The Final Post of 2012

This has been one rather exciting year, with so many stories and adventures. I would have never guessed a year ago, while I was waiting for my final semester of college to start, that I would be living in South Korea by the end of the year. It's crazy how fast (and drastically) thing change sometimes. You know what they say "Go big or go home."

This is us eating lunch with the ravens.

Now it has been awhile since I have updated my blog with the happenings of my life in Korea. Things this past month have been pretty low key. On Saturdays, my adventure day, I have mostly just stayed in my city doing nothing too exciting. But this weekend was different. I was invited to go hiking through the wonderful woodlands of Jeju. It was the most glorious day of nice weather, snow, ice, and friends. While we were out on the trails we had to eat lunch, so of course we sit on some benches along the path. Apparently the ravens were real hungry as well. Before we knew it we were being watched by 5+ ravens from the trees above. They just kept creepin' closer and closer. They looked like very greedy little ravens but, not to fear, we didn't get attacked.

On the icy, snowy trails of the enchanted woods of Jeju.

As tradition has it, every Sunday after church we go out for lunch and then lunch is always followed by some other activity.  The activity that took place yesterday was something that I never new existed as a business. Thank you Korea for never ceasing to amaze. We ended up at a Multi-bong (Multi-room), so basically this is where you rent a room and you can play the Wii, watch movies or sing Karaoke with your friends. You just rent by the hour, so for 2 hours seven of us played Mario Kart, and Super Mario Brothers. Talk about a good time. Most of us haven't played many video games before, thus making it more entertaining.

This was a while ago but, this is part of our Sunday funday group.

This week is the beginning of not having any classes until February. So basically I just sit at my desk counting the 40 hours for the week. I do have New Years Day off, but other than that not much to do. Next week I teach winter camp in the mornings. Then starting the 12th of January I am going on a two week tour of main land Korea. I will be traveling mostly by myself and will be able to visit some Korean friends for a few days. I am very excited to see the main land. I hear Jeju Island is quite different. I haven't even really begun to plan that trip, that is something that I need to figure out this week.

Overall, this year has been fairly unpredictable and who knows where I will be at this time next year. As far as I know, I will be back living in MN. We shall see. Well I hope you have have had a great 2012 and are looking forward to 2013!

The wonderful sunrises of Seogwipo.

- Jenna

Thanksgiving in a Far Away Land

Being in Korea for Thanksgiving is such a strange experience. It doesn't really feel like it should be that time of year again, since the weather isn't too cold yet. Plus, there is nothing in the stores or on the streets telling me of the holiday coming up.  If it weren't for Facebook, I could easily blow right past the holiday without even realizing it.
Since I know that it's Thanksgiving time, I'll be honest and say that I would really love some turkey (and everything else that comes with it) right now! I think around here the closest thing I will get is some mashed potatoes. Mmm:)
Well family, since I have been here, I have told many people about the wonderful family that I come from. I tell them that we are always together for every holiday. I tell them that we get along and that everybody comes of our gatherings if they can. If someone doesn't show up, it's not because of a disagreement, it's simply because they can't be there. I also tell them that I come from a family that is committed to each other. Whether it's to their spouse or to the whole family. This is true on both sides of the family.
The more I talk about my family to others the more thankful I become. It really is an amazing family that I grew up in. I haven't really meet anyone that can say the same. Divorce and arguing has damaged so many family relationships and broken up so many families that it has become a rare commodity to have a family that all stays together.  I have the family that everybody wants to have, the ideal situation. I mean, what a wonderful thing to be able to only say good things about my family and actually mean it.
There is no mistaking the reason why my family has turned out like this. It is simply because we follow the teaching of the Bible and follow Jesus with our whole lives. I believe that if it weren't for the work of our God , my family would look just like any other family. I'm not saying that my family is perfect. Of course we have problems and conflict and have hurt one another, but I am saying that Jesus has been the one to work in our hearts to solve the problems and to see the bigger picture that he has for us. God loves the family and he created it to stay together and to never give up on each other. So for this thanksgiving, I don't want to have empty meaning behind my saying "I'm thankful for my family." I am sincerely saying "I am thankful for my family."
I love you and miss you all! I hope you enjoy each others company this Thanksgiving and remember what a blessing it is just to all be together and have a Savior who has kept us together!

