Happy Holidays!

Hi guys, I just wanted to tell everyone Happy Holidays from Korea. The picture above is of me on Christmas Eve Day at my school. Being one of two male teachers has its advantages, one of them is being asked to play Santa for the first time in my life. Aside from the suit being really hot, it was a lot of fun handing out presents to the kids (their parents had sent in one present per kid to be handed out by Santa) and having them believe I was actually Santa. It was both rewarding and very nostalgic since I hadnt been around people that believed in Santa since I was a kid.

Christmas here was really different, although it is a national holiday, they dont celebrate it the way we do. I only saw two stores that were closed and there were tons of people out and about, not at all like USA. As for the teachers, we all went to a Canadian couples place and ate, drank, told Christmas stories and watched Christmas movies for the afternoon. It was nice and relaxing and the amount of food I consumed felt pretty familiar. I wish I could say I took it easy today, but I spent most of the day setting up my stuff in my third apartment in 5 months. After telling me that I didnt have to move into the new school, it turns out I was lied to so I spent my Christmas Eve moving all my things and today setting them up. The apartment is nice, brand new, but without a lofted bedroom so its a little smaller.

Yes, moving was a pain, but I am going skiing for the weekend so I have that to look forward to. I hope you all had a great Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa and have an enjoyable New Year.

Take care.

The Mormons Ran Away!

These are the empty desks of Jason and Danielle, a young, married couple from Utah who only taught for 2 months. Sometime in the night or early hours of December 16, the two of them packed up all of their belongings, presumably in a nap sack, and hit the road, coming just 10 months shy of fulfilling their contract with Kids College. For people teaching English abroad, this is known as "running," because the people literally flee the country from their employer, an act not unheard of, but certainly not common. To combat this, most schools pay on the 15th of every month for the previous months work, thereby forcing you to give up the first two weeks pay from the current month if you wish to run. This deters most people, but not Jason and Danielle, they had recently fought the school over part of their contract and thought they were entitled to more money. They won the fight, but were told they would be replaced come February as a consequence of challenging the school.

To be honest, no one really shed any tears when we found out, they had been weird people and less than adequate teachers (in my professional opinion) since they arrived. Jason was an arrogant fellow who thought his Masters in Computer Science made him more competent than our managers to interpret contracts. Danielle was simply a victim a circumstance, she made the mistake of marrying Jason and has been paying for it ever since. Alone, she was a sweet girl who was my desk neighbor for a few weeks, but when the two of them were together, they were either all over each other or allowing Jason to speak for both of them. Please dont get me wrong, they were nice enough, just some of their habits rubbed people the wrong way. So yes, they ran away, but no one is really sweating it.

Funny Pictures

As promised, I just uploaded about 20 new, funny pictures, heres a preview:


Click the link to the right to view the rest.

How to know you're making an impact

Many of you may be wondering if Im really helping my kids and making a positive impact in their lives, this video should alleviate your concerns. It stars two of my former students that I do not miss teaching but do enjoy tormenting.

So it (finally) happend...

Whats up guys and girls, this post is about some things that have happened to me recently, both expected and unexpected.

-I finally uploaded some new photos, more than 600 actually, and like always, you can click on the link to the right to view them. I am also going to post some more funny pictures today or tomorrow and that link is on the right, too.

-I finally met someone from Atlanta. I may have mentioned to some of you that I met a kid from Marietta a few months back, and even though I spent my childhood there, Marietta is not the Atlanta I pride myself on being from. However, last weekend, I met a guy that grew up in Virginia Highlands and has been in Korea 7 years. While he didnt remember where Vinings was, he did go to North Atlanta HS which is right by the church that I rarely attended. Nice guy, he came here right after college too, but unlike me, he has no intention of returning and hasnt been back to Atlanta in a few years. Still, it was nice to meet someone from my hometown.

-I (not finally) had to break up a french kiss between two of my male students. Again, some of you may remember my post on being sexually harassed in the workplace. Since then, it has been pretty manageable around here, but today I turned around only to see Hee-gun and Jay kissing with their tongues. Not much more to say really, I yelled at them to stop, to which they laughed, and then I told them it was gross and there was no kissing in my classroom.

-I finally cost my employer money. Ill start from the beginning: I started teaching a new class in November (I posted a photo) that had 12 kids in it, 5 more than any other class I had. Because I was not used to that many 9 year olds, they walked all over me and I spent half of my time trying to get them to be quiet or discipline them. Consequently, we didnt get a lot accomplished the first few weeks and the parents complained and questioned by teaching ability. Now I know what you are thinking - given my incalculable experience and unwavering love for children, where do their parents get off questioning my methods? I am confident their children would follow me into North Korea if I wanted them to, but apparently that doesnt matter, they actually want them to learn some English. The majority of complaints were actually just a result of a difference in teaching style between me and their old teacher. Their old teacher made them write down everything she taught from verbs to practice sentences, but none of my other classes took notes so I assumed that they didnt either. Now, it turns out Koreans like to torture their kids because in addition to the notes, they also complained that I wasnt giving them enough homework. All of these complaints were relayed to me through very confrontational meetings with my boss that made my day very stressful, so I did the only logical thing to get back at the parents, I made their children's' lives even worse. Now, they dont do anything fun, we take notes all class and I give them double the homework I give my other classes. Still, the parents complained about a book that I wasnt given and therefore didnt teach from, but most said they understood the confusion since it was my first month with that class. However, some parents didnt understand and withdrew their kids, decreasing my class size from 12 to 8 and costing my boss about $2000 in tuition. Some teachers would feel guilty about this (I am not the only one losing students) but it makes my job easier so Im just going to accept it and assume their kids couldnt handle my radically advanced teaching methods.

-I finally fell down the stairs to my loft. Yes I had been drinking and yes it hurt, but I still climb those 18 inch wide stairs every night without fear.

Take care everyone, Id love to hear from yall.

English is hard, mmmkay?

