"Thank you for being a friend"

Having no prior memories of Korea, I continue to explore my Koreaness each day and try to take in as many experiences as I can while I am here, so that I’ll have a stock pile of memories to take away. One of the things that I want to fulfill during my year in Korea is to spend some time at an orphanage.  After getting the help of a Korean co-teacher, we were able to arrange a visit at a nearby orphanage. 2 weeks ago, we set out for our first visit. If you drive up into the mountains of Chungju-si  and follow a narrow windy dirt road until it dead ends , you  will find a small camp nestled against the hillside. This particular orphanage is overseen by a small group of Buddhist monks who have evidently shown these children how to love and be loved and they do it very well might I add. The camp houses 30 children in total with ages ranging from 3 to 21. We were received with open arms (literally) and the greatest outpour of love that I’ve ever had the opportunity to be a part of.  After our warm welcome, the children were dismissed. Myself and fellow teachers sat on cushions on the floor around a small table with the two heads of the orphanage having tea and exchanging dialogue. I had so many questions. They explained how each of the children came to them from different backgrounds. The oldest is 21 years of age but is still completing high school because he had no schooling prior to coming to the home at age 10. Each child is provided for until they are comfortable to stand alone in society. We spent some time with the children after finishing our tea.

We spent Christmas with the kids. Here are a few snapshots from the day. Uncontrollable laughter during a rowdy game of English charades, taking and decorating polaroid pictures and geeking out to K-pop made for a full day with new friends.

The kids put on a Holiday event and here are some snapshots/videos from that day.

Seon Saeng Nim Me Finishee

Today is a momentous day. It will go down in the books as the day the students of class 2k1 did not once say "Teacher my finishee" or "Teacher me finishee", which at the sound of it, makes me immediately cringe and tense up, like being subjected to freshly filed finger nails running down the chalk board. Oh geez, I think I’m getting light headed just thinking about it. Anyway, today I distinctly heard something else, it was a clear, clean, “Teacher I’m finished” from every student after completing their work. It was music to my ears :) Anyhow, I’m not sure if this means we permanently kicked the habit of wanting to pull random vowels out of thin air and attaching them to words in order to pronounce them (in Korean no consonant can stand alone to make a sound) but I’m just saying it was a successful day for 2K1.

The craziest ride this side of the DMZ

This past trip to Seoul yielded this video .......... I feel like they should've been harnassed in or something but that's just me.

Interesting...

Immediately after I published that last post (re: a tumblr/blogspot mashup - something, something programming geniuses of the world should sort it out), my blog conveniently inconveniently (for me), has been blocked and cannot be accessed. I'm using an anonymous proxy server for the time being, so if you are also having trouble finding the site or Blogspot in general, you may also have to do the same. However, I think the issue is isolated to SK. Arggggh. I'm not sure if it's a connectivity issue (speaking of "internet literacy"and such, here's an interesting article on the subject) or a political issue. SK tops the list of countries across the globe in internet speed and connectivity, but the achievement also comes highly monitored (the big C word).

Oh Christmas Tree

If Blogspot and Tumblr had a baby...it quite possibly could be the golden child of blog platforms. Ok fine, maybe that's taking it a little too far and I haven't been doing this nearly long enough to uphold a serious debate on the subject (is it really necessary to pit the two against each other anyhow? c'mon - all you computer programming geniuses figure it out already!),  but I do know that I would appreciate having the ability to feature different "types" of posts in one platform, because let's be honest, sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don't. Sometimes I just want to quickly share or document random thoughts and such that don't necessarily warrant a lengthy explanation.

For example, I may want to share a photo of the most precious miniature Christmas tree to date from the fam to help launch me into the spirit of Christmas and it definitely is working. Nuff said. :) XOXO

Homesick in Korea

I imagined coming to Korea I would immediately feel a sense of belonging closeness to my Korean heritage. It’s coming up on month 4 of living in Korea and I still feel like a tourist in a foreign land. It’s not to say that it’s an uneasy feeling but more of a reinforcing feeling that I am an American and I am proud of that. My admiration for this country grows everyday. I have and always will have a special place in my heart for Korea, but it won’t ever feel like my home.

Thanks●giving was probably the hardest time I’ve had in Korea as far as homesickness goes. Nothing can quite replace the warmth and comfort that comes from togetherness with family. Altho the holiday itself passed just like any other day, I still yearned to be close with my family and spend the day with them. If it weren’t for skype, I really do not know what I would do (there’s my skype plug for the week). Gratitude and Love are not limited to a certain distance so that's good news for me and altho I did not have the opportunity to physically be with the family, love was felt from across the ocean and the opportunities for gratitude are abundant.

Presents are garnished with ribbons and bows. A present comes in a box. Pizza comes in a box. Pizza boxes should be garnished with ribbons and bows. Makes sense.

The ribbon isn't just Pizza Hut's signature, seems to just be the way pizza is presented.