My Little Korean Life

Zip line and Maze Land

Here is a brief summary if a wonderful trip I took with Jeju Tourism. They took us zip lining and to Maze Land. This was nothing less than an amazing day. First of all, they paid for everything. Lunch, admission, transportation. Second of all, I made some new friends. This whole adventure from start to finish was so much fun. Most of the other people on the trip were Chinese students studying at a university here on the island. They couldn't really speak English but when we were up on the zip line coarse you don't need a translator to know how people are nervous or scared to jump off the safety of the ledge and go fly on a little rope, high up in the air. This translates into every language perfectly.  The zip line place was as the home of a dog park (random) and The Cave Cafe. Below you see a picture of the cafe. It was such a unique find. First, you walk under this tent and it leads you to a cave. Then you have to keep walking into the cave for a few minutes and right when you feel like "this is really weird, maybe we should just go back." BOOM! There it is, this small cave hallway leads to this massive Cave Cafe. Incredible. The thing is, this cave is an actual cave, it wasn't man-made, and they turned it into an awesome place to hangout. Genius if you ask me.  After the discovery of the cave, they treated us to a large Korean lunch. The problem with the food here is that if I am willing to eat it, it is always way to spicy. Thus, I am not able to eat all that much even if  I like it. The final part of the day was spent at Maze Land. Here there are 3 large mazes (1 stone, 2 hedge), the largest being stone. The mazes were in different shapes that resemble symbols of Jeju Island. Even with a map, that stone maze was a bit tricky. At the exit of the maze you get to ring a bell to brag to all of the other people who are still trying to find their way through it. For some reason there was another bell, a really large, stationary one. Now, this gets a bit evil. But when you walk up to this bell it rings really loudly. It has a motion sensor and it startles everyone with it's unexpected ring. So, since we were the first ones in our big group to finish the maze, we encouraged people to go and check-out the big bell and then watch them jump when it rang.  I am not going to lie, I took video of this and I even have it scaring a grandma. I can't say I am proud of this, I am just saying it was pretty funny:)                                                 

Being flexible

Each week I continue to learn what it really means to "be flexible." I considered myself a flexible person before I got here and can just go with the flow.  Working in a school in Korea really has away of challenging me, in this area specifically.  Whether it's a sudden change in class times, change in lesson plan or having classes just not show up unexpectedly. Everyday when I come to school, I expect the day to go the way it is laid out on my calendar, but rarely does it actually do that. Classes are always changing times, being cancelled or I will have a random English contest to help with that I know zero information about.At least I will have tons of examples for future interviews about being flexible, what to do when things don't go as planned or working through bad communication.

K-Pop Concert

Well, now that most people know about K-pop, thanks to the viral spread of Gangnam Style. I heard about a K-pop concert that was happening on Jeju-do. Now, here is the issue. It was on a Tuesday night and it's an hour away from my city. This meant that I had to run (literally run) home in a skirt from school 1.5miles to my apartment, and then get to the bus stop before the next bus came. It was crazy stuff, and I was sore the rest of the week because I was running so hard. Silliness. Anyways, I made it to Jeju city and met with a friend there. We jump in a taxi and ask him to take us to Topdong, where the concert was. We get of\ut of the cab and have no idea what is going on or what we are doing. Now, most concerts in Korea are free, it's all a matter of getting in. We arrived at 6:15 and the concert was going to start at 6:30. Hmm, difficult situation. We see a mob of people and guess that is probably where we need to be.  This mob contained of mostly middle/high school girls in their school uniforms screaming and yelling at the security guards to let them into the show. The security guards were also shouting, and we didn't know what. So thought we would take our chances and yelling out questions in English because we figured that all of the students knew English (at least a little) and would translate what was happening for us.  It turns out the girls right in front of us we great at translating:) The guards had everyone sit down. So Jade and I were crouching down but we remained taller than everyone else. (Now, Jade has really blonde hair, and when you are among a sea of Korean's with black hair you can't help but notice her.)As one of the guards was yelling at the sitting crowd, he notices Jade and I, and then he smiles and waves. We just about die of laughter! One second he is screaming in some little girls face and the next he had is friendly face on. We were hoping that this was our ticket into the so, but no luck. We didn't make it in and they weren't letting anymore people in.  It was an outdoor concert and we could kind of see the stage from the side of the stage. Mostly we could just hear it and see the lights on the stage. We hung out for awhile with all of the other hard core fans that didn't make it in. We ate some food from some street vendors and went to sit down on a bench. Now, this part got real interesting. We sat down and instantly people kept comming up to us trying to speak English and before we knew it there was a crowd of kids around us commenting on our appearance. Then one kid said an extremely disrespectful comment (this included a swear) and Jade set him straight. That was pretty funny. I think he knew it was bad, but maybe he didn't know how bad. He probably picked it up from some rap or something. Anyways, we felt a bit like celebrities. This was the first time that I have seen foreigner getting that much attention. It was intense.

