1/4 Century

Birthdays abroad are bittersweet. It's always a bit depressing to spend a holiday away from your family and close friends. But, I've learned that there's a different kind of joy to be found in celebrating them far away from home. Last year, I was overwhelmed by the cards and gifts my students and coworkers gave me, and especially by the party my class of 13-year old class threw me. Of course, my roommates and friends were fabulous as well---leaving gifts in my locker and making me amazing dinner. This year was just the same. My coworkers were sweet, leaving me cards and having my kids decorate the whiteboards for me. I even got a few gifts from the kids which truly surprised me given that most of them are under the age of 10. My friends treated me to an amazing feast of Indian food on the weekend, and then again on my actual birthday! We went for shabu-shabu (hot pot) and they surprised me with an ice-cream cake and gifts! It was too much. It was such a great day. It was a lovely reminder of one of the many reasons I travel---to meet such amazing, genuine people. 

A night out in Hongdae with my awesome, beautiful friends

My birthday ice-cream cake...that we demolished...at a bar.

My little troublemakers and the birthday board

Also, a heartfelt thanks to everyone who sent cards, e-mails, etc. And of course there's Mom, who sent a care package! I'm such a lucky girl!

Spring is finally here! Winter lasted well into April...I wore my winter jacket until after my birthday! I'm glad to say it won't be making an appearance in my wardrobe anymore. I've even had the pleasure of wearing flip-flops a few times. Life has been low key. My biggest adventures have been eating Indian food 3 weekends in a row. Don't judge me, it's delicious. I won't have Indian food when I come home...Slower Lower Delaware doesn't exactly ooze diversity. I might as well enjoy it while I can! 

In other news, I'm going to China! In just over TWO WEEKS! I'll be in Beijing for 4 days to see the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and all the other sights! I'm beyond excited. The Great Wall has been on my bucket list since before I even knew what a bucket list was. It was the one thing I said I absolutely HAD to see while I was in Asia. I got my passport back from the embassy today with my super cool Chinese Visa that takes up a whole page! 

In other other news, I've decided that I'm going to participate in Yoga Teacher Training! It's something I've thought about doing for a few years---well yoga, or pilates, or personal training---but I never went much farther than merely thinking about it. I recently caught up with a friend from University who I'd been meaning to contact for a while, and she expressed interest in doing YTT in the (sort of) near future in Miami. I took it as a sign. It's something I've wanted to do, I love yoga, I have no plans when she's doing it....why not? In the words of Tom Cruise in Risky Business, "Sometimes you just gotta say 'what the f*ck'". So, that's happening!

Off to bed for me! Here's some recent pictures of my cute little nuggets :)

Killin me in that hat

We made "guitars" in Science class (why?). Not a single note of music was played. Instead, they went immediately on top of their heads...

Sweet shirt

Buddha baby? This is Jaewon. He's hilarious.

This is Minchan. He is the size of a fetus and looks like a tiny old man.

Globalization of Love

In the wake of Monday's events in Boston, I've seen about a million and one articles pictures, and posts on nearly every media outlet and social networking site. Some are graphic, some are tragic, some are uplifting. Some focus on the negative, and some focus on the positive. Today, as I got home from work and settled in to mindlessly surf the internet before bed, I came across something that truly touched me. The pictures will speak far louder than any words I write could.  Even if they only reach 5 people by my posting them, I want to spread the love as much as I can. Enjoy, and know that there is good in the world. Also, click the link after the pictures to read the story behind them. It's touching.

http://principlepictures.com/blog/2013/04/16/to-boston-from-kabul-with-love/

Also, my kids like to spread happiness and joy. So, here are a few pictures of some real, live princes and princesses (that's what I call them everyday, so just go along with it!)

These outfits are an everyday thing. See? Princesses!

Princess Ahrim

Prince Gyuyeong

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What a beautiful winter we're having this spring!

Mom just informed me that it's 81 degrees at home today. Tomorrow will be 85. Today, people were posting on Facebook that it was snowing in downtown Seoul. NOT. OKAY. My body is used to flip-flops and jean shorts this time of year! MY FEET WANT FREEDOM. I'm supposed to be bragging to my friends that don't live in Delaware that I'm on the beach in April (or October/November). I am not enjoying wearing my winter jacket two weeks before my birthday. Not one bit!

