Snow in Jeonju!

Talor's Kids (From Left to Right) Chan Hee, Ji Soo, Eun Ji, Do Yeon, Eu Gene, Tae Jun (Min Ji and Ji Ho are missing)



The view from school, Friday December 5


Ben's kids (from left to right) Myung Hoon (Leo), Ji Oun, Seung Min, Seo Yeon (Lucy), Jun Seo (Eun Sung is missing)


Talor's Class


Snow!

Happy Birthday Chelsea Adams!!

Just wanted to wish my best buddy a very happy birthday! I miss you very much and hope that your day was a special one! I wish I was there to celebrate with you....but I will be there next year to spoil you! xoxox
Talor
- New blog to come very soon everyone :)

Finally...A NEW post!!!

I know, I know...It's been quite a while since our last post! Sorry about that, but we're keeping ourselves pretty busy these days. :) Last weekend I planned on posting a new blog, but ended up getting really sick on Saturday and didn't feel myself until about mid-week. I had a bad fever for a couple of days and the worst headaches for about four days!! It was pretty miserable especially when I had to go to work and be around loud, crazy kids all day. I'm so glad that's over!

Anyway, a lot has happened and I don't know how great my memory will be, but I'll try to catch you up on some things...
Ben and I have been spending quite a bit of time with Bryce and Sandie. We go out to eat with them a couple times a week and usually end up going to a DVD Bhang. A DVD Bhang (translated to a DVD room) is just that...A room where four people can comfortably fit and watch a movie on a large movie screen. You can bring your own snacks and drinks (at least we assume so and haven't been told otherwise yet) and sit back for a few hours to view a movie of your choosing. I even got some complementary ice cream the last time we went. They have quite a selection of movies and it's a good (cheap) way to kill some time after dinner.

The other week we also went with Bryce and Sandie to a local park by the university where hundreds and hundreds of lillys bloom in the lake. Unfortunately all the flowers weren't in bloom, but it was still so beautiful! We also got to witness some traditional Korean performances where people of all ages were singing and/or dancing. Most of them were pretty amazing. One, which wasn't so amazing, was this lady dressed in traditional Korean dress singing some crap Korean pop. Ben and Bryce start making fun and dancing a bit and this Korean guy (who is loving the music and believes Ben and Bryce are too) comes running up from nowhere and proceeds to dance with Ben, then Bryce, then pulls me in to dance. These are the moments that I wished I had a video camera, because there is no way to explain how ridiculous and uncomfortable, yet hilarious these things are! The guy ended up trying to follow us everywhere until we finally made it clear we wanted him to go away!
That night we also had fried kimchi for the first time. I think Ben and I are both getting pretty tired of the whole kimchi thing, but fried kimchi is a totally different story! It's very delicious! It's not like breaded and fried...it's just kimchi with a bit of other things added, like some tiny bits of beef, and some onion and it's fried in a pan. They serve it with some tofu, also something that isn't a favorite of ours (especially not Ben), but combined with the spicy and extremely flavorful kimchi it is delicious! One of my new favorites!

Last Friday we were treated to dinner with the entire school staff- the English teachers, the Korean teachers, one of our school cooks, our manager (Mr. Na) and our director Helena all came. One of mine and Ben's afternoon student's (a little girl named Hee Won) father paid for the meal. He's a rich dentist and such a nice man! He kept telling us that the Little River Day School had the best and smartest English teachers in Jeon Ju. He really liked Ben and I...perhaps because we told him good things about his daughter :). After dinner he and Mr. Na took the English teachers out to the Nori Bhang. It was a pretty amazing time as are most Nori Bhang experiences! It was pretty weird partying with one of my student's dads, but no one made an ass of themselves. He wants to take us all out again to show us some of the culture of Jeon Ju, I can't wait. After the Nori Bhang the teachers went out to Deep In for more drinks and fun. It was a late night and the next morning I woke up with a bad hangover and a fever to top it off!!
Saturday night was Erich's (the other little river teacher) birthday party. Since I was feeling a tad bit better and it was just down the street, Ben and I went. The party was on the roof of his girlfriends building and was pretty fun. It would have been better if I hadn't started feeling really sick again. So we ended up calling it an early night.

