Where in the World is Bree

2009-04-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

A weekend Exploring

2009-04-30T22:08:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, some friends and I set out to explore the southwest coast of Jeju. There are so many beautiful places that I have yet to see, and since my time left on the island is running short, I am trying to get to as many of them as I can.

On Saturday we explored a beach called Hwasun. It is a black sand beach. At this time of the year it is dead because to Koreans, even if it is hot and sunny outside, that does not mean that you go to the beach. You must wait until it is official beach season. That is great news for the rest of us because we can spend the time really exploring the beach.

We found many little coves off of the main beach. Some were very small and had little to no sand and others were decent in size. All of them were a little harder to get to as they were off of the beaten path. But the short hikes and small amount of rock climbing was well worth it!

On Sunday we decided to go to the Sangban-san Mountain area. While we did not climb the mountain or go up it at all, we enjoyed all the things we found in the surrounding area.

First we spotted a huge Viking ship carnival ride. Why would such a ride be in this beautiful place with no other rides around it? Well my answer to that is "Only in Korea". After the carnival ride I ran into a small black goat. He was tied to a tree and had a green bandana tied around his neck. He was very cute and friendly.

Second came another huge ship. This one was meant to be a Dutch ship. I have no idea why it was there. You could climb inside of it and what not but it served absolutely no purpose. Again "Only in Korea". There was a statue sitting on a park bench that was the Dutch captain of the ship. And another small wooden boat in the grass opposite the large ship that had flower painted all over it and said "Netherlands" on the side.

After that area we decided to head to the are called Songakson. It is another small mountain in the area. We were able to drive to the lookout point and do some exploring. There was a small cave that we spotted along with a rough looking staircase that could lead you down. Of course when we got to the top of the staircase we saw the "enter at your own risk" type of sign in Korean and simply stepped right over it. The stairs lead us most of the way don, but in order to get to the cave we needed to climb the rest of the way. I was no expecting all this climbing so it took me a bit not t slip in my shoes. But I made it safely down and was able to get some great photos looking out from insdie the cave. Once finished, we needed to climb back up! Again had to take our time!

It was a great day! We ended it with going to Oedolgae which I think I have posted about before. It is an amazing rock place on the ocean where my friends and I spend lots of time relaxing, swimming, snorkeling and cliff diving.

My 25th Birthday

2009-04-14T04:59:00.000-07:00

"A Black & White Affair" was the theme for my 25th birthday! At first everyone was a little confused that I was doing a theme birthday. Most birthdays here on the island consist of the same thing: dinner, bars, then norae-bong (karaoke). So I decided to mix things up a little bit.

I have become good friends with a Korean woman here named JuYoung. She is the owner of an Indian restaurant called "Bagdad's". All of the foreigners for the most part love the food. It is a little on the pricey side compared to the Korean places eat, but well worth the extra cash. JuYong loved the idea of having everything Black & White. She also said that she would pay for all the linens and extras to decorate the outdoor (heated) seating where she would put all of us! It was so nice of her.

When I arrived at Bagdad's I was in aw of everything. It was beautiful. About 25-30 of my closest friends came to dinner. All were wearing black and white of course and most of them were dressed up! It was wonderful. The food was amazing and the company was too.

After dinner we proceeded to a newer bar in the area called "Stone Island". I had never been there before my party, but heard it was lots of fun. That it was! The bartenders did this awesome show for us including a fire part. Since it was my birthday I got to pick out what cocktail I wanted :) Also at this bar you could wear wigs, hats and other costume type things. It was so much fun.

My birthday cake was amazing too! Here in Korea there are two different candles. The tall candles are each 10 years and the short ones are a single year. So instead of having to blow out 25 candles I only had to blow out 7! The bad part about the cake was that there were no plates or forks! So everyone went and washed their hands and then ate their piece of cake with their hands. It was a great end to a fabulous night!

New Classroom

2009-04-14T04:34:00.000-07:00

Over the winter break most of the public schools here on Jeju received an enormous English budget to make "improvements" for the English influence in each school. Most schools built new classrooms all together with top of the line technology. My school was one of these schools.

I received a brand new English Classroom. The classroom size itself is amazing. I don't feel cramped for once. The students have room between groups and plenty of space for games and role-plays. I have a "Virtual Studio" as well. This is an area that has yet to be used by me, but I plan to use it in the near future. Each window has a special English shade. Some of the shades have: world maps, body parts, family trees, directions, etc.

The best part of my classroom by far is my Smart Board. If you are not familiar with these, they are nothing short of amazing. It is a computerized white board. No markers or erasers needed. It has its own set of fake markers and erasers and the markers come in all the basic colors. It is completely touch screen as well. The down side to that part is that the kids walk by and touch it. It can confuse the Smart Board if too many things are going on at one time. To recalibrate these Smart Boards is very expensive and I have a feeling that my board will need that pretty soon they way things are going. You all know how kids are, if you tell them that they cannot touch the Smart Board, they do it MORE! Ha ha ha.

I also have two computers at my desk (one just for the Smart Board), a small row of 6 computers for the students to use, a laser printer and surround sound. My classroom makes me smile every morning when I walk in. It is frustrating however that everything is in Korean. Why would they spend all this money on English equipment and then put Korean versions of all the programs? It is VERY annoying as the Native English teachers at every school are the only ones for the most part using these computers and programs. I guess some things will never change!

One interesting thing about my classroom is that the students are responsible for cleaning it. Twice a day students come in with their little brooms and dust pans and proceed to sweep the entire classroom, and empty the trash. I LOVE this idea. Since the students are the ones that make the mess I see that it is only fair that they be the ones to clean it up. The classes each rotate cleaning the English room.

Phu Quoc, Vietnam

2009-03-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

Phu Quoc has to be one of the most beautiful islands I have ever been on. It is a small island and in the shape of South America. We were lucky enough to get a direct flight to the island. As luck would have it, there were 6 seats left and 5 of us that were going! YAY for that guy we met in Hoi Ann that helped us so much.

The first day was mostly cloudy and that had us in a down mood. Most people caught up on sleep. Finally after lunch the sun decided to come out and stayed out for the rest of our trip.

One day we took a scooter ride to the southern most point of the island. It said in the Lonely Planet that is had the most white sand beaches. It was a little difficult to find the public access to the beach but once we did it was well worth the horrible road we had to drive down. We had to walk through a restaurant to get down on the beach. I thought that was pretty interesting. The beach was gorgeous. The water was crystal clear and the warm sun was shinning high in the sky. It was an amazing day trip.

I have to tell you about the two monkeys that were at our hotel. Well before I tell you about them, I should note that we stayed in Bungalows. Liz and I shared one and ours was infested with mosquitoes. I had never been bitten by more mosquitoes in my entire life. They only bit me on my lower legs. I looked like I had the chicken pox! EEEEK. After a couple days and tons of mosquito incense burning in our bungalow the mosquitoes learned that our bungalow was no place for them. It was the first time I actually had to sleep in a mosquito net.

Back to the monkeys. There were two of them that lived in a cage at the hotel. The cage was not nearly big enough for them and that made us all sad. We thought about buying wood and volunteering to make a new cage while we were on the island. I mean we had 4 days to do it! I never learned the names of the monkeys. They were very smart of course. They loved anything you gave them. It was funny to try and watch them un-do the lid to a water bottle. The hotel was nice enough to give us small bananas to feed them. We all enjoyed that.

