all know what it's like to get that loud, bumpy shopping cart that's impossible to turn without lifting up at the grocery store or Target or something. Well here, not only have I never come across a shopping cart that is loud or bumpy, but the carts actually move left and right as well as the typical front and back motion. They are so smooth and are the easiest carts to maneuver, which does enhance the shopping experience just a little bit. The one thing they lack is that cool bar at the bottom that I like to rest my foot on, but I'll still take a Korean shopping cart over an American shopping cart any day.

Thanks to the assistance of one Mrs. Jaime Quattrocchi, my students are going to have themselves some good old American pen pals. I thought this would be a great way for them to practice their English, and also make a friend halfway across the world. I have a faint memory of having a pen pal when I was in elementary school, but I don't think it really went anywhere. She was just looking for something a little too serious and I wasn't ready for that. I'm joking of course, but I honestly don't remember what happened with my pen pal. I can't even remember what country he/she was from. Whatever, like I said, the memory is very faint. Anyway, I took a survey of students who would be interested this week and got a pretty good response. They are totally excited and can't wait to write their first letters. I'm going to get them all together next week and do that. I was even thinking how in this day and age, they probably can just exchange actual letters once, then move right into e-mailing each other. I just hope it works out a little better than the relationship I had with my pen pal. If I even had one. Who knows. It's a faint memory, did I mention that?

That's all I've got for now. Like I said, not a whole lot is going on. I thought I'd leave you though with some of the new popular tunes the kids are bumping these days here in Korea. Super Junior and Wonder Girls are so four months ago!

"Indian Boy" - MC Mong

This song just simply wouldn't fly in America. Pay special attention to the English lyrics and some of the dance moves. Apparently the "trail of tears" didn't run through Seoul.

"I Don't Care" - 2NE1

This may be the most played song here right now. It's pretty hard to go a day without hearing this song, especially because it's also used in a commercial. And yes, the group's name is pronounced "twenty one."

"Genie" - Girls Generation

A good song, despite what Mariana says.

"Abracadabra" - Brown Eyed Girls

This one is really for the guys. If you watch any of these videos all the way through, I suggest you let it be this one. I think you'll see why pretty much right away.

The Short One vs. Korea

Time continues to fly over on this side of the Pacific as another awesome vacation has come and gone, summer English camp is over and the daily "grind" of going to work everyday has commenced once again. Mariana was my most recent visitor and our time together was just as meaningful and event-filled as the previous vacation with my family. As with my family's trip, I will try to spare you all the little details, especially because Mariana and I visited almost the exact same places. Before I get to that though, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the summer English camp that preceded the short one's visit.

I must say, the camp was truly three weeks of singing, dancing, playing games and watching movies. I'm not sure how much new English those kids walked away with, but I can tell you they definitely had a good time. Unbelievably, the work on my end was extremely minimal, meaning even less than the effort necessary for regular school, which is saying something. Even more unbelievable is that I got paid extra for the camp, which was totally unexpected, but definitely appreciated. I can't help but feel a little bad though, being as though I hardly did anything, but heck I'm not offering a refund. If they want to pay me more for doing less, that's something they're going to have to work with whoever is in charge of the school district's budget. So anyway in case you're interested, the games we played were Twister (colors, rights, lefts, etc.), Guess Who? (describing people) and Scrabble (I think this needs no explanation). At first it seemed like their favorite game was Twister, but like most people, they got tired of having to hold their bodies in contorted positions for long periods of time, so Scrabble ended up being the hit of the camp. Guess Who? proved to be not so popular as it turned out. Over a couple days I actually had the students create their own superheroes through a Marvel website, and that was a lot of fun. They basically had to create the character's costume and choose what weapons, if any, they carried and then had to talk to the rest of the class about their superhero; things like what his/her name is and why, what's his/her power, how did he/she get that power, etc. It was very entertaining to see what they came up with. Children's imaginations are just so intriguing and so unpredictable. I don't know if there's ever a time in life when you're more creative than when you're a kid. Korean children seem to love superheroes and the supernatural too, so this made this activity extra fun for them.