Despite the lack of warm weather, I did make it to the beach over Easter weekend. I did not, however, celebrate Easter. There were no eggs, peeps, or jellybeans involved. Instead, I went to Busan to celebrate the Hindu festival of colors, Holi Hai. I had been itching to take a short weekend trip somewhere in Korea and a paint party on the beach sounded like a great idea. (58 degrees also sounded warm at the time). Holi Hai, like I said, is the festival of colors, during which participants,who are decked in white, throw paint powder (and sometimes actual paint) on each other. (for actual information on the Hindu festival, see wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi)

After spending the night in a jimjilbang (public spa), we set off bright and early and arrived in Busan in the early afternoon. After a delicious lunch and FREE beer, we explored the town a bit. I got to see some cherry blossoms, but most importantly I got to walk on the beach and get my toes in the sand! We sat on the beach for a while, but it wasn't the same fully clothed--including my winter jacket as the day got cooler. We had a fun night out in the city which ended with some  amateur fireworks on the beach, set off by yours truly and a few friends. I'm usually terrified of fire, but a few drinks gave me the courage to set of roman candles like a pro (sorry mom and dad!).

Sunday was the festival on the beach. We dressed in our (mostly) white clothes and set off. It was chilly, and I was not pleased, but I was excited for the festivities nonetheless. We got free beer and samosas which brightened my spirits. There was awesome Indian/electronic music playing and the atmosphere was buzzing with positive energy. They counted down, paint was thrown, beer and soju were consumed, fun was had, glorious pictures were taken. It lasted several hours, but my friend and I tapped out after about one. We washed up as best we could, sat on the beach with a sweet dog, and got some hot coffee (did I mention it was chilly?). The dog mentioned belonged to the owner of the group we went with called When In Korea. They were awesome, as was their dog. She was a little Papillon mix and was so friendly and well behaved. We were buddies.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend. We made some new friends, had some seriously good laughs, and made some great memories. It was a great way to "celebrate Easter", or more so ignore the fact that I couldn't be with my family at the Rudder's brunch buffet eating my weight in bacon and mac & cheese and consuming one too many mimosas.

Paint, ready to be thrown!

The madness

Late night fireworks!

Even little ones enjoyed the festivities

My new friend, and the birthday boy, Daniel

Christine and I, post paint fight

Puppy loving on the beach. My happy place.

It's a Small World After All

I've just started reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. If you haven't read it, I suggest you do. From the first pages, it's mind blowing, enlightening, and entertaining all at the same time. Bryson's metaphors for how the universe came to be are profound and put into perspective how massive our universe is and in comparison how small our planet is. In the past year, I've had two experiences that further support the age old expression of "it's a small world we live in".

A) Just last week, I ventured to the next town over with some other foreigners to try a new restaurant. I was at a table with six people, only two of whom I knew. I eventually got to talking to a girl at the other end of the table and found out she had lived in the U.S for most of her childhood. After a series of questions, I found out that she lived in Pennsylvania. Not only Pennsylvania, but Philadelphia! Where in Philadelphia? Well, a nice suburban area called Bucks County. In the words of my mother, or Aunt Jill, or someone along those lines: "well slap my ass and call me Judy". This girl lived in Doylestown! For those of you who aren't familiar with suburban Philadelphia (which I'm pretty sure that all 5 people who read this blog are), Doylestown is maybe 25 minutes from where I grew up! SMALL WORLD!

The next story is much cooler, I promise.

B) In December 2012, I secured a job teaching English with Maximo Nivel in Cusco, Peru. My "mentor teacher", or the guy whose class I taught for my practical teaching week, ended up having two rooms available just as my friend Maggie and I were looking for a place to live. We moved in just after Christmas. The guy who had lived in the room before me, Pat (who I never met), was also from Philadelphia. I found this to be a cool coincidence at the time. Fast forward to Summer 2012. One of the girls who lived in the Cusco apartment with me was living in New York at the time, but was spending a weekend in Philly visiting Pat, so I decided to go for a visit. I was given his address and my immediate thought was "no way". Pat lived in Yardley, the town next to where I grew up. I immediately put his address in Google Maps and was blown away at what I saw. Pat and I, who at different times lived in the same exact bedroom in Cusco, grew up one mile away from each other. One mile, and our paths took us to the exact same spot with the exact same people in Cusco, Peru. SMALL. WORLD.