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving, mine was great except that drinking tequila doesnt enhance your teaching skills the next day. Live and learn I guess.

This is from an email I received from my coworker, Robyn, entitled "English is hard!" Funny (and interesting) stuff.

Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
Quicksand works slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend. If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? Is it an odd, or an end?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

P.S. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'?

즐거운 추수 감사절*

*Happy Thanksgiving

Escape from Seoul

I got out of Seoul for my first time last weekend. While I love the city, I had been anxious to experience some of Korea's country side so I jumped at the offer by one of my Korean friends, Banff, to travel to the east coast of the country for two days. The east coast is famous for their beaches, and since it is winter, we got an awesome deal on a 2 bedroom, beach front condo, called a pension. Heres how the trip went:

Banff (actual name Sunphil but he studied in Banff, Canada), myself, my friends Sahar and Phil, and the girl I have been dating, Jenna, left Seoul at 2am Friday night so we could arrive at the coast in time to see the sun rise. The drive was easy enough, almost no traffic or police, but since Korea is one of the most technologically advanced countries on Earth, they have installed speed detection cameras, that actually work, about every 5 miles. So, we'd be going along at a comfortable cruising speed, but then have to abruptly put on the brakes so Banff would avoid getting a speeding ticket in the mail. These cameras have eliminated the need for a lot of police on the expressways, but not the desire to maintain the illusion that they are there. To do this, they literally take the blue and red lights from the top of the cop car, bolt them to a pole, and turn them on. So, in addition to slowing for the cameras, we also had to pop the brakes every time we came around a corner and saw flashing lights, only to pass them and realize there was no car attached.

The drive took a little less than 4 hours and we arrived at a Buddhist temple to watch the sun rise over the ocean. The only problem was that is was cloudy that day, so we only got to see the day get lighter, but no sun. The temple we were at was beautiful though, definitely worth not sleeping for. There were also free noodles to be had if we stayed around until lunch time but we were too cold to stick around.


On the way to the pension, we decided to stop at this place called Unification Park where you could tour a decommissioned ship from the Korean Navy and a captured North Korean submarine. Ive never been one to advocate stopping at roadside attractions, but this was definitely worth the 2 dollars we paid to get in. The ship was huge and almost all of it was open to exploration; there was also a lot of interesting history about the naval conflicts between the North and South. On the other hand, the North's sub was cramped to say the least, we all had to wear hard hats because it was not possible to fully stand up. Either the North are all midgets or the people who served on the sub were being punished because there was barely room for two people to walk side by side.


After that, we made it to our pension, which was great except it was 'ondol' style meaning there werent any beds. There were pads though, and it is common for Koreans to sleep on the floor because their heating system is designed to rise from the floor and fill the room. So, it would have been tolerable, except the heat stopped working a few hours after we got there. It actually wasnt that bad since we had a lot of blankets, but obviously would have been nice to have heat. Once there, we just relaxed, walked on the beach, grilled out, and jumped in the ocean. When I found out we would be on the beach, I vowed to get in the water one time. I originally thought Id be the only one, but it turned out I wouldnt be the only bad ass on the trip. In the end, it was me, Banff, Phil, and Sahar that froze for those few seconds of glory in the water.

The highlight of the trip had to be Saturday night, where Banff put on a display to rival any Valentine's day decorations in the history of the holiday. No, it wasnt Valentine's day, but heres what happened (Let me first say that all Koreans are extremely over the top when it comes to showing affection towards friends, what would seem strange to us is normal for them, as you will see): After dinner, Banff left to use the phone, but was gone for close to an hour. When Sahar went to look for him, Jenna said not to interrupt, he was on an important call. Ok, we thought, we were drinking beer so we let it slip to the back of our minds once again. A little later, Jenna gets a text and says lets go find Banff, so we walk outside and Banff has set up about 100 candles on the beach in a heart design. In the middle of the heart was a stuffed bear and two plastic hearts, each about the size a fist; the hearts had the words "From Banff" and "I love you (in Korean)" printed on them. I didnt know what to say, but if I was a single girl, I certainly would have fallen in love with Banff that night. He proceeded to say how much he appreciated us coming and even though hadnt known any of us that long, he was really glad we were all friends. It was really nice, but definitely over the top considering the circumstances. Still, the highlight of the weekend for me.


We left the next day and made it back to Seoul in time for a well deserved nap before my language exchange. Thats right, Im learning Korean and on track to be the first trilingual person you know, more on this to come.

One more thing before I end this - Korean rest stops are incredible. Aside from being stared at like you are the only white person they will see this year, they were really enjoyable and had everything from gas to a food court to batting cages.

New, New, New

As promised, here is a tour of the new school. The audio goes out for some reason, but the tour goes like this: building, reception, my classroom (library), other classroom, gym, offices, teachers room, another classroom, apartment floor, and patio. I think. FYI, the woman you see at the 1 minute mark is my boss and director of the school, Mrs. Lee. Also, my desk is the last one I focus on, at the head of the row.



Along with the new school, I have also received a new class, its E level meaning it meets from 2:30-4:30 every MWF and the kids are about 7 years old. Before this, my biggest class was 7 kids, this one is 12 and they have walked all over me so far.


Also, I have uploaded more than 200 new pictures on my Photobucket page and also some new funny pictures on my Only in Korea page. Links to both are on the right, but heres a preview of the funny ones:
*Note, to get to the new funny pictures, you have to scroll through the old ones for some reason, so dont get discouraged if you recognize the first group.

Ok, Im back

My apologies to everyone for not posting in a while, broken internet paired with a complete lack of motivation forced me to neglect my die hard readers. But Im back now, so lets all try to get on with our lives without holding a grudge.

