September

I'm having a difficult time accessing this site... I can get on maybe once every week or two and otherwise my computer decides to block me out! So, sorry about not posting more frequently, but I'll keep trying to work with it! :D

I guess a lot must have happened since the last post I got on here, but the time's been flying by so fast it seems like it's only been a few days! I've been teaching classes for 3 weeks now, and am finally starting to get all the students to pay attention in class. They've been having a lot of fun and learning the lessons, but now I'm getting them to stay quieter and really listen too which is a kind of amazing feeling :) I'm getting to write my own lesson plans for for my classes which is good but a LOT of work. I'm running around all the time and still trying to get things together at home nights and weekends. But it's really nice to be able to make lessons that are specific enough to get the kids excited and involved in the class- I'm getting to use schoolhouse rock, K-Pop bands, short videos on youtube, and all kinds of games which makes class fun for me too. I keep hearing good things back from their teachers, so it must be working out alright :D

I was able to go out with a group of my co-teachers last weekend- the young ones who don't have families yet. We had dinner Korean style which is a lot like Spanish tapas, some chicken and duck dishes at the first restaurant, pork ribs at the second restaurant, and Japanese style fish and used rice dishes at the third. All served with a LOT of soju, beer, and a new one for me- bamboo liquor (I don't remember the name right now) that tasted just like apple juice. The second restaurant was my favorite, they brought a plate of par-cooked pork ribs and let us grill them ourselves on charcoal bbq pits built into the middle of our tables. We grilled the ribs and whole cloves of garlic and then ate them with marinated onions, sesame oil, and red chili sauce wrapped in lettuce leaves taco style. SOOOO tasty! The third restaurant was interesting too. We had some sort of a fish dish that was topped with paper thin slices of salmon that was dried and blowing around on the plate because it was so thin and light. When you chewed on the fish slices they had no flavor and the texture of chewing on paper, very different but good with the rest of the dish. We also had used rice soup which was really good. Apparently rice was traditionally cooked in cast iron pots, so the crust of rice that stuck to the pan was made into a soup by adding water back to the pot and boiling it with fish or chicken and vegetables and spices. They think of it like doing dishes and getting an extra meal all in one, but I have to say it was pretty tasty! :D So, last Friday night was my night of good food, good drinks, and new friends :D

Saturday and Sunday last weekend I spent hanging out with another EPIK teacher that I had met at orientation. She came over from Daegu (a town about an hour and a half's drive away, I think) where she's working. Daegu is the "big town" in our region, so I'll probably be headed that way to check things out soon enough. We had lots of fun eating out, going back to the jazzless jazz bar (piano this time), hanging out at our favorite coffee shop (which surprisingly does have jazz music), and getting to speak in English at a very rapid pace for an extended period of time :D

This weekend Susan (the teacher from Daegu), and I were planning on going to Andong (another city in our region) for their annual Mask Festival, but I heard it was cancelled due to H1N1 fears. So She, Dan (one of the other teachers that lives in my building), and I are all going to Seoul to meet up with a number of other teachers we met at orientation. Celebrating our first paycheck (which we got today) with a trip to the city, some shopping, and a little exploring. Sorry to be missing a bbq with other some of the other EPIK teachers in Sangju, but I think Seoul should be a fun time! And I'll try to get pictures of Seoul up when I get back on Sunday. Then next weekend's Chuseok, the Korean harvest festival (like our Thanksgiving) where everyone goes home to spend time with their families and eat lots of good food. Not sure what I'll be doing yet, but at least I'll have a 3-day weekend! (some schools get 4, but I'm not sure about ours yet)