By Tuesday night I was finally feeling back to my old self and we went out for dinner with Bryce and Sandra. We broke down and went to TGI Fridays so we could get some good ol' American food. Other than McDonalds it's the only other option. It was extremely pricey, but so worth it! I don't think we would ever choose to go there in the States, but it's amazing how good a burger or a chicken sandwhich is after a month and a half without it!!
The next day we went bowling with Bryce, Sandra, Erich and Mr. Na. I kicked everyone's butt! The first game I bowled an alright 112 but the second game I bowled a 145. It was a good time and afterwards Bryce, Sandie, Ben and I went out for beer and fried chicken. I think this past week we have just been craving American food :).
On Friday we went out again with Bryce and Sandra and two of their Korean friends to play badminton (well I didn't play, anything that involves a racket I can't do, but had a good time watching) and again went out for fried chicken afterwards. Needless to say I've had my filll of fried chicken and I don't want chicken for the next few weeks! We went home early since Ben and I were leaving early the next morning to go to the beach with Bryce and Sandie.

The beach turned out to be amazing!! We went to Daechon Beach in Boryeong.It was absolutely beautiful...the weather was perfect, the water was the perfect temperature and the beach was clean and NOT crowded! I think that's mainly because we went a little off season, as it will start to get cooler in the coming month. We actually planned on just making it a day trip and coming back to Jeon Ju on Saturday night for trivia at one of the bars. But we just couldn't take ourselves away! We ended up just getting a couple of hotel rooms so we could stay the night and enjoy the beach again today. I didn't even mind not having a proper change of clothes or a brush or any other amenities. However, the hotel ended up providing us with everything we needed which was not expected including toothbrushes, toothpaste, hairbrushes, face wash, toner, hairspray, cologne and perfume. There was even a little "ladies kit" that had cotton swabs, Q-tips, and a hair tie. The room and bathroom were nice, big and clean.
It really was such a great time! On the beach at night everyone does fireworks so we too indulged and set off roman candles and played with sparklers all night. It felt like we were celebrating some special holiday. In fact the whole weekend felt like I was on some kind of holiday vacation...tomorrow work sure is going to suck ;)!!!

I also got to experience some of the best sashimi (called hwe in Korean) I've ever had...what am I writing!!?? I mean the absolute best shasimi I've ever had!! Near the beach all the Korean restaurants have tanks outside with a variety of seafood...fish, shark, eel, clams, oysters, all sorts of various shellfish actually, prawns, crabs and other things that I don't even know. This is because all of the seafood you eat is killed minutes before you eat it! So the shashimi is absolutely delicious and ridiculously fresh! We watched the guy net our fish, fillet it and bring it to our table. With Korean-style sashimi you are supposed to wrap it in a lettuce leaf with raw garlic, sliced chiles and bean paste, but it was so delicious to just to dip a piece in some wasabi and soy sauce. The only downfall is that it is quite expensive...well at least for the the Korean standard of expensive, but definitely worth it!
Another thing I learned is that Koreans love their corn dogs. The Koreans do them a bit differently though...they always have at least two kinds. One has a kind of regular sweet coconut batter and the other is covered in the regular batter and then a second coat of potatoes (think french fries) is added. They then squeeze some honey mustard and ketchup and you have yourself a delectable heart attack on a stick!!

So needless to say we've had a pretty good last couple of weeks (minus my bout of sickness)! Work is long and hard during the week days, but the weekends and our evenings out more than make up for all the hard work we do. I really do miss everyone, but I am still enjoying discovering and seeing new things everyday. We will write soon(er than before at least)! :)

Talor

A disclaimer + weekend in Seoul

well, after uploading those photos I realized that there was something I wanted to say in regards to all those photos of us doing peace signs or whatever, its a Korean thing and we're doing it in jest, Koreans think its cool to do a peace sign at the camera and say "kimchi!" en lieu of "cheese!".....super gay.....so don't judge me bitch

Anyways, had a bit of bad news last weekend we went bowling with Bryce and Sandra and my digital camera got knocked off the table and broke! So we have no camera until we get paid so you won't see any photos for a little while....lmao. I bought a disposable camera, I just hope that we'll be able to get the photos digitally.