The day after our day trip to the south we decided to go on a fishing/snorkeling tour. So we got up early and got on a fishing boat. The fishermen showed us how they fished. Not with poles like we do int he US. Instead they had spindles. It was the first time in my life that I was sea sick. I am not sure what my problem was. So I caught my one fish to contribute to the meal that came later.

After fishing we dove off of the ship with flippers and snorkel masks. We were surrounded by gorgeous coral. The water was so shallow in certain spots that you could stand on the coral (being careful of course). I stood on a piece of coral long enough that the fish started swimming all around me. It was like being in an aquarium that you would visit in the US. AMAZING!!! I saw so many wonderful bright colored fish and coral. I even saw some large fish which can be difficult to find at times. The waves were a little rough on us all but once we got our "fins" everyone seemed to do just fine.

While we weer snorkeling the fishermen were preparing our lunch. This included the fish that we caught. We also got the chance to try sea urchins. I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. The texture is what causes most people not to enjoy them. First you put salt and pepper into the shell and then squeeze a lemon or lime. Then you take a spoon and scrape around the edges, then down the hatch. I think what freaked me out the most was that even though they were supposed to be dead, they were still moving on the outside of the shells. EWWW. Almost everyone tried them. I am glad that I did, although I will know to pass on it if it is ever offered to me again.

We spent our evenings and nights drinking on the beach and enjoying each other's company. We found a pretty fun bar next to our hotel that seemed to be decent enough to be our bar on the island. They even served their version of a bucket, but much larger so they called it a trough. Ha ha ha. We had to share that one, as it was way too much alcohol for one of us to have in one sitting.

"Teht" is known as the Lunar New Year. For those of you that aren't familiar with this holiday, it is very important in the Asian cultures. All countries in Asia celebrate this holiday. It is said to be the equivalent of Christmas in the United States. We were in Vietnam the entire time of the Teht celebration. However we were on Phu Quoc when most people vacationed during Teht. We had a huge problem trying to get off of the island when we needed to. Luckily we got on a ferry, although we left a day earlier than we wanted.

Our route back to Saigon (Ho Chi Man City- the capital of Vietnam), was not a short one. We had to take an hour van ride to the port to catch our ferry. From there we took the ferry for 2 hours.

After the ferry we were shuffled onto a bus. The bus was the worst. There were dogs in bags shoved under seats, no air conditioning, and people were crammed in. I had to "share" a seat with a very large man. I say share because he took up part of my seat and part of his small wife's seat. Most of the trip they were all over each other!! The seat was so high up off the ground that my feet couldn't even reach the ground! So I had to put a crate under my feet so that I had some balance. Mind you I had to be careful because there was a dog in a bag under my seat. Oh and all the old men on the bus decided that it was ok to smoke as often as they wanted! The bus ride took two hours!

When we finally got off the bus, we needed to find a way to Saigon still. It would be about a 6 hour drive. That was another mess. They wanted up to pay upfront and we not very trusting people. All the tickets for the sleeper buses were sold out. We had to finally suck it up and get in a van and pray that we wouldn't be kidnapped. I have to say it was one time in my life that I was seriously afraid of what was going to happen to us. On the positive side, we were all together. I would rather be in a group of 5 than alone that was for sure. After another van change mid way through the drive, we finally made it to Saigon. I think that we all sighed a HUGE sigh of relief when we got into the city limits :)

Na Trang, Vietnam

2009-03-25T23:02:00.000-07:00

Na Trang is said to be one of if not the top tourist spot in all of Vietnam. It was supposed to feel like South Padre beach. I have never been to South Padre, but I felt that there was a fair amount of tourists there. Why not? The beaches were gorgeous!

We arrived to Na Trang again early in the day. Unfortunately we did not book a hotel in advance so we spent part of the morning looking at rooms in various hotels. I have to say that I was no impressed with the rooms in any of the hotels. I guess the hotels thought that eventually people had to pick a place to stay because all of the really nice hotels were either booked or way out of our "young backpacker's" budget. We ended up getting a great deal at an empty hotel that was right on the beach. Pure luck!

We spent our time in Na Trang on the beach and taking lots of scooter rides. There are lots of small islands that you can do daily tours of, but they left too early in the morning for our group of late nighters. We were quite happy with our scooter excursions. One day we drove through the mountains and into a small fishing village. On our ride, we ran into some cows just hanging out on the paved roads. It was sort of dangerous! When we got to the fishing village, we saw how impoverished the country really is. The interesting part was that all the people were smiling and so happy. The children were running dirty and skinny throughout the streets, just happy to be alive. Seeing things like that really put your life into prospective and you learn to be very thankful for all that you have.

The last full day that we had in Na Trang, we spent in the mud baths. This was an amazing experience. The mud baths were in this small mountain. It was very difficult to find but well worth the trip. We soaked in mud and had mineral baths. There was also a huge heated swimming pool that had minerals in it, waterfalls, steam rooms, the works. All of us decided to get traditional Vietnamese massages. It last 45 minutes, and I thought it was the best massage I had ever had. The woman are so small that they actually do a "dance" on your back. There are poles that run along the ceiling that they hold onto while they jump on your back! I don't have any pictures from this part of the trip because it wasn't a place that I trusted having a camera because I knew it would get wet and muddy. Bad idea.

The night life was pretty good in Na Trang. We found out that the city was known for these drinks called "buckets". Everywhere served them and they were always the special for the happy hours. It basically was like a mason jar filled with lots of liquor and maybe Red Bull and a juice. We decided that the best bucket had: Vodka, Whiskey, Rum, Pineapple Juice and Red Bull. After one bucket, you were pretty set for the night. Although we were there for a few nights so every night we could drink a little more of the buckets. It was GREAT!! I fell in love with the buckets and think that more bars in the US should serve these. They were cheap too. I think it worked out to be $3/bucket!

One of the downfalls with Na Trang was that the theft was really high. Us girls had to wear our mini pack on the front of us. While it might not have been the most fashionable thing to do, it was the safest. One night Anna and Dave were harassed by a group of Vietnamese people and Anna ended up having everything in her wallet stolen. After that we all locked our passports and traveler's checks into the hotel 's safe.

Overall I loved Na Trang. I thought as a group that we had more fun in Na Trang than anywhere else at that point in our trip.

Hoi An, Vietnam

2009-03-25T01:09:00.000-07:00

The next city on the Vietnam tour was Hoi An. This city is along the cost but farther south that Ha Long Bay. It is known for its tailor made clothing shops. We took a quick one hour flight from Hanoi to Hoi An. We reached Hoi An mid morning, and headed straight to our hotel/resort to drop our backpacks and hit the city.

It was a beautiful day. The streets were busy with people ducking in and out of tailor shops. We were so overwhelmed by all of the shops that we decided to head to the river where we heard there were great markets and cafes, to grab a bite to eat and make a game plan. After getting lost trying to reach the river, we finally reached it and went into the first place we saw that had balcony seating where we could chill out and watch the people and the boats on the river.