As far as the movies were concerned, I took the opportunity to introduce the students to the High School Musical series, which was a hit of course. After watching all three of those movies, we watched Enchanted and 101 Dalmations to close out the camp. It was really funny to watch their reactions to any sort of romance that would occur in these movies. They would get all fidgety in their seats and start talking to each other and just plain be embarrassed by what was on the screen. I mean we're talking High School Musical and Enchanted here, so when I say romance you know what I mean. I guess for them though, that stuff is still new and strange. Especially so here in Korea, where things are a little more conservative than back home. It's probably akin to a teenage male watching Basic Instinct with his parents in the same room. Can I get an "aaaawkward" from Karlynn on that one?

With camp over, it was time to go pick up my little Mexican jumping bean in Seoul for a week of Korean adventures. I basically played it just like when my family came, by going to Seoul the night before she came and checking into the hotel, then heading to the airport the next day to pick her up. I again used public transportation to get there, which meant about two hours on subways. It's really not that bad though. If you keep yourself occupied with music or phone games you're totally fine. I'd like to mention too that I really feel like a pro now with the Seoul subway system. I remember being so intimidated when I first rode it earlier this year. Just looking at the map gave me a headache, but I can now confidently say I've mastered that beast! Anyway, as I was getting closer to the airport, these neat little screens inside the train update you on arriving and departing flights. Imagine my shock when still 10 minutes or so away, the screen shows that Mariana's flight has landed 30 minutes early. See the week before I had joked about not showing up to get her on time or hiding and scaring her when she came out of the baggage claim area, and I knew if she walked out and didn't see me, she might have started thinking I was serious. So when that train arrived at the airport I was hauling my tookus through that place to try and make sure I was there when she walked out. When I got there I noticed passengers were coming out and I frantically looked around to see if Mariana was standing somewhere sharpening the knife she would use to let me know how disappointed she was that I wasn't there on time. Lucky for me she hadn't walked out yet and after about another 10 minutes or so I was able to meet her as she came through the glass doors.

That first night we took advantage of the CPK conveniently located near our hotel and took a stroll along the Cheonggyecheon stream, which is where I basically ended my vacation with my family. Mariana had somehow found a picture of it somewhere the week before and asked if we would be going there, so I figured it would be a good way to kick off the trip. The next day we took the same DMZ tour that I had taken with my family and enjoyed all the same sights and sounds. Mariana even made sure to get her picture taken with the giant, kind of insensitive DMZ letters located outside the entrance of the Third Tunnel. A bonus on this trip that for some reason wasn't included the first time I did this, was a stop at a small little souvenir shop, where I was able to purchase North Korean soju. I guess it's supposed to be a little bit stronger than regular soju and apparently they had honey to it as well. Anyway, it just seemed like something I should buy and try, because when would I have the opportunity again. After seeing how cheap it was, I even bought a bottle for my principal who likes him some soju. He seemed pretty pleased when I gave it to him today.

When we got back to Seoul that day, the streets in the downtown area were packed for the funeral procession of a former South Korean president who recently passed away. Cops were out in full force and Mariana was quite amazed with how many there were. As this was happening, we decided to visit a palace that both of us hadn't been to yet. (See it's funny because I said both of us. Of course Mariana hasn't been there before, it's her first time in Seoul. Get it?) The name of the palace is Deoksugung and it pretty much looked exactly like the other palaces I had visited in Seoul, so it was good to know I didn't need to waste time taking her to another palace. After visiting Deoksugung we hopped in a taxi to Seoul Tower and soon after called it a night. Still adjusting to the time change, Mariana would poop out around 8 or 8:30 every night, so doing anything passed that time probably would have caused her to pull out that knife I mentioned before.

The next day, we ventured to a restaurant that I had heard about called Butterfinger Pancakes. I was quite excited for this, because from the pictures I had seen, I was about to have a real American breakfast for the first time in months. The restaurant didn't disappoint. It's basically like an IHOP, so I can understand if that doesn't excite you very much, but you have no idea how exciting it is for me. I mean seriously, abalone porridge is what they call breakfast here. Abalone porridge people. So to be able to sit down and have some eggs, bacon, hash browns, sausage and pancakes was a treat. After enjoying this fantastic meal, we headed to Insadong so the short one could stock up on souvenirs, and finally ended up in Myeongdong where we had our first Korean barbecue meal of the trip.

