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

Coping with Teaching

Hi~

My name is Lauren and I have been clean for 2 months. Or that is what this conference felt like. It was pretty painful to listen and stay awake during and actually not all the relevant to the conditions that are personal to me or my coteachers. The title of the lecture was coping with co teaching - well we actually can't do that bc our co teacher isn't teaching certified so she isn't allowed to teach ( Korean teachers have to be teacher certified where foreign teachers so not) and we can't exactly plan a different lesson with a different teacher for every lesson and everyday. My conditions are more or less a free for all and I have total reign over my class. And they love me. The end. So no co teachers.

On the plus side of this whole shebang, I got to see my first beach in Korea. At night we drank on it with our 'korean co teachers' ( which they feel is too inaccurate/ not pc and prefer the term 'bilingual teachers' this was a discussion of the conference and so far the term isn't sticking. . . even among the Korean teachers) and shot off rockets and fireworks! Fireworks here cost about $2 for a 5 pack and were located right at the convenient mart on location. Nothing like drunken adolescents shooting off roman candles at each other. ^-^ Also the water WAS warm for any one interested. I would say it was equal to the temp of Sullivans Isle in Charleston in May. Yeah it was that nice. Unfortunately I didn't bring my suit. Boo.

Adventures of a Seoul

Oh no you didn't make a super cheesy pun on the name Seoul JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE

. . . yeah I did. These are some video's I took that exemplify ( I am studying for the GRE can you tell?)just how awesome (you mean different? no I mean full of awe - though I am not entirely sure what kind) Korea is.

Let's go Fly a Kite

Under full blessing from both of my wonderful parents who never threatened to come to Korea and ground me, I went paragliding ^-^

The plan was to wake up around noon and go jump off of Bongrae Mountain. Therefore it was to my utter confusion when Kent called me around 9 saying let go flying - meet me in 15 minutes. You see in order to paraglide there are some pretty specific condition's which are optimal at which to fly. Unfortunately Bongrae Mountain's conditions were a bit harsh so we went to a smaller calmer mountain which had shorter flight times and no wind. It was not the best day to fly - but let that be the last thing that stops you. The view was simply amazing and the team that I flew with was simply amazing and super kind to foreigners. They even gave me a lift to and from the mountain saving me the cost of a taxi or bus. So here are some of the videos of my flight, others and the mountain!

Yeongwolians Cultural Field Trip