We were in luck because that cafe ended up doing more for us than just providing excellent Vietnamese cuisine and cheap wonderful beer (10cents a glass). We met a man that worked there and spoke excellent English. He sat with us and talked to us about our trip and where we were headed next. it just so happened that he was a travel agent for Vietnam airlines. Long story short, he booked our flights for the rest of our trip, including the impossible flight to the island of Phu Quoc. We were so ecstatic. After that, we asked him where a certain tailor shop was that we had read online had the best reviews. Not only did he take us there, but his girlfriend worked there! At that point, we made his cafe our meeting point.

Getting tailor made clothing was quite the experience. There are so many decisions that have to be made, and you have to make all of them. After deciding what I wanted made and had all my measurements taken and material picked out, I had to step into a photo booth that had a grid on the inside. They took pictures of me to help the seamstress be able to get a feel for what I actually looked like and my shape. That was it for day one.

The next day we had hoped to take a scooter trip up and down the coastline there in Hoi An. That ended up not being possible, because our day was filled with fittings and adjustments. You had to get over the whole being embarrassed of changing in front of people, because the ladies came in the dressing room with you to pin things and make adjustments. Also the fitting rooms and about 3 other ladies with their workers in there as well. There was a sheet that acted as the door and well every time someone came in you just hoped that you were not exposing yourself to other shoppers that were walking by your "changing room". Wearing a swim suit at all times helped me get past this. I mean if I can wear it on the beach I don't care who sees me in it when I am trying on clothing right?!

It amazed me how fast they made the clothing. I had a wool coat made in about two hours! All in all the prices were very cheap. I spent $30 on my coat and it is 100% wool with Vietnamese silk lining! I also had two dresses, two pairs of shorts, and an authentic Kimono (robe) made.

The architecture of Hoi An reminded me of Miami. All the buildings were bright yellows, pinks, greens, and blues. It was clean and the people were so friendly. Some of the best and cheapest meals I had in Vietnam were in Hoi An. I think that it was one of my favorite and the group's favorite cities.

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

2009-02-10T20:28:00.000-08:00

The second stop on the Vietnam trip was more of a day trip to Ha Long Bay. It is said to be one of the newer Natural Wonders of the World. We booked a trip through our hotel for about $23. It included transportation to and from, boat ride, lunch, and caves.

It took 3 1/2 hours on the bus each way. It was the longest bus ride that I had been on in quite a while. We only got to stop for once. The place that we did stop at had restrooms but nothing to eat. There was plenty of souvenirs to buy. Most people bought candy just to have something to eat!

Once we got to the Bay and boarded our ship, it was nothing short of amazing. Most of the ships all headed out at the same time. So you look around and you are surrounded by other boats. Then everyone sort of disburses all over the Bay. The weather was perfect. It was a bright sunny day. Perfect jeans and a t-shirt temperature.

The Bay was gorgeous. All the wonderful rock formations in the middle of the Bay were really neat to see. Our boat tour stopped at a fisherman's dock. We got off the boat and looked into his nets that had what he had caught that day. I am not sure that we ever met the fisherman as he was busy drinking and playing cards at that point in the day! After the visit to the docks, we had lunch. It was quite the lunch of all sorts of seafood and veggies.

The rest of the day was spent sailing around the bay and soaking up the sun. We paid $5 more to get to go on a smaller boat that took us into some "caves". They were not caves at all more like lagoons. The openings into the "caves" we pretty cave-like, and we did need to be in the small boat in order to get through. The boat also docked and we got off to see an actual cave. This is a newly found cave that just started to become a tourist site in 1999. It was pretty interesting to see all the special lighting that they had done in the cave to make certain formations stick out.

We also saw the one school that is located out on the Bay. It is a one room school house where all the children that live on the fishing boats attend school. I included a picture of it (blue building). The school is actually funded by the USA. I thought that was amazing that the US is involved.

The ride home was another 3 1/2 hours. It felt a lot longer going back to Ha Noi, even though the distance was the same as the morning ride. I think it was because we were all ready to get back and enjoy the water puppet show.

Ha Long Bay was definitely one of the best things on my Vietnam trip. It was one of the most beautiful places I have seen in my life thus far.

Ha Noi, Vietnam

2009-02-09T20:34:00.000-08:00

As most of you know, I recently went to Vietnam. It is still considered a third world country. I went with a core group of about 5 people. My friend Anna decided to give us the nickname of "Team Awesome"! Ha ha ha. Everywhere we went we referred to ourselves as Team Awesome! There was another couple that joined us off and on throughout the trip and I also knew two other people that we randomly ran into. We decided to fly into Ha Noi (which is in the north) and work our way down the country and fly out from the southern part. I have so much to say about each place that I thought it would be best to start blogging about each city. First up... Ha Noi.

Ha Noi is the second largest city in Vietnam. It is in the north. When we first arrived at the airport, we decided to take a taxi van into the city to our hotel. We were stuffed into a van with quite a few other Vietnamese people. It was the most cramped hour of my life thus far! It is all about the experience though!

The city was full of scooters. I have never seen so many scooters/motor bikes in my life. Minda you Venice, Italy had quite a few, but nothing compared to Ha Noi. Not only were there scooters everywhere, but there was hardly ever just one person riding on a scooter. Most scooters had 2-4 people. I couldn't believe that 4 people could fit on a scooter but Vietnamese people are tiny so it works. It was like the scooters were the family vans/SUVs that we would have in the US to tote our families around. The kids were squeezed between the two parents. One kid would usually be in the front standing and holding onto the handles, then the dad, another kinda and a mom. Sometimes there would be a kid behind the mom and sort of strapped to her. It was crazy! everyone but the children are required to wear helmets. I am not sure that they even make helmets small enough for the tiny kids.

We spent the next day exploring the city. There is a walking tour that is outlined in the "Lonely Planet" (the guide book of all guide books). It was nice to be able to go at our own pace. There were so many shops with cheap clothes and shoes. In fact there is an entire street that is lined on both sides with shoes stores. It was on the walking tour! I ended up buying some really cheap sandals ($2) to wear for the rest of the vacation. We walked through an enormous market where they did sell roasted dog (put a picture of it). I did not try it as it is not a meat that I am curious to try. I also was able to eat one of my favorite fruits called Rambutans. They are red, orange and yellow spiky balls. They are delicious! I was excited to see that Vietnam had them the time of year I was there!

The day after we left early to head to Ha Long Bay (Blog post to follow). After we got back from an all day trip on the Bay, we headed to the water puppet show. This is an ancient Vietnamese art form. It is a show with traditional live Vietnamese music that has marionette puppets on the water. At first I thought it was going to be really cheesy. I was shocked by the movement of these puppets. There also lots of special effects like fireworks and colored smoke. There were about 10 short stories. The entire performance lasted one hour and cost us $3. It was really neat and now I know why everyone that has been to Vietnam told us that we had to go see this show. There was only one theatre and we had to purchase the tickets one day in advance!

Next stop on the Vietnam trip....Ha Long Bay

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

2009-01-03T06:40:00.000-08:00

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" seemed to be the theme for this year's Christmas at my schools. All the students loved learning that song.