Anyway, school is school. I had two very long days last week. We sent one of our kindergarten teachers for training so I had to fill in. That means I taught kindergarten from 9:40-12:40 and then elementary from 1:30-7:10. I was exhausted after ONE kindergarten class. I gained a whole new respect for mothers and teachers everywhere. I also told my own mother that I questioned ever having kids because 18 years of that would just be eternally exhausting and she replied with: "18 years? I'm going on 25 and 29". Well played, Mom. Well played. Despite being exhausted, I did have fun and discovered a new favorite student! His name is John, and he is precious. He declared himself my helper, and I declared him the cutest child on the planet.

Killing me in that sweatshirt

Two of my other favorites

Some of the kiddos I had the pleasure of teaching last week

In other news, I've been waking up at 7am everyday to go to the gym and have started a new clean eating regimen. This probably sounds awful to most people, but for me it means I get to play with new recipes, my oven, and my blender. Today, for example, I made my first green smoothie in months! It was refreshing, delicious, and nutritious. I also made BUFFALO CHICKEN QUINOA SALAD. There's nothing unhealthy or unclean about it and it's ah-maaazzeee-ing.

Apple, ginger, cucumber & spinach!

YUM

Some pictures that won't make it to Facebook...

My homemade protein/fiber energy bars!

Yummy latte from my favorite cafe next to my house

And of course, more pictures from Science class!

Ahrim and her claw.

One of my favorites, BumJun (pronounced Bum-June). ALWAYS smiling and giggling.

Soohyun, "eating my phone" with her claw.

The (kind of) Great Wall of Korea!

After the New Year's Eve hike debacle (which was a great experience, don't get me wrong), the thought of doing anything in the snow didn't quite appeal to me. I've never been a fan of the cold and I've accepted this fact. It has finally started to warm up around here (see: 40's and 50's) so we thought a nice and easy hike in Seoul would adequately feed our appetite for some outdoor activity. Seoul is unique in that it is surrounded by mountains and even has a few small mountains right smack dab in the middle of the city. Back in the 14th century, an 11 mile fortress wall was built around the city and residents had to enter and exit through one of its 8 gates. It guarded the city for around 500 years, up until the Korean War--the longest period for an existing fortress in the world (thank you, Wikipedia). Today, Seoul is much larger and only about 6 miles of the wall remain, much of it reconstructed. In a few years, it's being added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. It's a huge part of Korean history, kind of reminiscent of the Great Wall of China, and is something I definitely wanted to see while in Korea!

My coworkers and a few friends from Pyeongnae set off at 10am (which quickly turned into 11am), got to Seoul, and started the hike around noon. My friend Kevin, having done the hike before, showed us a cool part of town with a lot of street art, aka photo opportunities.

The first bit of the hike was interesting because we climbed small hills, walked past one of the gates, walked along the wall a bit, and then had to go through part of the city again to get to the next part of the hike and wall. Once we started the major part, there was a lot of uphill climbing. It was a very hazy day, so a lot of the views were obstructed, but it was still very surreal to be on mountain in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. At one point, we had to show ID and get a pass to see part of the fortress. There were military personnel monitoring every few hundred yards as we were close to the president's house. We weren't allowed to take photos in most places, but I managed to sneak a few when I could!

One of the 3 gates we passed

Part of the wall where I was able to sneak a photo

Sneaking more photos

Would have been a great shot if it weren't so hazy.
I snuck this photo with a soldier 20 feet away. Oops!