Funny Korea Stuff

   1. Strangers touch you without warning  (so far just older ladies, don't worry men don't do this...I think/hope.). The other day I was wearing a necklace and an older lady came and poking me in the chest saying "Beautiful, beautiful! How much?! How much?!" I didn't know what was happening or how to respond. Very strange, yet funny.

     2. Seeing a pig heads (Yep, that's right. Just the heads) at the market is almost no big deal. It's becoming normal.

     3. Clean air, sewer, fish and trash are the lovely smells that will randomly overpower your senses while walking down any given street.

     4.My co-teacher finally understanding that I DON'T LIKE SEAFOOD has been helpful. It took a long time but now she tells me if things have fish in them. I can always smell it regardless if she tells me, but often times I can't figure out which mystery food it is in.

     5. waygook = foreigner   I say/hear this all the time. I normally say "waygook moment." It has basically become my saying of my life here.

 

Sorry for the weird formatting. I tried to fix it but it wouldn't let me:(

Diving, Lava Tubes and Fabulous Jungmun

Diving with Heanyeos

Wow. So much has happened in this last week and a half. Let's get started. So last Saturday (Sept. 22) my friend, Jamie, brought us to this small town that is famous for it's mountain. Just below Mountain Sanbang lies a wonderful little town that is a mix of farmland, the Dragon Head Shore and random little tourist trinkets for purchase. Word can't really describe how beautiful the island is. You just have to look at the pictures. 
  So diving with the Heanyeos. What an experience! First we arrived that the diving place and they were closed. We were a bit disappointed, but we also knew this could be a possibility because we didn't call before. Anyways, we were just kinda hanging out by the shop and some old women saw us. We asked them when the diving shop is open. All of a sudden, one of the women is on the phone yelling and telling the divers to come and open the shop for us and take us diving. So there we were, 7 North Americans preparing to take our first dive. Wetsuit, flipper, mask, gloves, net and weight belt; we were ready to jump in the water. Now these diving women are famous on the island. They are also called the "Mermaids of Jeju." The average age of a heanyeo (woman diver) is 65 yrs. old and they have been diving all they're lives. They are known for being able to hold they're breath underwater for 5 mins, and they don't use any breathing equipment. Amazing stuff I tell you. Know we young folks look like fools swimming with these experienced divers, and we are at least 40 years younger! They put us to shame. I don't know what it is we were diving for, but it was some sort of shell.  Some of the people in our group got the hang of it really quickly and were able to spot these shells easily on the bottom of the ocean. I had great difficulty. My mask was foggy and I had water coming in it as well. It wasn't going to well, and after an hour I still didn't catch anything. At one point, I had one it my hand but then it fell out and it was lost forever.  So for me, diving was kind of a failure if you are going to count diving success on the amount of shells captured. So the heanyeos caught so many of these shells, that her net looked like it was about to break. As agile as she was in the water, it looked like she could hardly walk getting out. Plus she insisted on carrying her extremely heavy net of shells back.  After we were all done diving, the heanyeos cooked for us what we had just caught. I have to admit that I didn't eat any of it. It look real scary. These ladies seem to be having the time of their lives just sitting around, diving, laughing and eating. I could tell that they have all be together for years and are possibly their family.  Over all it was a neat experience.

Manjanggul Lava Cave

This past Saturday, my friend Jade and I headed to the north part of the island to check out the famous Lava Cave. I don't think I fully understand how this cave was made, but somehow the lava from the volcano mad a cave, and today it's pretty cool. This is the largest cave with in the series of lava caves on the island. Jeju is the home of one of the largest lava tube systems in the world. So basically, you take a bunch of stairs and walk into this dark cave. It is really dark and the temperature is much colder than outside. There are light throughout the cave to help you through. This isn't a small cave, that's for sure. It is really big. We walked as far as they allow us with the grand finally being this neat formation that the lava has made.  After exploring the lava caves, we wanted to check-out the hedge maze just down the street. It was a bit of an Alice in Wonderland moment. It was a tricky maze. We ended up just following this family that looked like they knew the way out...and sure enough they brought us the the end. You can't end a wonderful cave and maze experience without some ice cream, right? Right, so this is what happened and I don't regret it one bit.