Things are good in Seoul, winter is fast approaching and I am anticipating the coldest weather I have ever had to live through. Growing up in the South had its advantages like being able to wear flip flops year round and having school canceled at the the threat of temperatures dipping below 32F. However, I am completely unprepared for a serious winter because of it and am not receiving the sympathy I think I deserve. After me, the closest any other teacher has come to living in the South is Chicago, so everyone else is a little less concerned than me and make a point of laughing at my linen pants, Rainbows, and single layer fleece. EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that one of my co-teachers lived in Phoenix for some years and is equally unprepared for the winter. My apologies Robyn, I am confident that we will survive this. The Canadians are even optimistic, preaching that it cant be worse than Canada and that they can survive anything because, of course, they are Canadian. I tell them that personally, I dont recognize Canada as a real country, only a hat that is Americas first line of defense against the North Pole, so shut up.

We have now spent a week in our new school. It is an awesome, completely new building with everything modern and shiny. I, however, must have drawn the short stick and have been downgraded significantly in terms of my classroom. Many of you are probably thinking that it cant be worse than my previous pink room, but trust me, teaching in a classroom that is also the library sucks. Aside from being smaller than my last two rooms, there is no shelf space because of all the books, which consequently prevents any wall space for the things I thought were pretty essential to teaching, like the date and weather posters. My white board has also been cut in half and I am now forced to write on a portable board that is prone to rolling and thereby messing up my calligraphy style writing that I spent so much time learning. Also, since it is the library, other staff and students have the nerve to treat it as such and do not hesitate to enter at any time to look for the latest copy of "Aurthur's Adventures."

Other than my room, the school is really nice. The rest of the classrooms are awesome and the teachers room is huge with a lot of big windows. The first two floors are for the school, but the top floor has about 6 apartments for the teachers. They arent finished yet, but when they are, there will be enough room for 11 teachers which presents a problem because since there are only 15 of us total, the majority of us are going to have to move. While I wouldnt volunteer to move, I wouldnt mind if I had to because like the school, the apartments are really nice with big windows and a a big deck for everyone to enjoy the subzero temperatures. There are also parts of me that dont want to live where I work, but am a little bit excited about going back to the dorms. So, only time will tell, I think we will find out who is making the move towards the end of the month.

Our staff is also finally set for the next few months. Since I got here, I have seen about 8 people leave and 8 new people arrive, but with the departure of two teachers today, there will be no more new teachers until March. For those who are interested, the current total is 6 Americans, 9 Canadians. But do not fear, I have enough red, white and blue propaganda for all of Korea, and guess what, these colors dont run.

Ok, so thats about it for now, expect new pictures and a tour of the new school in the next few days, along with a post about what its like to work in school that puts performance second.

Stay classy, yall.

The Many Faces of Liz

Everybody, this is Liz. If you have looked at any of my pictures, you may recognize her. She is one of my K kids and is also the daughter of my school's accountant. She also may be the slowest girl in the class or possibly the history of Kids College; thankfully, her mom knows that and supposedly apologized to her last teacher for her daughter being so dumb. Ive wanted to write about Liz for some time, but I wanted to make sure that I had pictures that accurately showed her emotions. Also, I am comfortable writing about Liz because it is not a secret that she is slow, along with her Mom, the majority of the teachers I work with know that when she hears "Liz, Liz, LIZ!," she often has to be reminded that they are talking to her. I have a desk right by her mom and at least twice a week, she walks right by us in the morning while we both say "Hello Liz, Good morning Liz, LIZ!" I dont think she has noticed yet, and after a month of us doing it, she still continues to walk right by us and into the classroom.


In the classroom, Liz has three faces: laughter, confusion, and hate. Although this is her second year "speaking English," she could easily fool an observing stranger into believing she doesnt even know where she is. She is notorious for staring into space, not following along in the book and being surprised by her name. On top of that, she is often angry at the most childish things (go figure, right?) I think Kids are mean by nature, all my kids know how to push each others buttons, but they also realize that no one really means it. Not Liz. Whenever a kid even looks at her wrong, she unleashes her patented face of hate. Everyone at Kids College knows what it looks like and now you do, too.


To accompany her face of hate, she also has a famous line that goes something like "I dont like everybody, I only like Mom, Dad, Grandmother...." and the list goes on as she rattles off every name she knows outside of class. She also becomes furious during gym sometimes - my kids are in love with freeze tag, it is their favorite game in the world but only about half of them enjoy being "it." Liz is one of them, but unfortunately, she is not the fastest kid in the class and throws a fit when she realizes she wont be able to tag anyone.


As for confusion, as I mentioned earlier, she is often confused by things as simple as her own name, whether someone is talking to her or not, and what a word is that we have not only been studying for a month, but she has also heard the 5 students say before her. I often feel as if I am not her main teacher, her main teacher is my smartest student, Jake, who I call on often to describe to her, in Korean, what it means to "cut" the picture out.

However, despite all the frustration she causes, she is also adorable. She will laugh at anything she can understand, most commonly the words butt and underwear, which, coincidentally, are the words she uses to answer most questions. She has a fixation with keeping her hands or fingers in her mouth, though she does not suck them, they just rest there, keeping her teeth company. More than once, she has sneezed right in the face of another student, which cracks me up because even after my repeated attempts to teach them to cover their mouths, they have not caught on and still wonder why they (and me) are always sick. Most importantly though, she is eager to please when she knows an answer or how to do something (maybe once a week), so that is the last face I will show you. This is the rare and elusive face of Liz when she knows what she is doing and is from our last field trip when she sang the song "Far and Wide," something she was obviously very excited to do.

Here's some humor for the weekend

The following is a video of my K class dancing to one of their monthly songs, entitled "My Little Pony." Enjoy.

New Pictures - Only in Korea

Ok, Ive added about 150 more pictures to my photo page. New pictures include ones from another hike on Gwanaksan Mountain, a new field trip and others; click on the "Quincy's Pictures" link on the right to view them.