Overall, it was a great hike. It was 70 degrees and sunny and felt amazing to get some outdoor exercise. We ended the day by heading to Hongdae for some delicious Mexican food at Gusto Tacos (recommended by my coworker). Having not eaten since 10am, I was fantasizing about carne asada and fresh cilantro by 4. When we got there by 6, we were so famished that my friend and I each had a burrito AND split tacos. It was the most satisfying meal I've had in months. I will be a frequent patron of Gusto Tacos, especially because the owner and chef is a former Wall Street CFO who gave it all up to live a chill life in Seoul making tacos for foreigners. He even makes his own corn tortillas and remembers everyone who comes in. Basically, he's the man.

Good day, good food, good friends. Life is good!

Marchy

There are a lot of things about Korea that confuse me, and one of them is the academic culture. I could write novels about it, but one thing that I know will strike my American friends and family as odd is that they go to school year round here! NO BREAKS. No 3 month summer vacation to spend swimming and sunbathing at the country club? Blasphemy. Instead, their semesters run from September to March, and March to September. In other words, we just started a new semester at school! We go two new kindergarten classes and the whole elementary schedule changed! I still teach about half of the same classes and students, but have picked up quite a few new ones. I'm only on Day 4 of the semester and it's already proving to be quite the challenge. I went from teaching the highest levels in the school (which I still teach!) to teaching a LOT of beginner classes. When I say beginner, I mean I've sang the ABC song so many times this week I've lost count. Anyone who knows me knows that patience is not one of my virtues, so these classes are absolute torture for me. The children are absolutely adorable and precious and I want to squeeze them, but teaching them is a huge challenge for me. That being said, I accept the challenge and am taking it as an opportunity to grow as a teacher. And play silly games.

My other major challenge lies in a class we'll call Purple Class. A week ago, they were a kindergarten class at SLP. But, they graduated which means they all go to regular elementary schools now (think private pre-school then public elementary). Because of the emphasis on academics, they also still attend private institutes in the afternoon: English institute, Taekwondo institute, Math institute, Jump Rope institute (yes, that's a real thing). You get the point. Well, all the Purple Class graduates come to SLP now as their afternoon English institute and guess who is their teacher? Teaching kids who went to SLP for kindergarten has its pros and cons. On one hand, their English is great, they already know me and the curriculum, and I already know their personalities. On the other hand is their personalities. They were hilarious and fun when I only taught them "science" for 50 minutes once a week. Now I see them for 1 hour, 3 days a week, teaching them full blown English rather than "blow up this balloon and rub it on your head". Those 3 hours are the hardest hours of my week. Disciplining them is extremely difficult. We've gotten all of our work done, but not without me raising my voice more times than I'd like to. I hate yelling, especially at children, especially at adorable children who I love. The problem is that I think they're hilarious. I'm a big kid at heart, so when someone makes a fart joke, I have to yell at them, but it's damn near impossible to yell at them without a smirk on my face. I think the hardest part about being a teacher is drawing the line between fun teacher/favorite teacher and stern disciplinarian. I definitely lean toward the fun teacher side, but I know how to discipline them when I need to. If only they knew how to listen...

All that being said (and I apologize for the boring-ness of it!), I had a few really great moments this week. I lost one of my favorite classes and was pretty bummed about it. The second day of new classes, one of my Korean co-teachers came to me and told me that Danny and Jennifer (from that favorite class) asked why I wasn't their teacher anymore and were very upset and wanted me back as their teacher. Melt my heart why don't you?! She also told me that Jennifer got very upset when she thought I had gone back to America already. Melting even more! The best part of my week though, was on the first day with Purple class when one of them asked "Molly Teacher, you will still teach us science right?". Bless his little heart. I felt so bad breaking the news to him that science was only for the kindergarten babies, but I promised that I'd show them some cool science stuff if they behave. Oh, did I not mention that all the kindergarten students think I'm a scientist? About that...

Trophy Wife in Training

I never thought I'd see the day where purchasing an oven was the highlight of my weekend. But, low and behold, that just happened. The absence of an oven in my life was taking it's toll on me so I caved. It's bigger than a toaster oven, but smaller than an actual oven. SIZE DOES NOT MATTER my friends. I'm ecstatic to be able to roast vegetables, make my own granola, and bake! To celebrate, me and my oven made chicken fajitas tonight-complete with homemade tortillas! Such a culinary genius I am. I'm going to make some lucky gentleman very happy someday. HA.