We had a short week this week because Friday was Korean Independence Day which was nice. Add the fact that Thursday we went on a field trip so it was an easier week. We went to "cookieland," which was an exhibit where there were depictions of fairy tales (sleeping beauty, snow white etc.._) history and some art all made of cookies, cakes, candies and other foods.....it was pretty ridiculous. The kids did some cookie making and cake decorating. They also showed us this 20 minute cartoon also called Cookieland which was completely absurd. It involved two people being turned into cookies and they followed a "delicious feces-dropping bird" to a land made of cookies, chocolate and candy where they're love of all things sweet brings about the demise of cookieland to some fungus monsters. Quite strange.

So we decided to take advantage of the 3 day weekend and head up to Seoul on Friday to hang out with Sam and his friends. Needless to say, the weekend was a blast and a blur, we went to Hongdae Friday night and hit up a bunch of bars. We ended up at a bar chain called "Ho Bar" at like 4 where we bought a bottle of Jim Bean and Sam did his Mick Jagger dance to booming Korean-techno-pop to the absolute delight of the entire place. Seriously, they loved it. We were hung over as shit all day Saturday, we went for some pretty awesome duk galbi and then slept the rest of the afternoon. After waking up we went out for some sushi and then we went to Itaewon for some beers and the first premier league games of the season (soccer). Itaewon is an extremely international area and when we got off the subway I didn't see any Koreans for a while. We went to the Wolf's head pub and had ourselves a time, it felt just like home actually, the bar was packed with Brits, Americans and Canadians. There were also lots of US soldiers there, it was the fist time I'd seen any here and they were really cool, I think Talor and I each had at least 4 drinks bought for us. We also met Sam's friends Dave and Ciaran who were really cool. Talor had an old Korean guy dance with her, to Elvis I think, it was really funny, he bought her some flowers afterwards also and gave his name card (business card, its a big deal for Koreans). He was a character. We were at the Wolf's Head till about 2:30 then we went for a drink at the hard rock cafe actually. It was a good time and Sam was very hospitable to Talor and I, shacking us up in his apartment. We'll definitely be making many more trips to Seoul, we'll actually do some sightseeing in the future rather than just drink the whole weekend....well I'm sure we'll still drink the whole weekend.

We laughed about this all weekend.

Ben

More of Jeon Ju

Crazy Friday night!

Goodbye Texas, hello South Korea

It's 4pm and my head is still pounding from last night

Last night was by far the craziest night we've had since we've arrived ...It all started when the manager of our school (Mr. Na) took all five of the English teachers (me, Ben, Bryce, Sandra and Erich) out for dinner after school yesterday. He treated us all to a fantastic dinner, beer, and soju.