In addition, since my pictures are numbering near 1,000 now, Ive started a new blog to highlight the funniest ones. The blog is titled "Only in Korea" and Ive posted the link on the right. So far, there are about 30 pictures up right now, here's a preview of what to expect, (please keep in mind these pictures are a result of significant cultural differences, translation difficulties, and my crude sense humor, so please dont be offended):

Quite an advertising scheme.

This shirt says "Forever a Lover, Catch me if you can" and is being worn by one of my 9 year old students.

I suspect this is one of the most popular restaurants in Seoul.

Technology is awesome

Ok, so a few people have asked questions on how I keep in touch with everybody, keep up with TV shows and basically stay connected with the west. Ill start by praising my parents for my 22nd birthday present: a new computer. My computer is my lifeline to everything, without it I would be miserable and you all would not be reading this right now. I probably spend at least 2 hours a day on my computer sending emails, watching TV, talking on the phone and even sending text messages. So, the rest of this post is going to fill all of you in on the less obvious websites I use regularly to stay connected.

First, www.Skype.com. I have written about Skype before and honestly wish more of you would get with it already and download their program! Skype allows me to call any phone in the world through my computer at ridiculously low rates. Plus, if you also have the program on your computer, we can talk for free. This is definitely the future of voice communication and there are already ways to use Skype on your cell phone and even wireless handsets designed to work like regular house phones, just through your computer.

Second, www.411sms.com. This website lets me send text messages to any cell phone in the states and receive them as well, all for free. It works just like an IM program and after you log into the program, it works just like you are having an online chat. If you dont have texting on your cell phone, this is definitely a program worth checking out.

Third, www.surfthechannel.com. This website is unbelievable, it has over 300,000 links to movies and TV shows that you can watch online. Since there are only 5 or 6 channels that show programs in English here, I spent a lot of time on SurftheChannel catching up on my favorite shows and watching movies. The great thing is, the day after any movie comes out in theaters or any show is shown on TV, there is usually a link posted so you can watch it ASAP. There are some downsides though, there are no major sports recorded and the quality can be grainy if you want to expand the video to full screen. Other than that, this site is great is you are looking for ANY episode of ANY show or want to watch pretty much every movie ever made.

Thats it for now, expect a similar post in the future about how much more advanced Korean technology is than ours and the cool gadgets everyone has.

Hope this was enlightening and everyone had a good weekend.

New name and updates

First, check out the new name of the blog. Ive always thought "Quincy's Guide to Korea" was kind of lame but never had a better one until now. I went hiking with a friend on Saturday and passed by a kid hiking with his mom, as soon as he saw us he grabbed his moms hand, pointed at us and said "waygookins!" According to my friend, 'waygookin' is the Korean word for foreigner and what we are frequently called so I thought Id try it out as a new title.

Also, I just uploaded almost 200 new pictures, they dont have titles yet but you can still check em out on my picture page.

The Claw Game

Seoul is obsessed with street games and The Claw Game is the most popular one. Its so popular that someone actually invested money to engineer them to be waterproof. Claw machines are on every street corner and outside of every convenience store, I pass about 6 of them on my way to work. One would think that they would be aimed at kids, but I have never seen a kid actually playing one. Instead, its old men that stand at the machines at all hours of the day and night and play with the goal of winning some of the most random prizes ever. While The Claw Games you know are filled with stuffed animals, the ones in Korea are filled with appliances, tools, food, etc... So far, I have seen the following up for grabs:

-Power Drill
-Vitamins
-Socks
-Lighter
-Pen
-Digital Scale
-Flashlight
-Calculator
-Pizza Cutter
-BB Gun
-$2 bill (seriously, see picture)
You get the idea, its pretty random. Apparently, people get addicted to playing (including a former teacher) because its so cheap, the equivalent of 50 cents gets you one play but $10 gets you 60.

Meet the kids

Ive wanted to introduce you all to my kids for a while but its been tough because sometimes Id have my camera and one of them would be sick or theyd all be there and Id forget my camera. But I finally got it all worked out so you can now see the kids with the only southern accents at Kids College.

This is my Kindergarten class and the ones that I see the most of. They are all 4 or 5 years old and I teach them every day from 9:30-2:30. From left to right it goes Grace, Jake (back turned), Sung Joon, Jay, Daniel, Hee-Gun and Liz.

*Note Daniel's pose, hes the one in the middle pointing his butt at the camera, I told you they were obsessed.

This is my E class, they are 5 or 6 and meet every Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30-4:30. From L-R it is Dana, Jason, Melody and Kelley.


This is my S class, they are 9 or 10 and I see them every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 4:30-6:30. These kids are one of the highest levels here and can have fairly in depth conversations with me which is a nice change. L-R it goes Ted, James and Bob.

When was the last time you went on a field trip? (New pics and video, too)

So all the kindergartners and the teachers had a field trip Tuesday morning. We went to an exhibition in Northern Seoul called The 24 Hour Famine that was designed to expose the kids to the suffrage from hunger around the world. It could not have been more poorly planned. The trip was designed to take half a day, with everyone returning around 1230pm. However, it took 45 min to get there which allowed only and hour and a half for organizing and exploring. Most of you can imagine how hard it is to organize 150 5 year olds so when it was all said in done, we were rushed through the exhibit in an hour compared to the other schools that probably took about 2 hours to see everything. Needless to say, there were some unhappy kids on the return ride home as many of them had not gotten to participate in any of the activities.

On top of that, the teaching staff was left mostly in the dark about the plans in the days preceding the trip. No one knew the organization that we were contributing to and therefore had not prepared the kids for what they would see or do on the trip. There was no talk of hunger or famine in the days leading up to the trip. As we were standing around, waiting for the buses to board before we left, the only thing we really knew was that the kids had been collecting money for hunger and were going to donate it wherever we were going. When we arrived, the site was actually pretty cool and we were told it was an old battleground. The grounds were decorated with sculptures, pinwheels, and walk-through tents that either depicted the hardships of living hungry (mostly in Africa) or provided activities for the kids. As a consequence of the lack of preparation, almost all the kids didn't know what to think about the pictures of kids starving and laying the street. Some kids even laughed which was embarrassing for everyone as it appeared every other school there had at least warned their kids about what they would see and instructed them to be respectful. In the end, the only activity my kids did was color a cheap umbrella for them to take home (what that has to do with 24 Hour's mission, I have no idea). We also brought home the parts for mini pinwheels, which we were supposed to make during the last class of the day, but instead they were too complicated and allowed me to harness my rusty construction skills as I put together all 7 of them.

