Have a Very Merry UnBirthday to YOU!!!!

Who me?
YES YOU!!!!

So on my birthday. I actually did not tell the kids it was my birthday. Klara did it for me. And I got 40 handmade cards from my adorable kids later that day. Additionally that day I did a cooking lesson; we made Lemonade Pie. Yes it sounds strange but keep in mind we had to make something that could not be cooked. And our co teacher dismissed the ice cream idea. In any case as the pies were finished and being eaten I got the birthday song sung to me!! Also notice how one of the kids gets excited and blows out the candles first and then others joined in. I laughed really hard after.
If you are curious about the recipe here it is:
http://homeparents.about.com/od/pies/r/lemon_pie.htm

There are...

The script in these presentations are none too original but hey they are nailing the...well at least the 'There are' parts of the speeches...Check out the Chicken team especially I love how they go and count every time ( they have all the sentences on the back of the paper).

The theme of this lesson was Nature and the target sentence was, as you guessed it, 'There are'

Grade 1





Grade 2




(P.S. the phrase "Shiiii Ja" pretty much means 'start')

Dramatic Coffee

This post is especially for you Kimiko~
In our wanderings of Seoul, my friend mentions they halfway decent spot to get coffee. So we travel on over to the Hondae area and check out 1st shot Coffee Prince. Yup the very same as the one in the drama. Though now its winter and not as pretty...I promise to go back in spring and get a prettier video!

SNOW!!1!1!!!!!

This is my first snow of the season waaaaayyyyy back in November. I am clearly extremely excited about seeing this much snow in one place.

A Couple Things about Korea...

Well for starters,

• Every Korean thinks that any American knows the song "Because of you" by Kelly Clarkson and will always ask that you sing that one at a Nore Bang. 
• A little known fact by most Koreans is that many/most/all Americans know Journey and will probably sing it every time when at a Nore Bang. ( I have never not gotten a perfect score =p)
• Additionally because the drink is called "Americano" means that it must be what Americans drink. (also if you can read korean all of their drinks have the same names as in english ie caramel macchiato = 카라멜 마키아토) 
• Because it is in English we must like it. This is actually pretty cute when my kids come running up to me wearing shirts with bad  English captions on them asking me to read it. They are so incredibly proud they are wearing something I can read - its so hip.
• You are American and therefore rich.
• Everything in Korean is 'expensive' to Koreans...for example certain milks vs other milk, the electric bill, restaurant dinners. None of these things are truly expensive. What they won't tell you is expensive that really is, is winter coats, average around 300,000 won to 900,000 won this is like $250 - 760 in america terms. Dad said to buy a nice winter coat for Christmas as say it was from him. After finding out these prices I immediately decided to look on Ebay and ship something over instead. Your welcome Da! My electric bill is about $22 for 3 months... in Charleston it was $260 for one. The most expensive meal I have had here has been 11,000 won or just over 8 bucks at a super nice restaurant. Electronics is another thing that is super expensive - particularly laptops and computers. Its cheaper to import it. 
• Their beer here is about 4% whereas american beers I think is 8% Therefore you must watch how much you are drinking otherwise Koreans will think you are a heavy drinker. Also it tastes like crap. 
• Everyone drinks Soju. Including you. Get used to it they clearly no longer know just how foul the stuff is.
• If your glass is half full/empty then they will not try to refill it, but if it is empty you just volunteered yourself for another round. 
• There is this thing called dongship...lets not get into that one
• The FU symbol is not giving someone the finger though they know what that is and minorly appreciate its value, but to them sticking your thumb in between your middle and fore fingers is much more effective. 
• If you are a girl then Koreans will censor just about anything they say around you except for their swear words. But if you swear in any scenario like falling down some stairs its super weird and they will stare at you wide eyed. 
• I don't know about in any other city but in Yeongwol girls are more or less a rarity. They are hard to find and hard to make friends with, no matter your gender. 
• There are churches, many churches, yet I have yet to meet a single person who believes in God. 
• If you dont finish your rice at lunch you are a heretic 
• Also Koreans will sometimes tell you how you are feeling. Oh you are cold today. Oh are you sad today...wt...???

Halloween turns our students into beggars

So Unfortunately with the converter I had, it shocked my power charger for my camcorder battery therefore all of the last videos you will see here are from Halloween. I have ordered a new charger and hopefully it will be here in a week or so. In the mean time please enjoy these old videos I took of our class during our Halloween festival!

OMG Halloweeeeeeeen!!!!

So more to come later but here is our classroom all decked out in Halloween gear that we tricked the kids into making for us so that we could decorate our class!



Song = go away by 2ne1