Oliver the Oven in all his glory

The smell of bell peppers, onions, and garlic roasting will ALWAYS bring me back to my kitchen in Cusco. I think about my time in Peru pretty often and as much as I'm enjoying Korea, I'd give anything to be back in that apartment every sunday for "family dinner". Speaking of my Peruvian family, I'm currently chatting with two of my favorite girls, Carolina and Taylor, who are in Spain and Argentina respectively. I think it's the coolest thing in the world that we can be on 3 different continents but are still able to stay in contact as often as we like.

On another note, I've finally beaten the flu. That illness is NO JOKE....NO JOKE, I tell you. I spent an entire week in absolute misery. Work was rough, but I survived. The turning point was Friday afternoon (yes, the last day of the week) when I had Science with the littlest nuggets in school and we got to make glow-in-the-dark glasses. I had been lethargic and probably quite boring in all of my classes leading up to this point. But there's nothing in the world that could keep me from having some glow-in-the-dark fun with the cutest kids in the entire universe. Oh, the glasses make us look like scuba divers? You bet your ass I'm gonna play shark and chase you around the room for an hour. Their cuteness still kills me, even after 3 months.

HOW could I forget? The other highlight of my week involved these little angels as well. In the middle of Science on Tuesday, Emma teacher came knocking on my door with 2 of the little munchkins pictured above who wanted to show me something. Emma had told them to draw their favorite teacher at SLP, and 2 of them drew me! They gave me a big hug and I melted even more than I do on a normal day when I see them! Absolutely precious. Top notch teacher moment right there. I've decided that the two on the bottom of the picture are the two I'll be kidnapping and bringing home with me.

What better time to blog...

than when you have a stomach virus? I haven't had one of these since I was a kid! #teacher problems. I'm out of work today and have caught up on nearly all the TV shows I watch so thank you to the child who gave this to me!

I haven't written in a while and I promised myself I'd keep up with it much better than I did in Peru. Oops! To be fair, I had a visitor for the first 8 days of February. My friend from college works in China a few weeks or months every year and one of his trips worked out so that he could add a little trip to Korea on his way home. We had a blast and it was great to have a visitor as I have been a bit homesick lately. Unfortunately, I couldn't take off work so while he was exploring the city and doing fun touristy things like eating live octopus, I was stuck at work. But, we did have a few crazy nights in Seoul staying out until the wee hours of the morning.

Out in Gangnam

Cat ears! So Asian

Nothing has changed much in the past few weeks but will be changing very shortly. The semesters here start in March and September, so at the end of this month my class schedule will change. I'm keeping about 4 or 5 of my old classes, and getting some new ones. Two of our kindergarten classes are graduating, and I just found out that one of my favorite classes will become one of my afternoon elementary classes so I'm excited! They're a hilarious and rowdy bunch, so it should be a bit of a challenge, but fun at the same time. Quite a few teachers are leaving as well and their replacements come in about a week. I'm excited to get some new foreign teachers! Maybe I won't be the only American anymore.

March is just around the corner which hopefully means warmer weather and prettier scenery! I'm very excited for cherry blossom season and to be able to start hiking. We've got another 3 day weekend in March and one in May so hopefully a trip outside the country will be planned soon! I'm dying to get to China or Japan. I really never thought those words would be coming out of my mouth a year or so ago. Crazy how fast time flies!

In other news, I'm trying to be more technologically savvy and have started using Instagram (kind of, even though I only follow animals and Kasey). I'll leave you with some pictures of my cuties.

I adore this little roly poly nugget.

Little 4 year old angels! Top left is the most beautiful little girl I've ever seen.

Winter class SUCCESS!

My 3-week winter music class was easily my favorite class so far. I'm pretty heartbroken that we won't be meeting every Tuesday and Thursday to sing obnoxiously loud and annoy the lunch cook in the next room. On our last day, they chose 2 songs to sing for some of the other teachers. They managed to memorize "You Are My Sunshine", but only got the chorus down for "Country Roads". Regardless, it was fun and they are adorable. Enjoy...