Here's a video from the field trip:



All in all, it was a waste of a field trip, especially considering the coolest part was the trip there and back. As soon as we left the city limits, the highway ran parallel to a water channel about a half mile wide and the bank on our side was protected by double fences with barbed wire and military outposts every few hundred yards. According to the driver and Korean staff on my bus, across the water was North Korea! Pretty cool to be able to see the mountains and even their capital from the road.

Heres a picture of N Korea, you can see the South's Army posts on the right and across the water is a town in the North:


Anyway, I put up new pictures from the last week, including the field trip and North Korea, check 'em out.

Sexually Harassed in the Workplace...

...by the kids.

If I had known that by accepting this job, I would be living out the fantasy of every pedophile on the planet, I would have reconsidered. The things I have seen unfold in my classroom (and Ive only been here a month in a half) are disgusting, troubling, and humorous. They are disgusting because unlike some of you, I dont enjoy seeing half naked kids. They are troubling because it makes me nervous that many of us, myself included, were the same way. With this mind, I dont know whether to worry for what these kids are doing or just accept it as a stage. Finally, most of it is humorous because of the situations that initiate or result from these instances of inappropriateness.

Heres whats happened, mostly in my Kindergarten class, since I got here: I have seen multiple boys engage in what I would classify as make out sessions. Thats right, one boy has kissed two different boys on the lips on two different occasions. According to the video I made of it (joking), it was not open mouth. The same boys have also kissed each others hands as well as my hands.

Twice I have turned around to see everyone in my class pulling their pants away from their stomachs and looking down everyone's. Why? I dont know. Im hoping out of sheer curiosity.

I have also seen the two girls in my class pull their tops up, sometimes at each other and sometimes towards the boys. While I dont think that any of them are entertained sexually by this, they all find it hilarious. Even though both girls have been talked to twice about their actions, I still catch them every once in a while contemplating a third performance.

They all love butts. They love the word, they love their own, they love mine, and they love touching everyone's. Before every picture I take in the class, I have to remind them that it is not appropriate to turn their butt towards the camera. Still, as the pictures show, they insist on flaunting their backside. As for my butt, it has been squeezed, patted, and has narrowly avoided penetration by a 5 year old finger. Again, I pray that this is a stage because I am not getting paid for this.

The most uncomfortable for me, however, occurs in the bathrooms. Every time I use the urinal and there is another boy in the bathroom, he stares at my crotch as I pee. Every time. Its gotten so that I wont go unless I can have the farthest urinal that allows me to angle myself towards the wall and away from the piercing eyes of the kids. The other guy teachers say they dont even use the urinals for this reason, they use the stalls.

The worst, however, has not occur ed in my classroom. Another teacher, Robin, has been here only a day longer than me and she might have the worst class in the school. She has a kid that exposed himself to her once, and when she brought in a Korean staff member to help discipline, the kid threw water on them both. That was not the first time that happened either, the same kid pulled his pants down on his last teacher and tried to pee on him. I have no idea why he hasnt been kicked out yet.

As for the humor side of it, their excuse, at least the kissing boys, is always "I like boys." Because of their limited vocabulary, Im pretty sure they cant express themselves fully, but they are adamant that they like boys, especially when I ask them why they dont kiss the girls. Kids are funny like that. As for what preceded these exhibitions, it seems that it is often a competition of sorts. For the instances involving the girls and everyone looking down everyone's pants, there is usually a slew of Korean spoken right before and then nakedness ensues. What is said, I dont know, but my guess is its something like "look what Ive got."

Have a good weekend everyone!

Meet my coworkers and picture update

Heres a group shot of most of my coworkers from the weekend, we are about to go out for the guy in the middle's going away party.


Also, pics from this weekend and my hike last weekend are up, enjoy.

Gwanaksan: A Mountain's Mountain

When I thought about what I wanted to title this post, A Mountain's Mountain came to mind first, I dont know why or if it works as a title or not, so let me know.

Anyways, for those of you who read the Chuseok post, you will remember that I had a few extra holidays on my hand so I spent Tuesday hiking the tallest mountain in Seoul: Gwanaksan. Gwanaksan is moderately sized mountain in the southern part of the city with about a half dozen peaks that precede the summit. Heres the view from one of those peaks:
When my 3 friends and I started out, we didnt know anything other that what subway stop to get off at. We ended up getting directions fairly easy once we got out of the subway but were directed to the hardest possible route to the top without knowing it. We knew we were in for a hike when we were hiking a very steep concrete slope before the trail even started. While we anticipated the almost 3 hour hike to the top, we did not anticipate the handful of sections where hikers became climbers and we had to use ropes bolted into the rock to prevent us from falling down the face of the mountain. Im not kidding, at least 5 times we had to take hold of thick ropes or heavy chains to keep from falling down a steep slope or off of an almost impassable narrow ledge. The trick is not to look down but I cant say we always followed it. The hardest of these was the last push to the top where we had no more than 6 inches to put our feet on, only a chain to steady us, and then had to hoist ourselves over the last big rock to get to the top.