My Christmas was actually not that great. I got sick a few days before Christmas and it lasted until a few days after. Not to worry I am well now. I am just glad that the holidays are over. It was really difficult to be away from my friends and family over the holidays. I knew it would be hard but I had no idea it would be as hard as it was. I was lucky enough to get to talk to both sides of my family on their Christmas day! It was through the great video technology of Skype that I saw all of the family that was gathered on my mom's side. Thank goodness for Skype!

My students wanted to sing for my family and friends. So I have posted two videos with this post. One video is a second grade class. They actually sing the verses in Korean but the chorus in English. The other video is three of my third grade girls. We spent a few days practicing the words so that they could sing the entire song in English! Enjoy and I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

36 Hours in Gwangju and Gwangyang

2008-12-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of November, a few of my crazy futbol (soccer) friends and I jumped on a plane and flew to Gwangju, South Korea. It is a southern city in South Korea. In fact it is the 6th largest city in the country. Once we arrived (25 minute flight), we got on the subway and headed into the city. We spent a while walking around trying to pick the best area to find a hotel. We were lucky enough o have a Lonely Planet with us (one of the best guide books ever). The guide book directed us to the art area of the city. It was said to have the best shopping and night life as well. For a group of 20 something year olds, these things are important! Our hotel ended up being smack dab in the middle of the chaos of the city. There were shops, restaurants, bars, and clubs all within walking distance! We were set.

The rest of the day was spent looking at art exhibits and one city temple. They were doing mosaics on the walls lining the streets. It was so interesting to see the artists actually putting them together and creating the art. We walked into what is typically an everyday market but for the month it was turned into an art gallery! This event occurs every two years in Gwangju. All of the booths had artists selling and displaying their work. The artists varied in style and ages. I was surprised by how many young artists there were. Some were even elementary school students trying to sell their art! Like most art galleries, the prices were a little steep for me. I went home empty handed but had a great time soaking it all in. I also stepped into a shop where these older women were making fresh kimchi. **

** For those of you that do not know what kimchi is, it is a spicy fermented cabbage. Google it :)

The kimchi looked really good and I had never had it in this form before. So my friend Tim and I decided to have a try (See picture). It was by far the spiciest kimchi I have ever had! Time loves spicy kimichi but even this was too hot for his taste buds! I think that our mouths were on fire for the next 20-30 minutes! ha ha ha. That is what we get!

We ventured to the Memorial Park of Gwangju's Student's Independence Movement. This park is a remembrance of the movement that began in 1929 where students boycotted classes under Japanese rule because there was discriminatory education. This eventually led to the independence movement in which many of the students participated. During this time there were many riots and hundreds almost a thousand people were killed in the on going of these riots. There is a memorial cemetery as well, but we were not able to make it there.

Now what? More wandering. It is sometimes the best way to find things. You never know what you will com across on these types of adventures. We walked down to the river. There was actually a running/walking track that followed the river. It was really neat. Then we walked to this huge arch that led us to this hill. The trees were all bright fall colors and beautiful. I just had to know what was at the top of this enormous hill. So Tim, Stu and I hiked to the top! Low and behold it was an amazing park. There were all these hand made benches and statues. Even a small cemetery. The park was high up enough that it had a decent view of parts of the city below. It was truly beautiful. We sat in a pavilion and ate fresh oranges that I had bough with me from Jeju. **Note** Jeju is said to have some of the best oranges int he WORLD!!**

After all that art and culture, it was time for a break. What better of a place for a break then Starbucks! Ha ha ha. My friends that I travel with now have this on going joke that no matter what city we go to, if there is a Starbucks, I will somehow find it and work it into our travel plans to make a pit stop. Well I indeed found the bright green Mermaid Sign :) We sat and had a coffee. This Starbucks had an enclosed patio that was on the third floor and we could sit out there and watch the hustle and bustle of the street traffic below. It was a perfect resting spot to catch our second wind before dinner at an Outback Steakhouse and a night on the town!

The next morning we were up early. Some of us, including me, had maybe 2-3 hours of sleep. But hey we are young right? I cannot do this forever so I take advantage of it while I can! Luckily we were able to grab Starbucks and even a Krispy Creme doughnut before heading on the bus! We had an hour and a half bus ride to take us to watch the Jeju United Soccer team play their final match of the season in Gwangyang. We had special shirts made for this trip and everything (see Picture). The front of the shirts say "Highting" in Korean which is actually a mixed word that means fighting but they pronounce it "Highting". I have no idea why.

"We Are Jeju" was our most often used chant! Being the cheerleader at heart, I had no voice by the end of the game. We were actually the only people that came from Jeju to watch the match. Lucky for us, we had our loudest cheerleaders there. So I am pretty sure we were still heard! The game was a draw 0-0. Oh well there is always next season!

After the game we took an hour taxi ride to the smallest airport I have ever been to. There was one gate!! The flight was still only 30 minutes, and then back to Jeju. Home sweet home. I have been here long enough that when i get back from a trip somewhere and return to the island, I have that "at home feeling". I always take a deep breath of fresh air and say "It's good to be home!" I think that we do have the cleanest air in South Korea!

Tim, Stu and I went for dinner after the flight. Stu always likes to go to dinner when we get back from a trip to wrap up the weekend and talk about the memories that we made. Funny stories, I can't believe you did that things, etc! It was a short but sweet trip!

More pictures from PIFF

2008-11-10T21:43:00.001-08:00

Pusan International Film Festival

2008-11-10T19:47:00.000-08:00

In October, I went back to Pusan (pronounced Busan). It was the International Film Festival. Many of my friends decided to take the trip as well. Some of them took the ferry over, but I was not doing that because it was an 11 hour ferry! I have never been on a boat that long as was a bit afraid that I might become sea sick. I flew over with my friend Stu. He is a private teacher here that is from Scotland. We both stayed at Josh's house for the weekend.

We arrived early Friday morning (October 3rd). The first place we went to is an area called Seomyeon. It is where the giant fish market and shopping area is. Giant is an understatement of how large this place was. There were markets that went on in every direction. At one point we were so turned around that we had to find a main street and gather our barrings again! The fish market was awesome. Along the bay there are these tents with tables in them so you can sit and have fresh fish that they are bringing in off the boats. At the market we saw this huge chunk of meat that still had a spine in it,so I asked the woman what it was and she said "Shark"! WOW.

We also went to PIFF (Pusan International Film Festival) Square. There was a stage and booths set up for the festival. The square was packed with people watching performances on the stage and waiting in line for films. We tried to get tickets for Saturday but that was not going to happen because we are not Korean. They tend to make things really difficult for people that are not Korean, and then wonder why no other cultures attend these things! Gee, I wonder! Ha ha ha ha ha. So we decided to just wait until Saturday and go to a box office and buy tickets.

That night we went to the Casino. Here, Koreans are not allowed to go to the casino. The only people that are there are Chinese and Japanese business men, and of course foreigners. The perk of the casinos are that they serve free alcohol and this one had free food. There was a bar and a dinning area, so you could take a break from gambling and have a meal! It was great.