The "Alice in Wonderland" Maze

Jungmun

Now this is truly an amazing place. Jungmun is the main place for tourist. There are many fancy resorts and one of the beautiful beaches I have ever seen. It is like when you are looking for a place to travel online and you see the most amazing beach and say "We need to go there!" This beach is that good. The whole town is such a lovely place, and it really feels like you are on vacation. Bonus, it's only a 25 min bus ride from my place! I think I will be spending my days off here.

Chuseok Holiday

So this weekend was Chuseok. This is the most important holiday in Korea and is celebrated for three days. Therefore I had an extra day to my weekend. I am just going to add this link that talks about the holiday if your interested in learning more about it. http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=811650

Embarrassing Foreigner Moments

Embarrassing Foreigner Moments

The Cell Phone

1. If you have ever gone to a foreign place you know that these little embarrassing moments are just bound to happen. Well, here it goes. Oh, let me add, this could have been 100% preventable if I knew anything about technology.  So my phone's 3G network hasn't been working on my smart phone.  Everyone elses seemed to be working just fine and it has been like this all week. So I finally had time to make it to the phone store to have them fix the problem for me.  I walk in and say "3G no work" and show them my phone.  The guys takes my phone and is trying to figure it out for about 5 minutes and then starts giggling. He hands my phone back to me and says "Turn on 3G button." and shows me how to turn it on.  So so stupid. I had accidentally turned off the button for my 3G network and have had to suffer without it all week. The phone guy was really nice but we both knew that I just had a stupid foreigner moment. I couldn't help but laugh and walked out of the store with my head hung low from my ignorance.  I'll be honest, I would've done the same thing back in the states.

Hot Pink Maddness

2.  To add to the hilarity that is my life. Just after the phone incident. I go around looking for new running shoes. I knew previously to this venture that it might be a bit challenging because Koreans have smaller feet than I do. It certainty doesn't help that there shoe size is different than ours in the US making my shoe size seem even bigger at 260mm. Okay, so here we go. I walk into the first store and I ask if they have any shoes in my size for women.  This guys looks at me like  "Are you serious? Your feet are that big?" Then he is showing me rows of shoes and saying shoe sizes that I didn't understand. I tried to look like I understood what he was saying but there was no way I was going to by shoes there, they were way to expensive. I leave the store and venture to another shoe store just down the street. Every time you walk into a store you are instantly greeted, and I asked if they had any shoes in my size.  The sales girl couldn't speak English, but we managed to figure it out with lots of pointing and hand gestures.  She was also surprised to find out what size shoe I wear (this known by a small giggle when I told her). I chose a pair of black shoes and she went to the back to find them.  She came back with a pair of hot pink shoes that were similar style. She made gestures that these were the only ones she could find still left in my size.  I had a decision to make. By the hot pink discount shoes or die! Well, that's what it felt like anyways. Since my run yesterday just about killed my feet. I decided to by them and am now a proud owner of  hot pink Adidas.

I know 2 posts in one day is a bit excessive. I probably won't happen to often don't worry:)

A Simple Week on the Island

 School Life

On the right is a picture of my school.  This is only part of the school but as you can see it is pretty big. There are over 1,300 elementry school students here and it is the biggest one in my city. I love walking up the school driveway with the kids to hear "Hello teacha Jenna!" I have to say 'hello' about 100 times by the time I make it to my office. The kids are often time sweeping or playing soccer. The grass is fake so it stays looking this nice all the time.

This week I didn't have any classes on Monday due to the typhoon and then the rest of the week I have had at least one class everyday that has been cancelled.  This is due to the 4th graders practising for Sports Day (similar to our track and field day). Then my 6th graders went on picnics this week. Leaving me with only one class to teach on this beautiful Friday.  It has been nice to get a lot of work done and get reorganized but I do miss seeing the kids all day long. Next week might be a rude awakening.

 Coffee Shops

It has been awhile since I have spent time at one of the hundreds of coffee shops that are in Seogwipo.  Korea has coffee shops about every 3 feet. They are everywhere and extremely popular. They are way more extreme about drinking coffee here than most people are in the US.