Although my legs were exhausted the rest of the week, I dont regret a bit of it. Along with some amazing views, it was nice to get above the pollution cloud and experience what so many other Koreans enjoy. The city of Seoul is located in valley so there are mountains, some big and some small, surrounding it and Koreans love hiking, absolutely love it. When we were trying to decide whether or not to attempt some of the roped sections, there were old men and women passing us at a pretty fast pace, one friend said he thought they are part mountain goat (DNA tests are pending). On top of that, they dress the part to the nines. I plan on covering Korean fashion in another post but I will say a few words quickly: whether they are out for a 30 min walk or hiking the biggest mountain Seoul has to offer, they look like they are about to tackle Everest. 95% of the hikers we saw had packs, shirts, pants, and shoes designed for hiking. We felt like the outcasts dressed in the typical North American workout gear of mesh shorts and a t-shirt.

A few cool things we saw on our hike: it was once feared that North Korea would try to surround Seoul and hide in these mountains so the South built bunkers everywhere. They were almost always surrounded with barb wire but occasionally we would see one that had been broken into or collapsed. Heres an pic of an open one:

We also saw about 4 helipads throughout the hike, mostly located on the ridge line. We couldnt read the signs so Im not sure whether or not they are for injuries or the army.

Finally, and perhaps the most impressive, there were people selling things on the mountain! We saw two people with cooler shaped packs that had ascended the same way we had, both of them selling ice cream. We had expected and hoped for water, but I guess the Koreans have their priorities.

Im not embarrassed to say that we took an easier way down, we were all doubtful of returning the same way we had come. The way we took was still an hour and a half and was particularly hard on the knees.

Exhaustion aside, the hike was great and we are going to try another mountain sometime soon, maybe the next weekend. Heres a picture of the survivors:
I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend, Ive had a pretty productive Saturday so far, stay tuned for details.

Happy Chuseok!

Chuseok is a traditional 3 day holiday in Korea to celebrate the harvest. Very similar to our Thanksgiving, people are expected to spend the time with their families and usually travel throughout Korea to be with them. That said, Seoul was pretty dead this weekend. While Chuseok was officially Sunday, a lot of stores and restaurants were closed all weekend and there was a permanent line of traffic leading out of town. Despite the frustration of not being able to find much to eat, I do get Monday and Tuesday off work. Also, I got a very nice Chuseok gift from the moms in my K class: 2 nice bottles of wine from the nicest department store in Seoul (so I hear.)

I have also fixed my blog so anyone can comment on the posts, simply click on the comment button underneath each post and you should be able to write something. I really enjoy hearing from everyone and I do spend a fair amount of time posting updates, pictures, etc so even the littlest feedback, whether email or other, is appreciated. I would like to give a shoutout to Mamma Jean, Charles' mom, she has been my most consistent correspondant, so thank you.

I hope everyone had a good weekend, take it easy.

Picture and Video update, PLUS the myth of "fan death"

First, I have uploaded more pictures and videos. The videos include some popular and humorous Korean exercises, plus tours of my new school and apartment. Also, every picture now has a title so you know what you are looking at. Click on Quincy's Pictures or Quincy's Videos to the right.

Ok, to end this post, I want to talk something that terrifies all Koreans: fan death. I found out the other day, while talking about differences between N. America and Korea, that practically all Koreans believe in the myth that sleeping with a fan on while all your doors and windows are closed is SUICIDE! Thats right, even educated Koreans, and I talked to two of them, believe that sleeping in a closed room or apartment with a fan on will cause death by suffocation. Fans are even manufactured in Korea with a timer so you can avoid falling asleep with the fan on and consequently certain death. When we joked to our Korean friends (both of whom studied here and in Canada,) that we were going to go home and sleep with out fans on, the honestly pleaded with us not to for fear of our lives.

Now I know what you are thinking, how can anyone (regardless of education) believe this? But according to Wikipedia (Fan Death), even medical professionals have accpeted this myth and their government claims that "asphyxiation from electric fans and air conditioners" was among South Korea's five most common seasonal summer accidents or injuries, according to data they collected.

Be careful out there.

Notice anything different?

So about 30 minutes ago, I was about to jump in the shower and thought to myself, "My beard could use a little trim." So, I got out my trimmer, that I have only had since July, and get to work. After a minute, I noticed that it wasnt trimming as well as it usually did and that I was having to go over places again and again to get them fully trimmed. I wasnt worried though, I just thought that maybe my hair was thicker than usual and that it may take a little longer this time, no problem. Then, 1/3 of the way done, the blades seize up as if on strike, refusing to trim anymore. So I tinker with it, change the batteries, take apart the blades, but to no avail. It was then I realized I had two choices, get a new trimmer after school tomorrow and go the entire day looking like an idiot, or shave it all off with my electric razor.

The picture shows how the story ends, but I thought it was pretty funny and that some of you who have seen me the last 6 months with my beard would enjoy it. But dont worry, the beard will be back and I plan on buying some industrial, Korean clippers to tame it.

New teachers, new school, and new apartment

Ok, so Ive been at my new apartment and school for a little over a week so I thought Id fill everyone in on how it was going. First, the school: The new school is great for a lot of reasons, the best being the staff and proximity to my apartment. When we merged schools, we also merged the staff and students (most of them anyway) meaning I now work with twice as many native English speakers. If you can remember back to my first birthday weekend post, that was the first time I had met any of the new staff, and after a week, I am still amazed that everyone I work with is so easy going and easy to get along with. With the addition of the 3 new teachers this week (more on this later), I think our teaching staff is now up to 12, maybe 13. The new school is about 1/3 bigger than the last, with more office/desk space and more classrooms. The school is divided between two floors with the majority of classrooms on the 2nd floor and most of the offices on the first. My desk and classroom are on the first, along with 3 other teachers'. Heres a brief tour of my floor and classroom:



In terms of proximity, I only have to walk 10-15 minutes from my apartment to reach the school compared to a 20min drive to the first one. Also, there a lot more restaurant options around the new school so its a lot easier to not eat Korean for lunch if you dont want to.

Like I said, we have 3 new teachers this week, a couple and another girl, all from Canada. Nationality aside, they all seem really nice and a few of us actually had dinner with the couple last night (they were 5 hrs off the a 13hr flight but were still pretty coherent). Their arrival has promoted me from the new guy to someone with a little more experience and it was nice to be able answer their questions and give a little advice, even though Ive only been here a little over 3 weeks.