The next day we headed to Haeundae Beach to scope out the ticket scene. I was really afraid that all of the tickets for the outdoor theatre would be sold out. Once we got to the beach, there were people every where. The beach was lined with booths and vendors. We had to ask a few people how to get tickets before they sent us to another area about a 20 minute walk from the beach. We finally got the the box office and had to buy tickets for 10 people (mind you there were 3 of us) and they instructed us that they can only sell 2 tickets to each person. Luckily, there were some other foreigners eating lunch next door. We kindly asked them to buy extra tickets for us. The agreed and that solved that problem. The tickets were nowhere near sold out. I wasn't surprised because Koreans do everything at the last minute. We bought the tickets about 8 hours before show time!

We had lunch that day at an AMAZING Mexican place. It is a hole in the wall. Literally the place had four stools to sit on inside and a line that went down the street. The owner was from San Diego and made everything to order! It was a long wait but well worth it.

After lunch we went back to the beach to hangout, look at the vendors and meet up with everyone that we bought tickets for! We then figured out that the outdoor theatre was not at the beach we were sitting at. We had to take a taxi about 10 minutes away to another location. The theatre was amazing. We had the Pusan Skyline, ocean, and bridge as a back drop.

The first movie was a Japanese animation. I have never watched a film like this before. It luckily had English sub titles. This film was rather slow and dragged on. People were falling asleep. I payed attention though because I thought it was amazing how they construct these films. There was a malfunction with the projector in the last part of the movie so we had and "intermission" early. It took a while to fix and when the first movie finish it was pretty late. Many of us headed out and didn't stay for the second film.

It was another great weekend in Pusan. I have posted some pictures with this post and I will do another post with more pictures. Enjoy!

Saeseogwi Elementary School

2008-10-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

Saeseogwi (Sa-So-Gee) Elementary School is the first school that I was assigned to work at here on Jeju. Last semester I worked here full time as did another Native English teacher named Ali. This semester I split my time between two schools. I am only at Saeseogwi 3 days a week.

The school is comparable to elementary schools in the US. There are 601 total students here. In fact there is a huge chalkboard in the teachers main work room that shows the break down of each grade and each class by gender. We have 317 males and 284 females.

Each grade at this school has three classes. For example: 1-1 means First Grade Class One, 1-2 is First Grade Class Two, and 1-3 is First Grade Class Three. The class sizes are larger. The largest grade is 3rd. It has 40 students in each class.

Third grade is my favorite. I am not sure if it is because I have them the most or because the students are just that great. It must be because I have them the most! Ha ha ha. In two of the sections I feel that I am zoo keeper more than a teacher. I am fortunate enough to have an amazing co-teacher, Mrs. Kim. She really is a great teacher who is excited and dedicated to learning English.

Ali is the other native English teacher at this school. He is now in his second year of teaching. Ali is from Canada. This semester he still works full time at Saeseogwi.

Saeseogwi Elementary has been chosen for the English Pilot program. In a way that makes it a special research school. For me it means more work and preparation at times. We have what are called "open" classes. This is where teachers from our school and other schools come and watch one of our classes. It is on no way a natural class however. My Korean co-teachers practice how the class will go over and over again with the students. It is almost as if it is scripted. I am not a fan of this method at all. It does not represent the struggles of having co-teachers and just teaching a foreign language in general. Plus the kids act like angels during these "open" classes and that is not how they really are either! Ha ha ha.

Next semester I might be moved to another school, but I don't think that I will. The school can keep me if they want and so far they have kept both Ali and I. Enjoy the pictures. The view of the playground, World Cup Stadium, and ocean is from my desk! AMAZING

Busan

2008-09-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

I took a trip over the summer to Busan, South Korea. It is the second largest city in South Korea and also the southern most city on the mainland. The population is about 3.6 million. It a young city that is growing rapidly. After a few days there I could see why!

Busan was wonderful. I cannot wait to go back. The first thing I did when I got there was locate a Starbucks! Ha ha ha. My friend Josh (from my TEFL course in Prague)knows how much I love Starbucks so he made sure to point out the closest one to my hotel that I stayed at the first night. He now lives in Busan and teaches at a private institute.

The first night I stayed on Heaundae Beach. It is in the Guiness Book of World Records for the most umbrellas on one stretch of beach. I believe it! I was there on a Thursday and it was still pretty busy. I hear the weekends are really crazy! It really was a great beach with the city sitting right on the water. There was a Starbucks on the street that ran along the beach. No city mugs for Busan yet, but I still picked up a new mug to have at my new home in Jeju.

The second night I stayed in the Busan National University area. Not sure where the actual university was though. I wasn't able to find it. On this day I went to Beomosa Temple. It sits up high in the mountains. You can hike to it if you please but I didn’t have any real shoes to do any hiking in. Maybe another time. This temple has been around since 678 but has been burned down a few times. The last re-build was in 1613. There are lots of small buildings all over the grounds. The monks walk around freely and interact with visitors. I was shocked to see this because most of the time, the monks seem to be in hiding. My favorite part of the temple other that the gorgeous insides, were these three little Buddhist statues that were hear no evil, speak no evil, say no evil. They were wonderful. The view from that high up was also amazing. That night I had dinner with Josh. A traditional Korean meal called Galbi. It is like an indoor BBQ. Great fun with friends. We decided on pork and it was in fact the best Galbi place that I have been to yet and I eat this often.

The third day we went to Gwangalli Beach. This beach sits on a bay. It reminds me of something you would see in Southern California. It has a boardwalk and everything. Not to mention a three story Starbucks that sat right on the beach. We of course stopped in and had a coffee and watched the people on the beach below. There was a Farris Wheel and other carnival rides. We returned that night to the beach to hit the bars and nightlife. Lots and lots of foreigners were out and about. It was great because they close the streets on the beach at night and put out tables and chairs. You can just eat and drink and hangout with people. Also there are no laws telling you where and where you cannot drink. I was pretty surprised by this. But it seems that as long as you are not out of control or harming other people you are free to drink wherever your little heart desires. A lot of people drank on the beach. It was wonderful.

All in all Busan was a great place to visit. I am actually going to be there again October 3-5th for the International Film Festival. Lots of my friends from Jeju are going, so it should be a wonderful time!

3 Month Check-in

2008-09-09T01:19:00.000-07:00

It seems like just the other day I was saying to goodbye to all my family and friends because I was moving to South Korea! I cannot tell you how many times I heard "Are you crazy?" or "What are you going there for?"

Well I am not crazy! I am just a free spirit in many ways. I figure that you only get one life here on earth and I want to make the most of it. Traveling has become a passion of mine. Those of you that know me very well also know that I am talker! That is putting it mild. Ha ha ha. So what a better way to travel the world and talk at the same time, than to become an English as a Foreign Language teacher?! I was able to find a way to do both. It just so happens that I landed in South Korea! The plus side about South Korea, is that I live on the beautiful island called Jeju and have met some amazing people that are my age and have seen so much of the world.

So here I am at the three month marker! YAY. I made it! From what I hear the hard part is over. Most people that have done what I am doing said that the first three months are pretty rough. You have to deal with the initial culture shock and the obvious language barriers, as I do not speak Korean (yet). My "honeymoon" phase as they call it has come to an official end. I know feel that I am part of this place. Part of the city that I live (Seogwipo) in and the schools that I teach at.

Do I still love it? Absolutely! Don't get me wrong I miss all of you back home in the United States, and other parts of the world, but I know that I will return. Everyday brings something new. I am learning new things about the Korean culture and people. My students teach me as much as I teach them, I think. In fact some of them have started giving me small Korean lessons during breaks. Ha ha ha. I guess they figure they can only benefit if I learn Hangul (Korean).