We were off to Jeju the next day and arrived with enough time to get in at least one activity that day. Mariana really wanted to take a submarine ride to look at the fishies, so we hopped on board a big white submarine and enjoyed a REAL ride through the ocean. I say real in all caps, because until this point my only submarine experience had been with Nemo and his buddies at Disneyland. Now, I'm not a huge fan of fish or simply staring at them for that matter, but it was a fun little excursion and seeing how excited Mariana would get seeing the fish, especially the jellyfish, made it totally worth it. That night I gorged myself at the hotel buffet as Mariana just watched, because she wasn't hungry. It wasn't a cheap buffet, so I guess I had to make sure I was getting my money's worth. And boy did I. The next day we actually did two interesting never-done-that-before activities. We started out the day at the Museum of Sex & Health, which Mariana accurately described as being just a little bit more about sex than health. It really was a site to see and a unique experience for sure. Outside the museum were huge statues of naked men, women and their body parts. And you know what I mean by "body parts." Inside, the museum housed various items related to sex and health, and seemed to tell the story of sex through history and in different cultures. Unfortunately it was all in Korean, so not only could I not read it, but I couldn't say I went there for the interesting articles. There were definitely things in there that you'd look at, then wonder who's looking at you looking at that stuff. It was very funny actually. Full on pornographic movies were playing in certain parts of the museum and they displayed just about every type of sex toy you could think of, and probably some you'd never think of. Like I said before, it was definitely an experience.

To close out our time in Jeju we went to a giant bush maze. This has nothing to do with the sex museum, so for those of you who just read that sentence, and thought what you thought, shame on you. Anyway, it was like one of those mazes you'd see in a movie (The Shining is a good example for those of you who've seen it.). We were literally like rats in a maze trying to find the cheese and let me tell you, I now have a new respect for rats. The frustration of passing areas you know you've passed already, turning corners that lead you to nowhere and thinking you've finished only to be taunted by the actual finish line staring back at you is immense. Realistically we were probably in there for about 15-20 minutes, but it could have been an hour for all I knew. There's definitely a real sense of panic that sets in when you're walking around getting nowhere and start thinking about how you'll ever get out of there. Anyway we made it, sanity in tact and enjoyed some ice cream afterwards for our efforts. Mariana actually took video of this whole ordeal, so whenever she gets it all edited maybe I can post it on here with a future blog or something.

With Jeju behind us, it was time for Busan! We stayed at the oh-so-spacious Hotel Koontz which is neatly decorated with pink flower wall paper, features the ever-popular Korean all-in-one bathroom and is conveniently located nowhere near the beach. It's a five star property no doubt. While here I had a chance to take Mariana to Brent and my favorite pork restaurant, which is Korean barbecue-style, and also to some spots where I spend a lot of my free time. It was cool to be able to show her around the areas she's heard so much about. She even was able to meet one of my good Korean friends. We of course visited the Jagalchi Fish Market, a must for anyone visiting Busan, and also spent a good amount of time on the beach. Overall it was another great vacation that I didn't want to end, but like the last one and every other one I will ever have, it had to. Mariana actually did really well here, as far as adjusting to the lifestyle. She never really had a problem with any of the little things, like being stared at or nudged/pushed on the subways. I was really proud of her. Saying goodbye was tough again, but like I kept telling Mariana and really almost everyone I talk to these days, I really think these next six months are going to go by quick. It honestly amazes me that I'm already over six months through this adventure. Again, I just feel so lucky to have had two visits from people that I care about. I mentioned this in my last post, but I really don't know who else has been lucky enough to have their friends and family come visit them. I definitely feel special.

So with summer vacation now in the rearview mirror, it's full speed ahead with the next semester of school. We started back up again today, though there weren't any classes, just opening proceedings I guess you can call it. It was great to see the students again and it was cool to see that they were excited to see me again too. I've said it many times, but they definitely are the coolest and most rewarding thing about being here by far. It definitely isn't the food, I'll tell you that! As I set into these next six months, I also want to explore different parts of the country that I haven't seen yet. I've about had my fill of Seoul and Jeju. With my International Driver's Permit, I can rent a car and go do some exploring of other cities here and I definitely plan to. Even going beyond Korea, Brent and I are looking into visiting China and the Great Wall this winter. There's still more to do and still more to accomplish before I leave in February/March.

On with the second half!

Here we are in Seomyeon, Busan

The maze of death

She acts like she doesn't see it, but she sees it.

Mariana being giddy in the submarine

Mariana helping to unify the Korean peninsula