Dinner consisted of some more Korean bbq...I think the best decision I've ever made was to start eating meat again before we got here. I would be missing out on all of the best food I've ever had!!! This time it was galbi, which is basically thinly cut seasoned beef and ribs cooked at the table on a charcoal grill with the dozens of assorted sides. Kimchi (obviously), various pickled vegetables, hard boiled quail eggs, corn salad (one of my personal favorite sides, it's about as common as kimchi), a delicious spicy soup, and a boiled egg dish among other things. For dessert it was cold noodles. It was a feast! As is every meal here!
Mr. Na and the boys were downing soju every few minutes while Sandra and I stuck to beer for the most part (a good decision since it turned out to be a very long night). After dinner Mr. Na took us (minus Brice, who had band practice) to a Nori Bhang, which is a room where people get together with friends, drink, eat and do karaoke. Our room had a large table, seats, a large screen, two microphones (perfect for duets), a disco ball with flashing colorful lights...you can imagine. Ben took to it right away...belting out Bon Jovi songs, Foreigner songs and any other outrageous songs he could find. And we found out Mr. Na is a karaoke master! He had an amazing voice and knew all the good songs to sing. As the time passed, more food consumed, and even more drinks downed it just got more and more ridiculous! At some point Mr. Na, Ben, and Erich were all dancing around belting out love ballads. It was an absolute blast! I would never do karaoke in the states, but at a nori bhang nobody cares about making an ass of themselves in front of their friends.
You'd think we'd stop there, but after karaoke Ben, Sandra and I went to the university area to meet up with Bryce (her boyfriend). We then went to a bar called Miller Time (it's a chain here where you can get Miller lite for cheap, a nice change from the Korean Cass and Hite beer). We then proceeded to drink pitchers of Miller lite for the next few hours.
Koreans are always eager to talk to foreigners, especially in the university area, so we also had several "guests" come by and sit and talk to us as we sat outside. Our first guest was a nut! He told us he was Condi Rice, he was a stem cell, and later told us he was telepathic. I couldn't stop laughing!! Some Koreans came and sat at the table next to us later and we chatted with them. They actually spoke pretty good English, one of them studied for 12 months in New Zealand and Australia. They shared their $11 nachos with us ($11 for 11 nachos mind you) and convinced Bryce to pull out his saxophone and play for a bit. If we weren't the white people sticking out we definitely were at that point. Several people came by to say hi and watch Bryce play. One guy stuck around the whole night. After the Koreans next to us left some other Korean guys from inside Miller Time (Jun and Hammer) came out to "talk" to us. They barely spoke any English, Ben and I know virtually no Korean, and Bryce and Sandra only know a little bit so it was pretty funny. What's good is we are used to talking to little kids who don't know what the hell we are saying and trying to get them to understand...the same kind of thing works with older Koreans.
Later Jun and Hammer, Hammer's girlfriend Jun and their other friends came out and begged us to go drink soju with them. At this point it was probably around 1 or 2am. So we finished our beers and (along with the strange Korean man who had been hanging around all night) went to a restaurant next door where the Koreans treated us to copious amounts of soju and beer and bought us sausage and french fries!! It was such a great time!! Koreans love Americans and they love to drink and they are sooo nice!
Finally around 4ish Sandra and I decided that the boys needed to go home. We then walked the few miles home while Bryce attempted to ride his bike. Eventually Sandra took over *note don't drink and ride!!!!
So needless to say it was a pretty ridiculous night! But Ben's and my first experience hanging out with Koreans was pretty amazing. I can't wait for the many more nori bhang, strange Koreans, and soju filled nights that await!

On a completely different note... Our first week of work is over and we survived!! Everyone says the first week is the hardest since you have no clue what you're doing and the kids don't really know you yet. Ben and I were given a new weekly lesson plan pretty much every day! It was very annoying and confusing, but we made our own lesson plan for next week so now we know what we are doing and we won't have any changes. I think the kids are already warming up to Ben and me. They love to say our names and give us hugs or punches depending on the kid. They are all very smart, but so young! I have one girl in my class (the most advanced class) who is only 5 years old and she is the brightest one!
I'm really enjoying the teaching part so far. I think Ben is having more trouble...but only because the first week was so confusing and we were getting our classes switched around all the time and he's not used to being around little kids. The kids really, really like him though! They are always talking to me about "Mr. Ben" or as they say here "Ben teacher".

Also this week we've gotten to know our fellow teachers Bryce and Sandra. They were traveling in Japan when Ben and I got here so we met them on Monday. They are the same age as Ben and me and have been dating for 4 years, just like Ben and me. They actually live in the apartment below us. So I'm sure we will all be hanging out a lot.
The other night they took us out for a dinner of Beebimbop or Bibimbop. Beebimbop is what Jeon Ju is known for so I had been wanting to try it for some time now. It's a pretty simple dish, but so delicious! It's a bowl of rice, vegetables (like bean sprouts, dried spinach, lettuce, zucchini), seasoned beef and chili pepper paste (also usually served with an egg) that you mix together. It is very delicious and something I could eat every day and not get sick of! We also tried a kind of rice wine that was heavily seasoned and very sweet. It was like drinking dessert, but very good. The place we went to also gave us more little side dishes than I've ever had before. There had to be nearly 20 just for the four of us. Even at big tables table space is a problem because of all the dishes you get. And the side dishes are unlimited refills so if there is something you really like you can keep getting it, and getting it, and getting it.
Ben and I are pretty much pros with the chopsticks these days and before coming here neither Ben or I could even use chopsticks! ! In Korea they use thin, slippery metal chopsticks as opposed to the nice large wooden ones they use in Japan. Eating was a pretty messy ordeal at first and in fact we don't even have a single fork at our apartment. Everything we eat, even at home, is with these little metal chopsticks!