I still have 9 more months to go here in South Korea, then onto another continent! I have had an amazing summer and it is not over yet, as we tend to get the seasons later. I will try to post more blogs about my summer adventures, so keep your eyes peeled :)

Beach Beach Beach

2008-08-31T20:30:00.000-07:00

Summer time has been here for a couple months. I have tried to make the most of it because I am not sure how long it will last. I am told that October and November are wonderful here and people were still swimming.

I went to the tourist center and asked for a good size map of the island. The kindly gave me one and also a book all about Jeju and another on my city (Seogwipo). I put the map on my wall at home so that I can start marking off all the places I have gone. mostly I want to get to all the beaches that I can before winter sets in. There are so many beaches and each one is different.

Udo Island is a great place. I have been twice now. The last trip we rented scooters and rode all around the island. There is a white sand beach, black sand beach, and a coral beach all on one tiny island. The coral beach is one of two natural coral beaches in Korea. It was a little rough on my feet the first time I went but the last trip I seemed to do better with it.

All of the beaches have had some decent snorkeling. Some were better than others. Hamdeok beach is probably my favorite so far (the picture with the really turquoise water and green oreum in the background). I have so many great beach pictures that it will be hard to get them all on here so I will just put a few of my favorites :)

American Beef, Gays, and T-Shirts

2008-07-28T05:54:00.000-07:00

This post does not mean that if you eat beef and wear t-shirts that you are gay! Ha ha ha. These are merely three topics that I would like to blog about that I find interesting here in Korea especially.

American beef. For those of you that are not up to speed on the whole American Beef controversy that is going on right now in South Korea, well it would take me a while to get you up to speed on all the details. Basically, Koreans think that American beef is bad and that if you eat any American beef you will get Mad Cow Disease. To us Americans here in South Korea we find this statement highly amusing. We have been eating beef in the US for our entire life and well we are ok. There are huge riots and protests going on in the larger cities like Seoul. There have been pictures taken in newspapers where children have drawn pictures against American beef. It is sad because they only know what their parents tell them just like any child in the world. If you go into a restaurant and ask if they serve American beef they will look at you really funny and some places will tell you to leave! Before I came over to South Korea I had to have a series of medical checks done, including blood work. Well all of that was pointless because in the mean time, the rage was building over here with the beef issue. So when I arrived, I had to have the entire medical check all over again because they would not accept my records from the US and they wanted to know when the last time I had beef was! I was in shock and super upset because I hate having blood taken. Luckily heath care is super cheap here so everything cost me about $40.

Gays. Here in South Korea they turn their head when it comes to homosexuality. They simply believe that it does not exist and do not talk about it. They think that it is something that western cultures make up and do not see how it can even happen. It is not surprising though because the religion here is mostly Buddhist and the other small portion Christianity. However, there is so much affection shown between young people here of the same sex. It is not un common to walk down the street and see all the boys holding hands and the girls holding hands. Often times I will be waiting for the bus and there will be two boys waiting as well. The two boys will be petting each other and practically sitting on each other's laps! I am in shock that they act so loving and affectionate towards one another but do not believe that gay exists! I see this kind of thing everywhere. It is completely normal, so I hear.

T-Shirts are popular just like every where else in the world. The thing that makes Korean t-shirts so special are the sayings that are printed on them! Basically they take any English phrase that they know or partially know and print it on a t-shirt. I see boys wearing shirts that say "I Miss My Boy", "I went on vacation and came back on probation". My favorite ones are those that have misspelled words or grammatically incorrect phrases. One shirt I saw this past weekend said "I taken this look easy" it was supposed to say "I make this look easy". Ha ha ha. Oh and some shirts have extra "eee" on it. Koreans are notorious to add the long "e" sound to everything. It sounds like "I am an Englishee teacher" So funny! One last thing are the curse words. I am not sure that they even recognize that they are curse words. I bought a shirt the other day that says "1970 Up Against the Wall Mo**er F***er!" My friend Candice and I laughed so hard in the store and no one knew why we thought it was funny so we each bought one. Mine is light pink and hers is white. All the other English teachers look at me when I wear it and say "you must have bought that here". I laugh and say of course!

Well readers, it is time for me to end this. Hope everyone is well :)

Pictures of Weekend Camp

2008-07-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

Weekend Camp

2008-07-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I did a camp here at my elementary school. The camp was for students and their parents. We had about 150 students and parents. All the teachers in my school had to be here for the camp even if they were not teaching.

Saturday afternoon I taught 6 classes on how to make popcorn! For those of you that know me, know that I love popcorn so it was right up my alley. ha ha ha. The kids were a little scared at first about the popping. Most groups didn't wait for the popping to stop completely before taking the lid off so then the popcorn would continue to pop and all the kids would jump and scream when popcorn came flying out every where. It was pretty amusing. You will notice in the pictures that most of the kids wanted to stand on the chairs are look down on the popcorn while it was in the pan popping. I think they did this so that they could see but be far enough away in case something happened.

Sunday morning I was in charge of a quiz game. This game was played at the same time by everyone at the camp. So in a sense I was the host. We had some technical difficulty with the microphones. I assured the other teachers that would not be a problem since I used to be a cheerleader so I am sure that I could yell if I had to. I did have to yell a little and it hurt my voice, but oh well.

I have put some pictures of the students and then I will post again of just me and some of the students. All in all it was a great weekend camp. I am very tired today (Monday), but it is the last day of the semester and I start teaching summer school tomorrow!

More pictures of the Swimming Hole

2008-07-09T05:13:00.000-07:00

Best Swimming Hole EVER

2008-07-09T04:58:00.000-07:00

Today was a bright sunny day. For the first time since I have been here it felt like summer. It was pretty hot as well. Not to mention the humidity was super high. Oh well you just sweat a lot and get used to it I guess.

After school a few of us went home and grabbed our swim suits and beach towels and headed to the best swimming hole I have ever seen. It was truly one of the most beautiful sights I have seen in my entire life. One being the key word in that last sentence.

We had to first climb down to the swimming hole. Not to worry there were actual stairs. You did need to literally watch your step though. The stairs were steep and in some places down the path the plants had grown over. There is a sign at the top that tells the historical importance of the area that we were in. I found out on the way home that the other side of the sign was actually in English! Ha ha ha. Silly me, I should have looked. Everything around was very green. I was told that it will stay green all year long.

The water was clear and beautiful. It took my breath away. I just kept saying "WOW". Everyone laughed because they knew it was my first time. They said not to worry everyone does that. So then I didn't feel as stupid because I was aw struck.

We swam for as long as the sun would let us. The water was not very warm yet but at least warm enough for us to swim and not be cold after the first minute of adjusting. There are great rocks to dive off of. Yes I of course was all about doing that. I did however make others go first because I had never swam there before so I wasn't sure about the depth. Not to worry mom, I am here with no injuries! So please do not have a heart attack while you read this! Ha ha ha. You can also swim under the bridge type thin that you can see is separating the pool from the rest of the ocean. The water is pretty clear as you can see from the pictures. I borrowed some goggles and saw all sorts of bright colored fish and what not. I am going to buy a snorkeling set as I hear there is great snorkeling to be done all over the island. People also tell me that I have just tipped the ice berg of the amazing swimming holes and beaches! How exciting!