These are just some pictures I took at coffee shops. First, on the left, this is a picture of the different kinds of FRAPICCINOS, notice the spelling on the sign. It is just to cute, it is spelt in a way that is easier for Koreans to say. Second, the coffee cup on the right is just way to cute. I just had to take a picture of it. The coffee shops here have so much character and are fun to check out.



The everyday market.



Down by the harbor. Great Place to run.



Things I Love About Seogwipo Island Life    

1. Great view of the ocean from apartment                    

 2. easy access to the ocean                                            

 3. Refreshing ocean breeze                                              

4. Quite and peaceful

5. Easy to get everywhere on the island

6. The people are helpful

Typhoon Sanba



As many of you know, just yesterday we were hit with typhoon Sanba. It was a pretty bad storm with some very, very strong winds.  Thus, keeping us inside for the majority of the weekend.  The storm hit us badly on Sunday night. The scariest part of the typhoon was that you can't really see anything that is happening and can't really anticipate a whole lot either.  Since you can't see wind, and there aren't too many trees in the city it is hard to know how fast the winds are. All I know is that the wind was really loud and I could see sheets of rain coming down.  I have never experienced such load wind. I was watching a show on my computer and I couldn't even hear it right next to me.  Then in the night I woke up to my bed and the building shaking. Can you say rude awakening?  It was still storming in the morning and I still had to go to work.  School was cancelled for the kids but teachers were still expected to show up.  I was a bit nervous since it was still really windy and rainy.  I was able to find a taxi pretty quickly and made it to school without being swept away by the winds.  Back in MN we have "snow days" and in Korea you have "typhoon days."  I prefer snow days, since playing in the snow is fun. Playing in a typhoon is just deadly and not fun.


Since this blog post is about disastrous situations I thought I would add this. It has nothing to do with typhoons, but with fires.

This is the "Emergency Life Line" that is in the window in my apartment.  The rope and harness are in the gray box and I hook it up to the bar on the wall. They don't have fire alarms, just a life line. So if I start to feel heat, I better suit-up and shimmy down the building from the 8th floor. Good luck to me. Let's hope that I never have to use it.



Lesson Plans, Birthdays, and A Whole Lot of Rain

 "Jenna Teacher"

 Last week was the first week of teaching.  The first day/s were a bit awkward since I didn't know anyone or what I am doing.  The school I am at is really big and I get a bit lost going from my teaching classroom to my office.  Everyone at the school is really nice and I definitely feel like a celebrity walking around the hall. "Jenna Teacher...Hello!, Hi Jenna Teacher!"  It is so very cute.  All of the kids just stare at me as I am only 1 of 2 westerners in the school, we are pretty well known.  I teach about 475 students in the school and there is no way that I can remember all of their names. There is just no way.  I teach 6th, 4th and 3rd grade classes.  I would say that the younger kids are my favorite.  The 6th graders are punks and don't do anything. All in all, the week went okay. Besides Thursday, this was the biggest pile of crap day so far.  I felt like I couldn't do anything right but I am so lucky that my co-teacher is so gracious with me and my lack of teaching experience.  I have been very blessed to have the co-teacher that I have despite some communication issues. Our biggest challenge right now is trying to figure out a way to motivate these 6th graders to learn.  We both feel a bit lost on the matter.

Friday Night Adventure

Sept. 7, 2012 The Start to Birthday Weekend

After a week of school I really wanted to get out and explore more of Seogwipo.  I get home from school earlier than the others that live in my building so I waited, and I waited until I just couldn't wit any longer.  I just had to go.  I started walking and I came upon some of the most wonderful places in Seogwipo so far. For example, this bridge that you see on the left.  This is a bridge that goes from Jeju Island to another island just off the shore.  It is a small island with only a walking trail.  it was so beautiful there. I will become a frequent visitor I think. This is also down by the harbor with all of the fishing boats and many restaurants. Such a neat place minus the smell of fish :)