Ok, so about my apartment: it is a huge step up from my original one and even closer to the action in my neighborhood. It has a lot of perks including a semi-patio, bigger washer, bigger bed, and a lot bigger living room. I did sacrifice a bigger TV, but its not really a problem since I only get 4 channels in English. Its hard to describe how its set up so just check out the video of it:



Thats it for now, more pictures and videos coming soon!

The wonder of Skype

For those of you who dont know, Skype is a Voice Over IP (VOIP), which means it is a way for me to call people over the internet. It is a program that allows me to type a number into my computer and use it as a phone to call everyone for less than 3 cents a minute. This is good for you for two reasons. First, I can call the USA for very cheap, and two, if you choose to download Skype (for free) we can talk for free between our two computers. Thats right, as long as you have Skype loaded onto your computer, you can talk to anyone else with Skype on their computer for FREE. Here is the link for Skype, the instructions are pretty simple, but if you have any questions, just email me.

Skype

Birthday Weekend Continued

Ok, so I woke up Saturday feeling a little hungover but I decided to get out of my apt and go to Itaewon, the main foreigners district in Seoul. According to my friends, this is where you go when you want a little taste of America and while I wasnt looking to escape Korea just yet, it definitely lived up to its name. As soon as I stepped out of the subway, I saw a lot of non-Koreans, including black people! Now you all know Im not a racist, but after spending the majority of my life in Atlanta and Charleston, African Americans are just something I got used to seeing and had been without since I got here (save the occasional random one). Anyway, along with black people, there were tons of white people and tons of english being spoken. I was greated in every store I walked into with english which was really nice after 3 weeks of cultural immersion. Stores I saw included Nike and Reebok, Columbia Sports, The North Face, Quiznos, Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC, Subway and the most patriotic of all: American Diner. The other stores, however, were mostly Korean and Im pretty certain are the souce of all knock off goods that reach the states. Im serious, along ever street, down every alley, and on every corner were stores or booths selling all types of designer goods. I didnt end up buying anything but had lunch at Subway, which combined with hearing english for a couple of hours made a pretty good afternoon.

When I got back to my neighborhood, I decided to meet up with some fellow teachers at a bar nearby called Party Bar. This bar is hillarious, not only is it a dive by American standards, their decorations do not translate into Party at all. We walked in and I had to stop for a second to look around at the walls: the primary theme seemed to be western with pictures of cowboys and indians all over, but they also had old license plates, outdated penants from old teams and an electronic dart board, which was the most modern thing about it. Decorations aside, we ended up having a great time playing darts and listening to American music. I met one of my friend's Korean friends names Bamf (I dont know why) who had studied in Canada so his english was pretty good. He was also a pretty competitive dart player and won us a few rounds from his victories. This is a friend of Bamf's and his shirt may have been the highlight of the night, it says "Peace up, A-Town down" (for Atlanta) and was given to him by this Korean artist, Crown J, who sings a song called "Too Much A". Check it out:


When 1 oclock rolled around, the two teachers I was with said they were tired and were going home to bed, I told them that was cool and I was just going to finish my drink and then do the same. However, when they left, I ended up going to a Karaeoke bar with Bamf and his friends and butchering some songs by the Beatles, which was alright because Bamf was the only one that could understand the words and I dont think he knew the Beatles. All in all a fun night, a little more low key than Friday but fun nonetheless.

I moved apartments Sunday and school Monday so my next post may be about those transitions, hopefully complete with pictures.

New pictures and VIDEOS!

New pictures are up and I have also opened up a YouTube account so you can now view videos. I will link YouTube on the right under the pictures or you can click here to see them: YouTube.

Birthday Weekend

Ok, as many of of you knew, (and many didnt), Friday was my birthday so this post is about my celebratory weekend. A quick note before I start, while I turned 23 "American," I was 24 in Korean years because everyone in the country automatically gets a year older January 1st. Weird, I know. Also, my camera has been out of batteries so my personal pictures of this weekend are non-existant but I will get the ones from my friends and post them soon.

So I want to start by saying (again) how awesome the teachers are that I work with. I have not known them more than 2 weeks but they put together some funny decorations and a big dinner for me which was totally unexpected. When I got into the bus on Friday, there were the always appreciated "Happy Birthdays" which are always appreciated but as soon as I sat down, the driver, Mr Na, who knows practically no English, handed me a box and said "Happy Birthday." Inside was a charm for my cellphone (whether for a male or female, they are big here and accepted, trust me) that was a little cloth square, almost like a mini pillow, with a mirror on the back attached to a string to go on the cellphone. Im not sure how much use it will get but it was a big deal for him to even get me anything.

When we get to school, on the door to the teachers loungs/offices, there is a big piece of poster board with the words Happy Birthday Quincy written on it and a blown up picture underneath. I recognized the picture immediately, it was from College of Charleston's Alumni Ball that I went to this past May. The picture is me with my arms around my girl friend, Holly, and good friend, Alexis, only in this picture their faces had been replaced with faces of two teachers I work with. Again, I will need to post a picture, but it was really funny. The rest of the day was uneventful, but we had dinner reservations at On the Border that night.

I know what you are thinking, why eat at an American Mexican chain when we are in Seoul? I wondered the same thing but the teachers said it was a good place because they had lots of room and there was something everyone could enjoy. Turns out they were right because my meal was great and we needed the extra room becuase 25 people showed up, about 10 of which I didnt even know. The unknowns were friends of friends and teachers from the other campus (whom I work with as of today) and were all really nice and I appreciated meeting new people. So, after everyone had some tequila and a good, American-style, Mexican dinner, we went back to Gangseo-Gu, the district we all live and work in.

