Best Swimming Hole EVER

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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.