U-do Surprise

So, last weekend was my birthday.  I wanted to do something really fun for my birthday, as most people do.  Some other teachers wanted to go camping on U-do Island (pronounces OOO-dow, not you-do).  I thought I would make it easy and add a map of where I went (the white arrows).  The black arrow is the city I live in. 
  We had to take a ferry out to the island and then we rented ATVs for a few hours.  The island is really small and we drove around it in about 30 min or so.  It is basically a farm community and I think it's a place for day trips.  I compare it to the Duluth of MN. Nice place to go and hangout for a wee while.  Below is a picture of the most wonderful island shoreline.  It was quite magical. I would go there again.  For dinner we went to this place the was pirate themed.  I mean this place was decked out with skulls and crossbones everywhere.  It is a family business and the kids were running around.  They were the most welcoming family I think I am ever met.  They even sang happy birthday to me in English and brought me a pumpkin with toothpicks stuck in it to look like a cake with candles.  It was very sweet.   It was a great day on Saturday, perfect birthday.  We camped on the beach that night. Then at 3am Sunday morning the rains came in. They were relentless. I was sleeping in a pool of water and decided that I couldn't take it anymore.  Another girl and I decided to go into the public restroom and camp-out in there the rest of the night.  I must say that I will never forget that night.  And never again do I want to spend a night in a bathroom, let alone a public one.  Real nasty.  This other girl is a real camper.  She brought a camp stove and so we made some tea to help keep us warm.  If we had to be wet we might as well try to be warm. 

The next ferry didn't go out until 7:30am. We didn't want to miss that boat. There wasn't one dry spot on anybody or anything.  We had to walk across the island in the rain to get to the boat.  We are all just dripping wet the whole way home and extremely tired from the lack of sleep.  We waited at the bus stop in the cold rain for about 45min before the bus came to take us back home.  The bus ride was about an hour and there is no way that those bus seats will ever be dry again.  I think that we each had 12 gallons of water soaked on our bodies:)  Finally, we made it back and I get to my apartment building and the elevator is broken. Walking up those 8 flights of stairs wet was the perfect ending to my trip to U-do.  One day I will go back and attempt to camp on U-do again.  I can't let the weather win!

New Life in Seogwipo

Settling In

Well I am all settled in in Seogwipo City.  I have a cute little studio apartment and it's only a 20 min walk to school.  I am in a great location and I love that I am so close to the ocean.  I have really enjoyed walking around the city and getting to know what is around here.  One of my favorite things is the Everyday Market.  This is an outdoor market that is about a 10 min walk from my apt.  There are many vendors there selling all kinds of food and things. Veggies, fruit, candy, shoes, and lots of fish.  I must say that seeing/smelling dead fish everywhere is still creepy but I am starting to get a little more used to it.  I have seen some strange stuff though. I have bought a few things from the market because I was with one of the other teacher who can speak a bit of Korean, so I just let her do all the talking for me.  Then I wanted to go back on Friday and I couldn't get a hold of her so I thought I would be brave and try to buy things by myself.  I got there and was to scared to try to speak so I just walked around and left without purchasing anything.  I will have to get brave again soon before I run out of food:)

Tomorrow is my first day at school, so I am a bit nervous.  I have no idea what to expect.  I will be teaching 3rd, 4th and 6th graders.  I am teaching in the biggest school in the city with 52 classes.  There is one other foreign teacher there who has been teaching on the island for the past 7 years. Tomorrow will be an interesting day to say the least.

Today I went to church with a girl from my group.  We started talking yesterday and she found this church not to far from where we live.  There aren't any English churches on the island as far as we know.  So we went..and boy oh boy were we popular.  We were the main attraction. I don't think that they have ever had foreigners there before.  It was in a small town just outside of the city.  We get out of the taxi and everyone instantly is staring at us and smiling.  It was so funny. They were very friendly and they led us into the sanctuary and sat us down.  We didn't meet anyone that spoke English until the service had started and then this guy kept writing us notes to translate what was going on in the service in English.  It was pretty funny and then at the end of the service they introduced us to the congregation. It was a bit overwhelming because we all of a sudden heard out names and everyone turned to stare at us for a few minutes.  We didn't really know what to do but do a little bow and say hello.  Then, when service was dismissed everyone had to say hello and talk to us in Korean. We had no idea what they were saying but quickly there were two guys who knew English and translated for us.  They are truly the friendliest people.  They served lunch at the church as well so I had a chance to show off my "chop-stick skills."  I have gotten a lot better as it since I have been here but the noodles were so slippery so I received some instruction while eating. It was a comical site for the Koreans.
    One of the English speaking guys took us on a walk to show us the shoreline.  It was so breath taking.  I can't even describe how cool it was.  There are some pictures below of the view.  He also brought us to this place that looked like a green house but it was really a place with huge fish pools to store the fish after they have been caught from the sea. We also meet some guys who were just about to go snorkeling for fish to catch...with their hands!  To finish it off he brought us to his friends house we makes this rice/corn wine.  I don't really know what it was but it is supposed to be really good for your digestive system. It wasn't terrible but I won't volunteer to drink it again. It looked like milk and was real seedy/grainy.  All in all it was a great adventure and certainly a Sunday I don't think I will forget.