Well this is plenty long enough so I should cut it off, but we will be posting soon and now that we have the interweb at our apartment we can finally post some pictures. Also we are going to set up Skype in the next few days! We'll keep you posted!

Talor

And the real work begins

So 2 full days of work behind me and its not been too bad, although definitely challenging but it will get easier. I have two kindergarten classes in the morning, 7yr olds (in Korea, 6 everywhere else) and they're actually pretty good kids. I teach them phonics, talking, writing, we alternate math and science/social studies every other day - really simple stuff, and I can give them worksheets to color in and draw on which will occupy them for a while. We also sometimes do a song (which they love) or a game at the end (hangman, simon says stuff like that - quasi educational). We then get lunch at the school, I get a 2 and a half hour break (talor just an hour and a half but shes done an hour earlier) and then 4 classes in the afternoon with older kids which is better because they're calmer but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're better at english, in fact I have a class of 10 yr olds that are worse than my kindergarteners. What also sucks is we don't really get much instruction on what to do, one of my classes we don't have the text yet so Talor and I have been struggling a bit on how to teach science/social studies for 50 minutes without really knowing what level to teach at and what level english the students speak but after two days we're getting a good idea of what to do and textbooksfor that class will be in next week. Whats also really good is our classes are really small, supposedly they will get bigger but my biggest class is 7 kids and they are 10 years old, my smallest class has 3 kids and Talor has a class with one kid!! This will change but its not too bad for now. The first full day was definitely pretty chaotic for everybody in fact and everything has been a little disorganized but hopefully it will get better.

So we finally got to meet the other teachers and they seem really cool, 2Americans and 1 Canadian which is a little rare since most of the foreigners we've met so far have been Canadian or British. They seem to be good people. We went out with one of them Friday night, had an awesome meal followed by quite a drunken night around Jeonju, although very close to where we live in Seo Shin Dong (thats what the neighborhood is called). Saturday was a relaxing affair and Talor and I spent most of the day in bed hung over watching movies. Sunday was Talors birthday of course although due to our very limited cash flow it was not quite as memorable as I would have liked it to have been but we had a good time, we went out to Deepin bar (a popular bar for westerners) and played poker with a bunch of our new friends and, guess what, Talor walked away a winner about $70 - although we lost the other games we were a part of. As Monday was our first real day of work we didn't make it too much of a hard night and left at a respectable hour.

Ben

So we didn't go water skiing Wednesday...

but we had a fun day anyway! Ben and I ended up meeting up with our new friend Derby and we went out to the university area for drinks and dinner. We also had our first Soju experience. Derby introduced us to a place where they have yogurt soju and lemon soju! It was sooo good and definitely a place that we will frequently be going. After drinks we met up with some new friends and a couple of people that were visiting from Japan.

I know I say this all the time...but dinner was AMAZING!!! It was another first (as most things are here). We had a meal called duk galbi, which is chicken, cabbage, potatoes, and noodles cooked in a sweet and slightly spicy red sauce at your table. Probably my favorite meal yet! And just so you can get an idea of how inexpensive it is to eat out here...our bill was $27 for four of us to eat and share 5 or 6 (I can't remember exactly) 16oz bottles of beer and 2 bottles of soju!!

After dinner we went to a hookah bar where we met up with some more people and had drinks well into the night. The next day everyone was going to go water skiing since we didn't on Wednesday, but Ben and I decided against it since we need to conserve our money at this time :). Thursday was a day of r&r except Ben met up with some guys to play basketball. I stayed home and read...apparently the girls don't really play sports with the boys :(.