The pictures that I took do not capture the intensity of this spot but I hope that it at least give you some idea of the wonderful location. I will be visiting this place often as it is pretty close to my house. It cost about $2 to take a cab there and when you have a few people, that $2 gets divided among everyone. For sure it is a great deal for all the beauty that you get to embrace.

More Jeju United Pictures

2008-07-06T23:18:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few more pictures from the games. Oh and the little boy is just some cute little Korean boy that stuck his inflatable noise makers in the back of his shirt! Ha ha ha. It was cute!

Jeju United- Futbol AKA Soccer

2008-07-06T23:04:00.000-07:00

Here in Jeju they have a football team or as we westerners like to call it, soccer. It is a pretty great deal actually. You go to the game and pay for a bright orange t-shirt that has the team name on it. It cost you about 1,000 Won which is about $1. After that you get into every home game for free! It gets even better because you can bring any outside food and drinks that you want into the stadium. So everyone goes to the place called E-Mart, which is sort of like a Wal-Mart, and grabs food and beer before the game.

The stadium is amazing. Jeju hosted the 2002 World Cup so the local soccer team has the World Cup Stadium as their home field. It is awesome.

Even though the event is pretty much free, there are still not a lot of supporters that come out. All of us foreigners are loved by the Koreans because we are loud and do all the cheers and chants that they teach us. We of course love going because it is a good time and costs us near to nothing for a few hours of entertainment. There are Korean fans there that have giants flags. I took a picture of one of them that was close to us. He was actually a lot closer to me then the picture makes it look. I was a little nervous that he was actually going to hit me! Ha ha ha. I have more pictures that I will try to post. The season runs through September sometime.

And so we SANG..... Rain Rain Go Away

2008-06-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I have been on the island of Jeju for going on four weeks now! It is very exciting. I am still doing a lot of adjusting. There are a lot of culture shocks. Not to worry I have a blog planned for a few of those. So keep your eyes out!

I have come right in the middle of the rainy season here. So everyday it rains. For the entire month of June we have had maybe four days of sun. Most of those have fallen during the week. So there is no time to go out and enjoy the sunshine. The teachers here tell me that it will be like this until mid July. Then it will get very hot and humid. By then I will be ready for it, but know that after about two weeks of that kinda of sticky weather I will want the rain back! Ha ha ha.

Since there has been so much rain, we English teachers have found various outlets to have fun! The second weekend I was here we all went out for another English teacher's 40th birthday! We went to a bar called Muse. It was very nice. More like a lounge in the US. After that, some of us went to karaoke.

Karaoke is a lot different here than in the US. Here you rent a room. You have a phone in the room that calls the front desk where you can order food and drinks. There are even costumes that you can wear while you sing. You can see in the pictures that the costumes were a big hit with our group!

Graduation...Now What?

2008-04-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

It has been a few months! For those of you out of the loop or just didn't get all the details, I did graduate. YAY. Not to brag but I did graduate at the top of my class! It was a lot of hard work and many long hours but in the end it was worth it. Just like everything else in life.

I stayed in Prague for a week or so after graduation trying to get things sorted as to where I was going next. I decided on South Korea. Little did I know that it was going to be a long grueling process to get there.

One day while surfing the Internet for jobs I came across this ESL (English as a Second Language) recruiting firm for an island called Jeju in South Korea. I saw the pictures and instantly fell in love. I was at the moment in a KFC with Josh and I turned to him and said "Josh this is it! This is where I want to teach!" Sure enough I was contacted by the recruiting firm and so the process began.

I needed to return to the US in order to get my e2 Visa for the first time. South Korea recently changed their immigration laws and in orer to recieve a working visa you must applu while in your orgin country. So back to the US I came. That was a little unexpected but my wonerful family (Mom, Norm, and Nanny) helped me get what I needed done!

There was a slight bump in the road to getting my documents because my criminal background check using my name and birthday id not clear. I guess someone with an arrest has some similar information as me. I had to then get a fingerprint background check done. I was home a total of about 7 weeks. Then on a Tuesday I got an e-mail from my recruiter saying that my flight to Jeju was booked for Saturday June 7th!

It was a long trip. I flew from St. Louis to Los Angeles. I had a 4 hour layover then took Korean Airlines from LA to Seoul, South Korea. The flight from LA to Seoul was about 13 hours. I was only able to sleep for about 4 of those hours. It is a good thing that they had personal TV screen on the back of each seat and I was able to watch movies the rest of the way. Once in Seoul, I took a bus 40 minutes to another airport and flew to Jeju. My recruiter's partner met me at the airport.

I spent my first day running around to various educational offices and meeting all sorts of important people. I also had to go to the Immigration office an apply for an Alien Card. This card is sort of the Golden Ticket out here because once you have that card you can do anything. I can get Internet/cable at home, a cell phone, and most importantly a bank account.

My apartment is wonderful and I have a fantastic view. I have added pictures of my view with this blog post. I will be writing another post just on my apartment soon.

I went to the Elementary School that I will be teaching at the second day. I had to go straight to work! Ha ha ha. That was OK though because that is what I am here for. I will be doing a post on the school and program that I teach soon as well.

Mostly I am trying to adjust to the 14 hours that I gained in time, the culture, food, and weather. So be patient and know that there will be many more posts to come :)

Tibor

2008-04-16T11:04:00.000-07:00

I know I had mentioned a while back that I would write a little snippet about Tibor. He was my Czech student that I was assigned to do one-to-one lessons. The lessons were great. Tibor is 22 years old and currently attending a University here in Prague where he has lived for the last 12 years. He is an only child and was raised by his father. In his free time he plays tennis and likes water sports.

The entire one-to-one teaching was a great experience. It was challenging at times when I could not understand what he was trying to ask me exactly. That is why pronunciation is such a huge part of learning a language. I worked mostly on teaching him how to speak in the past. In the Czech language they only have the present. So he does not understand how to form a sentence that tells about a life experience and so on. Tibor requested that I gave him lessons that were hard. I laughed and said ok. My professor Terry said that for once Tibor had met his match. His other one-to-ones hadn't challenged him enough! Then I came along. Ha ha ha

Tibor is very smart and I made the lessons as fun as I could. We even watched part of a movie! Ha ha ha. Hey, I had permission from my professor to show the movie. He thought it was a great idea for the lesson I had planned.

I plan to keep in touch with Tibor even though I will be leaving the Czech Republic. He has been a great part of my learning experience and definitely challenged me as a teacher!

Intimidation

2008-04-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

The other day in class I was speaking to my professor Terry about intimidation. He was shocked that someone with my talent and personality would be intimidated by other teachers in the class. He told me to follow him to the library and there he pulled out a book with a poem. It was so inspirational that I decided to post it here on my blog for everyone to read. Enjoy!

by Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that
we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness,
that most frighten us.

We ask ourselves: Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of the universe.

Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

There is nothing enlightening about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are born to make manifest
the glory of the universe that is within us.