Also, these kids had hands-down the best chosen English names. Sunny, Lala, Noah. Killin it in the name AND cuteness department.

Apple wine, sleigh riding, and naked spas...

make for a fun, relaxing weekend. This weekend, 2 friends and I decided to do something different and get away from the city for a little day trip. Not that I live in the city, but I spend every weekend there. So, we booked a trip to Yesan, a province just south of the one we live in.

We set off at 5am (on a Saturday!) to head into Seoul where the bus left at 7:30am for Yesan. Lucky for me, I've gotten used to sleeping on buses, planes, etc. I snoozed most of the way there. Our first stop was an apple winery (i didn't know they existed either!) where we took a tour, tried some samples, and made some homemade apple jam to take home with us! It was a cute, quiet, peaceful place. I even got to see a big, white, fluffy dog which may or may not have made my day!

Next, we drove to Seoduksa temple. We walked through a cute little village and up a small mountain/hill to the temple, stopping along the way to take pictures. The whole area was beautiful. I was, however, briefly overcome with a bit of sadness when I realized that the entire thing had been rebuilt not too long ago. Tragically, most of Korea's beautiful, ancient temples and monasteries were destroyed during the Korean War. Very few were spared, and those that were are in the southern-most provinces. It made me feel very grateful to have grown up in an area with so much preserved history. I may have moaned and groaned about trips to the Liberty Bell and Smithsonian when I was a kid, but one of my favorite things to do when I'm in a city now is walk around and see all of the old buildings, churches, statues, etc. I grew up in "Historic Newtown", just miles from Washington's Crossing, Trenton, Philadelphia...places full of history that dates all the way back to the American Revolution and before. It makes me sad to think that the kids I'm teaching now and generations to come will have nearly no authentic evidence of their beautiful country's history. That being said, I took pictures of the temple that is there now. Ancient or not, it was still a sight to see and reflects the peace that radiates from all things Buddhist.

Our next stop was the Duksan Hot Spring Festival. In spite of its name, it seemed to be more of an ice festival to me. There was a giant hot bath you could soak your feet in, but the main attraction was a huge man-made ice rink where people were playing games and "sleigh riding" on the ice. We gave it a go!

Last but NOT least, was the most interesting and best part of the day! We headed over to the Duksan Spa! For those of you who I haven't told, a "jimjilbang" is a large, public bath house furnished with hot tubs, showers, saunas, massage tables, etc (thank you Wikipedia). It is a heavenly place of relaxation. The only drawback for some foreigners is that you must go naked (don't worry, it's gender segregated!). Once you get past this little detail, it is like I said, a heavenly place of relaxation. This one in particular was huge and quite crowded as it's attached to an indoor/outdoor water-park so it's a popular tourist destination. My friends and I got right on the bandwagon and went straight for the hot tubs in our birthday suits. It was great! They had bubbly hot tubs with chairs and massage jets, a green tea hot tub, several steam rooms, a dry sauna, an ice bath (yes, I even did that!), and a ton of showers to use before and after you indulge yourself in pure bliss for hours. We stayed for hours. I haven't felt that relaxed in ages...even after my weekly Steve massages (that I miss so much). Obviously there are no pictures from this part of the trip. You're welcome.

Afterwards, we hopped on the bus and got back home in time for some delicious Korean BBQ! It was a fantastic, relaxing day with two awesome girls. I'm looking forward to more trips just like it!

On a different note, my friends and family will all be amazed to hear that I've officially adjusted to the cold! After walking to the grocery store and realizing it was a "WARM 38 degrees", I decided to go for a nice run...outside. I kid you not. This girl, who thinks anything below 50 is cold, ran outside in 30-something degree weather. I was shocked too.

One last thing even though this is already a ridiculously long post. I've started using Picasa and Google+ to share my photos because I don't post them all on Facebook or this blog. If anyone wants to see the random pictures of buildings and signs and funny things and animals (if I ever see any) in addition to the pictures with humans in them, this is where you can find them: http://plus.google.com/photos/114810979859376257861/albums

Much love!