Well today was our first day of "work". Even though we just had a less than a half-day because it's the kid's first day back from summer vacation. Ben and I are teaching the most advanced elementary students. I think they are all 7 year-olds. We split the class so Ben teaches 6 kids and I teach the other 6. They are sooo cute and FULL of energy. Unfortunately I have the one really bad kid in my class!! He is definitely going to be a pain in the ass!! But for the most part the other kids are really sweet and very smart!

Today we did phonics, reading, talking, and writing. With a play break and yoga inbetween. Ben helped the other English teacher Erich lead yoga. HILARIOUS, since Ben is the least flexible person I know and he's sore from basketball. Overall it was a good day! The other English teachers are still out of town but they will be back on Monday. We did meet some of the Korean teachers and they are very nice. They kept telling Ben and I how good looking we were :).

I'm not sure of our weekend plans, but I'm sure it will be fun! My birthday is on Sunday but I don't think we're planning on doing too much, except going to play poker. Hope you are all doing well! Annyongkahsayo!!

Talor

Still no interweb at the apartment

so that means still no photos, which is a shame because we had a really great day today. Today is some kind of Korean holiday where everyone eats steamed chicken, something about the second of 3 really hot days? I don't know, the communication between our director and us is always shaky at best. Today our director and her brother took us out to eat a traditional Korean restaurant just outside of Jeonju. The restaurant was in the forest on the side of a mountain and resided over a stream, a beautiful setting. We sat in a little gazebo thing (on the floor without shoes of course) and had a delicious meal of steamed chicken with all the little plates of kimchi and other assorted sides surrounding. We then went to this modern coffee+tea house/art gallery on the side of a mountain with a beautiful view over a lake surrounded by mountains. After some coffee and cheesecake they took us to the old Jeonju village, where we went to see the old imerial palace where the kings of the Joseon dynasty ruled 500 years ago. It was really pretty and all the roofs have been maintained in their traditional form. I took some photos and they will be posted asap.

Ben

Day three in Korea...

So I've finally broken down and joined Ben in the PC Bhang...needless to say we are the only people in here actually browsing the internet. Well actually Ben is now playing FIFA, which only took 20 minutes of awkward miscommunication to set up unsuccessfully. Finally the guy who works here gave up and logged Ben in under himself so he could play, Koreans are VERY nice to say the least and I've determined Hangul (the Korean gibberish they call their alphabet) is impossible to read!!!

I'm already starting to get used to the awkward stares and curious looks Ben and I get wherever we go, but last night it was refreshing to have a stare-free night and hang out with some fellow English teachers. Our first day wandering around the city we met a couple who have been here for a couple of weeks and they told us about a few bars where the "foreigners" hang out. Last night was poker night at one of the bars and we had a great time, but I've determined Ben is no longer allowed to play (at least until we start making some money!). I actually did pretty well...if buy backs weren't allowed there is a large chance I could have won about 200 bucks! Oh well, maybe next time.

Meeting some other teachers was a relief. Right now the schools are on holiday and the teachers at our school are out of town traveling so we haven't had anyone to show us the ropes. Everyone was so friendly and we already have a water skiing outing planned for Wednesday. They only had great things to say about Jeonju and I'm excited to learn from them. Ben and I are definitely the newbies. Everyone else has been teaching for at least several months or a few years.

As you would expect, it turned out to be quite a long night and by the time I got home and drunkenly cooked some noodles for Ben and I the sun was coming up. Ahhhh just the start of many long nights to come. The great thing about the bars here is they stay open until you decide to leave...even if it is 4:30 in the morning! I think I'm going to like this place!!

This week Ben and I don't have to work until Friday! How awesome is it that we got here and get a vacation right away!? We've decided to take advantage of our free time and visit the "old city" tomorrow and do some sight seeing. Jeonju is over 500 years old and has a vast and interesting history of which I currently know nothing about. Oh and did I mention that Jeonju is well known for having some of the best produce on the planet!!! The fruit here is indescribably good!! Hell all of the food here is amazing!!