The Bathroom Surprise Game

This is what I like to call a Rocketship/spaceship toilet. It looks like a regular western style toilet but notice the button on the side.  I have do idea what most of them do but one button heats the seat (strange sensation), and one will hose you off.  Then you have the wonderful squaty-potty. What a treat it is to get to the bathroom and discover this.  Then there are always the normal toilets that we have back home as well but I figured everyone knows what those look like.  You never know what you are going to get so going to the bathroom can always be an adventure:)

Waterfall right by my apartment.

 Beautiful Sites

Great view at the park of the moon coming out. Lovely night.

Just a short walk from church and BOOM the ocean and an island! There were some snorkelers out there too fishing with their hands. They are really hard core.

 I would like this to be real motivating. We'll just have to see. I just think it's so funny to have a small outdoor gym on a walking trail.  I guess this is normal on Jeju.

Some more great stuff. i went out on a dock and there were lots of little crabs walking around. I have never seen a crab until now.

Sorry this is so long. I hope you all are doing well.  I am having a good time so far but I really need to learn Korean...quickly!

-Jenna

Orientation Update

Since I got here the weather has been non-stop rain and humidity.  It hasn't been to bed since we have been sitting in classes most days learning how to be teacher and what to expect as far are cultural norms go.  We finally had a break from all of the classroom lesson and had a field trip out in Gongju.  We went to a museum and learned about early Korean history.  To my dismay, it was the rainiest day yet.  It poured all day and most of the field trip was planned to be outside.  Needless to say, I/everyone was soaked from walking outside looking at tombs and going from place to place.  The rain was relentless, yet we were  still planning on going to a Buddhist  temple (which are normally on hill and I am assuming have great views).  Finally we heard word that they decided to cancel out trip to the temple and we got to work on our pottery longer.  It was the craziest day of extreme wetness. And of course everyday since then we have has beautiful days with little-zero rain.  Oh Korea, how you have a sense of humor.

We are painting ceramics out in the country.  We are learning from this lady who lives in a small village.  This was one of the highlight of the day because we were able to get out of the rain.  The woman had some very impressive works of art.

As you can see it was really wet from non-stop heavy rain.

To finish off orientation, we had a lesson in Taekwondo.  It is quite the workout. Let me tell you, 100 sweaty people in a non-air conditioned, humid gym working out is not something I want my nose to have to experience again. 
Do to the typhoon on Jeju, we got delayed on going to the island one day.  Needless to say, we finally made it and what a relief to be able to unpack and to explore my new home.  I will writing another update shortly about Seogwipo and my new life here.

-Jenna

Just the Beginning

Here is the very first place Joanne took me on my "official" tour of Seoul. Gyeongbok Palace.

Joanne showing me the touristy parts of town.

What a way to start my year in Korea.  Arriving in Seoul on Saturday the 18th of August, a few days earlier than I needed to be there.  I have the great privilege of having some friends in South Korea who are willing to show me around.  I have had a great time here so far.  I spent about a day and a half in Seoul and then I had to head off to my orientation with EPIK.

I am currently about 3 hours from Seoul staying at a university with probably 3-400 other English teacher getting ready to get in the classroom.  The teachers are from all over the world (England, South Africa, Ireland, Australia, US and Canada.)  This is a really fun group of people and a great place to make friends that I will hopefully travel and work with soon.

For the past two days we have basically had lectures all day.  It has made the days drag on, but they really have all been really interesting and I feel much more prepared about getting into the classroom.  At night we have been taking doing Korean language class.  It is a really difficult language to start because we don't make the same sounds that Koreans do.  I think if I keep working on it I will pick it up fairly quickly.  I keep telling myself these are your two options: learn it or die!  It has been pretty motivating so far because I would like to see my family again:) We started learning the alphabet tonight, and apparently it's really easy to learn.  I am thinking in two weeks I should be able to read it but won't be able to translate it. Most people who have taught here before say that it's pretty easy to read it, so I think I should be able to at least accomplish that soon.

Tomorrow we have a field trip around the city we are in and at some point we will have a teakwondo lesson that I quite excited about.

I think that is all for tonight.

-Jenna