It is not just in some of us: it is in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

And as we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

Birthday weekend

2008-03-31T13:58:00.000-07:00

I am now officially 24. At first it didn't feel like Saturday was my birthday but after a quick phone call to my mom, it was a little more real. She and I have this thing where we try to talk at 3:31am which was the time I was born 24 years ago. Well with the huge time difference that was hard to do but we still chatted.

My birthday was great. I spent part of the day seeing more of the city and part of the day working on stuff for school. Not a very fun way to spend your birthday especially when it happens to finally land on a weekend. Oh well the work must get done.

Saturday night a few of us went to dinner. We had traditional Czech food. It was very good. I shared a plate with Tina and even then we didn't eat the entire plate. We had duck, pork, ham, three different types of dumplings, and white and red sauerkraut. I washed it down with a glass of Czech beer. My friends bought a small cake and they sang Happy Birthday to me. It was a great dinner.

After dinner we went to a few different clubs and others that didn't go to dinner met us out. We stayed out until the wee hours of the morning. Oh and this weekend was daylight savings this weekend and no one told us. Thank goodness that cell phones automatically change over.

Class is still intense. We have a lot of grammar this week. I give a 15 minute presentation on the Future Perfect Simple form. I also teach a new group of students this week. They are at the advanced level so their English is very good. I have to teach them adverb collocations. Fun fun.

Escalators, Crepes, and To-Go Boxes

2008-03-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

So far this week is off to a great start. The stress level has risen and that is to be expected. I am really pushing myself this week to get things done ahead of time so that this weekend I can enjoy my birthday! That's right for those of you that forgot my birthday is Saturday March 29th! YAY. I will be 24.

There is a reason that I titled this blog entry the way that I did. Mostly because I have had interesting experiences with all of the things listed; Escalators, Crepes and To-go boxes. Here is why:

Escalators are so steep it is scary. I mean it is like going up a hill in San Fran. I took a picture so take a look at it. From the bottom you cannot even see the top. People here actually run up and down them. Not me I enjoy the ride. Then there are the young guys that try to go up the escalators that are going down. One kid did it witha huge back-pack on! Props to him for making it to the top. When he did finally get to the top there was this huge crowd there cheering him on. I admit I clapped for him because it was nothing short of amazing.

Crepes... for those of you that have talked to me over the past month or so you know that one of the things that I gave up for Lent was sweets. So the other night I could finally have one and I did. Easter Sunday I had an authentic Czech crepe with my roomie Tina and Josh (the guy in my class from FL). It too was perfect. You could order it with so many different things inside. I had the one with coco and butter with powdered sugar on top. I talked Josh into getting the one with Nutella because he had never had Nutella before. Needless to say he will not be questioning my reccomendations again when it comes to food. A side not about Josh he is a great cook as well. So he and I often talk about different cooking techniques and food in general. We both agreed that it is hard to cook here without our own cooking tools. Anyway the crepes were great!

To-Go Boxes... well you hve to pay for them. It is not very much but you do have to pay. I was shocked the first time I had to do it. I thought maybe it was just at that one resturaunt but it seem to be the norm here. You have to pay for grocery bags here too. So it is important to always keep those things or I guess bring your own to-go box if you don't want to pay for one.

That is all for this entry. I will try to write another one soon! Enjoy the pictures. Ha ha ha

First Week

2008-03-23T15:07:00.000-07:00

The first week of the course is done! Oh boy it has been more work than I thought it would be and I was challenged every step of the way. I have had two Czech lessons now and they have been so helpful. I have actually used all the phrases that I have learned.

Speaking of new phrases... I have learned a few new ones from my fellow classmates. For example, I guess we are the English speaking country that uses "Z" as the last letter of the alphabet. The other countries say "Zed". Hmmm.... I think that is weird but they thin we are weird. My roomie Tina uses a lot of different phrases that I am not used to either. When she wants to vaccume she says "hoover". To paint her nail she says "nail varnish". Instead of saying line, (as in standing in line) she says "que". I think that I am starting to pick up a Canadian accent from my friend here named Katie. She is from Vancouver and we hangout a lot. She and I are sooo much alike that it scares us sometimes. Ha ha ha.

Class is harder everyday. THis week we have spent a lot of time on learning the phonemic script. I had no idea that the English language had 24 vowel sounds. Most of us thinkof the six main ones that we learn in school. Also we have had to learn grammar all over again. Such as past perfect tense and verbs and what kind of verbs they are and why we use them. There are actual formulas that my professors are teaching us to make sure that our sentences are correct.

I taught my first class all alone. Well there were fellow teachers watching me and one of my professors observed too. It ws amazing. I had a group of intermediate students and I think that they really liked me. After the class I had to meet with my professor to see areas that I need to work on and he told me that he had to think realy hard on what I had to do better. In fact he said that I wowed him more than anyone else that he has seen in a long time. He also told me that I had a natural ability to teach that shines as soon as I start. Basically he told me that I could teach and not even have to take the class but that he was glad I was there and that he might want to recruit me to stay there and work at the school! Ha ha ha. I was on cloud 9 after that. I was so worried that he was going to shred me apart.

I have a one-to-one student that I meet with for the first time this next week. His name is Tibor and I will tutor him for the next couple of weeks and then I have to write basically a huge term paper on it. It is going to be great to work with a student one on one. I will know more after I met with him Tuesday! Hopefully I will get a picture of him on here too :)

THis weekend my classmates and I went out on the town. Friday night we went to a night club called Karlovy Iazne. It has about 4 or 5 levels of dance floors and music. It was amazing. There were go go dancers and lounges. Also there was a huge dance contest goingon that I watched most of the night. I met a group of people from Denmark. They were so nice. We all had a great time. Saturday night Katie cooked us all a light dinner and we all sat around and talked. Most people (mainly the guys) were hungover from the night before! Ha ha ha. Today I did a little more sight seeing. I had my first authentic Czech meal and it was out of this world! I had bread dumplings, potatoe dumplings, cabbage, duck, and a beer.... total = $8! I had so much leftover that I will eat it for dinner tomorrow night.

I'm here

2008-03-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

I have made it safe and sound to Prague. YAY. It was a long journey and a few hiccups on the way but those are all sorted out and everything is fine now.

Prague.... well it is a beautiful city with more history that I knew about. This past Sunday I was given a tour of the city including most of the well known places such as the Castle, King Charles Bridge, The Jewish Ghetto (yes that is the correct way to say it), and the Astrological Clock which is really just a large Koo Koo clock. We did see the Prime Minister out walking with his lady friend and their out of wedlock child. There was no security with him either.

The people here are wonderful. They are all very friendly and patient if I cannot pronounce my Czech properly. Although I was surprised by how many people spoke broken English. The Czech Republic is the drinking capital of the world. I believe it. Locals drink beer with almost every meal and you can get a class of beer anywhere you go to eat including Mc Donald's! Ha ha ha. Oh and for those of you that have asked.... yes there is a Starbucks! YAY for that.

Class... well there is only one word to describe it... INTENSE! I have loads of work everyday after being in class and teaching for 8-10 hours per day. They say that we will be busy about 80 hours per week. I thought there was no way that could be but after being in the class for three complete days, I believe it. On the second day of class we started teaching in pairs to Czech students from Prague that have paid a less price to be taught English by those of us that are going through the course. Thank goodness they are patient!