Well I'm going to cut this off and try to pry Ben away from his game...despite the convenience of having the PC Bhang down the street to use the internet it might prove to be the demise of Ben if I let the gaming get to him! We'll update you soon, hopefully from the comfort of our own apartment and then I can post some pictures!

Talor

can you say out of my element?

Well we got to Jeon Ju at 2am last night after a horrendous couple days of traveling with very little sleep. Thank god our bags made it. We are 14 hours ahead so I couldn't sleep for shit last night and I was up at 630 am unpacking all our stuff. The apartment is really not too bad, we have a big bed, a washing machine, and a balcony. Of course this is Korea so take what your imagining and shrink it in half, but still not too bad. Our director came and picked us up this morning and took us to breakfast for our first meal in Korea which was.....at Mcdonalds, lol. But she is an extremely nice lady and her and her brother have been so accomodating to us. They took us to the school after that and showed us around. The school is on the 8th story of a skyscraper and is pretty small but nice, where rich kids go to learn english. Also in the building is a bowling alley, a gym (free for teachers), and a sauna ($4 a pop!). It's also a 5 minute walk from our apartment. After seeing the school we were taken to the E-Mart (think walmart) where she bought us groceries. After that we went to eat Korean barbecue which was fucking badass, oh my god. A grill in the middle of the table where beef, shrimp, mushrooms, rice cakes, corn and potatoes were bbqued and were surrounded by plate after plate of different kinds of kimchi, spiced lettuces or salads, different dipping sauces and miso soup. Wow, after being dropped off back at the apartment we had to lay down for about an hour. After that we pretty much wandered aimlessly around Jeonju for a couple hours just taking in the outdoor markets and very strange surroundings. I was completely exhausted when I got back. It is really hot and humid here. I have photos to post but our internet is not set up yet, im at a "PC bhang" right now, aka internet cafe, so i'll post photos as soon as I can. Anyways, I'm exhausted so I'm gonna go to the corner store and pick me up a "Cass" beer and crash.

Ben

Goodbye Texas!

So we leave tomorrow morning and Ben and I just got done packing everything...barely. I have no idea how the hell I managed to pack a years worth of clothes, shoes, and toiletries in two suitcases, but I have a feeling I am going to be paying extra for overweight baggage. Ben’s bags are stuffed to the brim too, which is probably because he helped me out with my overflow.

We just found out that after we get to the Incheon Airport (in Seoul) on Friday night we have to take a 4 hour bus trip to Jeonju. A man named Mr. Kang will be meeting us at the airport and he will help us get our bus tickets and someone (probably our director, Helen) will be greeting us at the bus terminal in Jeonju. It’s going to be a VERY long trip and I hope it all goes smoothly. The last thing I’d want is a delayed flight or lost baggage. So cross your fingers for us!!!

Ben and I have been pigging out on “American” food all week…I think I’ll miss tex-mex food the most and mashed potatoes. There will definitely be a lot of things I’ll miss… ALL my friends in Austin/Texas, Barton Springs, Hamilton Pool, kicking Sean and Adrienne’s butts in Hearts :), cooking home cooked meals every night…I could go on and on, but I think I’ll miss my kitty cat Lady most of all!! (Thanks a lot to Ros and Brian Darling who will be looking after her for the next year. I know she is in the best of hands!)

But no worries about what I’ll miss. I can’t wait for the surprises and adventures that await us!! We’ll be updating you all as soon as we can! Wish us luck!

Talor

Yes, the name is super corny

but I just felt a need to pun the place where we'll be at. Originally, we were going to Bundang but now we are going to Jeonju City for 2 months where the other Little River Day School is. Two teachers bailed on them at the last minute so we were asked if we would do 2 months in Jeonju, which is pretty awesome if you ask me. It also means that I will have to come up with another corny punned title.

Well, it's only T minus 3 days to departure!! We'll be leaving at the crack of dawn Thursday morning (July 24) and arriving in Seoul Friday evening, with a 4 hour stop over in San Fransisco. I don't know if I'm ready but we've been preparing for the last couple months. I still have a few things to take care of here and I don't even know how the hell to pack for a whole year, I'm sure it'll be tougher for Talor though. More to come...