The first place we went to was this bar called Miller Time that served American beers and overlooked the nightlife of the streets below (it was on the 2nd floor). We didnt stay long there and instead opted to go to a nightclub nearby that everyone had heard about but no one had gone to. When we get there, we immediately walk down some stairs, like we are going into the basement. When we get about 1fl down, we are met by music and two large Koreans in suits and sunglasses. They quickly usher the girls we are with past a velvet rope and down more stairs and then, (Im not kidding), they give all the guys in line orange juice boxes. So, we are all drinking these juice boxes and end up waiting about 10 min and then we are led down the stairs and into this huge, dark room with a stage at one end and tables filling up the rest. The tables are designed to seat 8, but they only put 4 of us at each table. We see the girls as we are being sat so we dont really worry about why half of the table is open. As soon as we sit down, a waiter comes over and takes drink orders and when those come, another waiter comes but instead of drinks, he is leading two Korean girls and sits them at their table. It was then that we realized what type of club this was and a Korean friend described it as a "forced social situation." What that means is that men and women come here to meet eachother, nothing sexual, but it is the staffs duty to make sure as many people mingle with as many other people as possible. So, we tried to make the best small talk with could, which is difficult with none of the guys at my table knowing Korean and none of the girls knowing english. This went on for about 3 different sets of girls and it was just getting tedious to know that you cannot speak to these people and the point of these clubs is to meet new people, meaning we were not supposed to sit with the girls we came with. They, on the other hand, had better luck and said they were introduced to a few guys who spoke very good english which sounded like a lot more fun that what happened to the guys. Anyway, we left soon after that and it was late and I was exhausted from teaching 11 classes that day so most of us went home. Some people went to a Karaeoke bar but I was not part of that adventure so I cannot write about it.

A funny note about the club before I wrap this up, the MC on the stage was supposedly famous and would play a song and everyone would dance and then he would do about 5min of standup comedy which seemed to be funny based on the laughter. An interesting combination.

So thats Friday, I promise I will write about Saturday soon.

Meet Kate

Alright everyone, I want you to meet my friend, Kate.
We know eachother from Atlanta and she is currently in Scotland and nearing the end of a trip that we can all be jealous of: 15 countries in 120 days.

I am linking her blog to the right side of the page, click on it there or here and enjoy her adventures with her, there are a lot: WorldWideKate

Kids are complicated (many of you already know this)

On the bus ride home the other day the teachers were talking about how teaching will help you be a better parent. While I agreed, I also know that it has made me appreciate my parents, teachers, and anyone who has taken care of me. After seeing how stressful these miniature humans can be I just want to say thanks to my Mom and Dad, my teachers, and to anyone who was fortunate enough (or unfortunate depending on the day) to take care of me.

As a note before I continue, the following names are not their traditional Korean names, but are instead names given to them when they enroll because it does not look good when their teachers cannot pronounce their real ones. I think its funny that these kids adopt a different name every time they come through our doors because the ones teaching them English cannot figure out their proper ones.



This is Daniel, he is one of K kids and the most non responsive, non participative kid I teach. He also gives the most hugs so even after he stares at me with his blank eyes as I ask him again and again and again to get off the table, I find it hard to be mad at him when he gives me hugs for no reason. Seriously, he will randomly get off the floor, out from under the table, off the table, or walk up to me before or after class and hug me and say nothing. Its weird because what I call punishment for not participating or more commonly not listening to me he interprets as a vacation. Because of this, I end up with him sprawled out on the floor like this when he has to sit on the floor in front of the class. Daniel isn’t a trouble maker, just a pain in the ass sometimes when its my job to get everyone to participate he just wants to sit under the table.


This is Eric, he is the polar opposite of Daniel and loves to answer questions, follow directions, and lead the others. The only problem is that Eric loves to play with himself. I wont go into too much detail but a few times a day I have to say “Eric, HANDS!” and he will immediately bring his hands from under the table to on top of it. I plan on breaking him of this habit or hope it will pass with time but the first time I caught him was priceless, we were in computer class and when I noticed what he was doing I told him to stop immediately. This apparently startled him because he rearranged himself so quickly that he scraped his leg on the desk and when he told me he hurt himself and wanted to go to the sick room, I told him he could but he would have to explain how it happened (to the nurse). He managed to stick it out the rest of class. Aside from that, he has been great though. He always sits down when told, is the best reader and is always the first to raise his hand.

The things I have the most problems with in my K class is their energy (obviously) and their use of Korean. They know they are not allowed to speak Korean in class, they also know that I don’t understand even the vocabulary of someone half their age so occasionally they will get in trouble for using it. Trouble and punishment usually consists of sitting in front of the class for a bit, decreased gym or music time, or heads on their desk for a while. When it gets really bad I bring in one of the Korean workers and they say something magical in Korean that Im sure includes the threat of bodily harm because this always shuts them right up for the rest of class. Usually though, they can be controlled with a point/bribery system started by my predecessor that rewards good behavior with points that can result in a prize at the end of the week. If they are bad, subtract points; good, add points, simple and pretty effective. Like I said, this typically works for everyone except Daniel who is motivated only by the voices in his head.

As for my other classes, they are less stressful because they are older, understand more, and realize when I am really angry. They are not, however, above crying. Even something as simple as taking their pencil away because they would not listen resulted in a temper tantrum and the quote (directed at me) “I will not cry when you leave.” Kids minds are a funny thing because the next day everything was fine as if they had forgotten about the crying. Even with the discipline the majority seem to like me, the boys love to give me high fives and I have even received a ring off a girls finger as a “present” (it was plastic, not even C-Z) and been told by another teacher that I am a girls first crush (she gets butterflies in her stomach when she sees me). True love I say, Im still waiting to hear her reply.
Oh, and on top of all that, they think I am the hairiest human to walk the planet. I exaggerate of course, but its funny because Asians are notorious for their lack of body hair while my arms, legs, and face are covered with it. A couple of funny things they have said to me: “You have so much fur on your face” and “Why do you have a beard on your arms?”

To conclude this post, here is a picture of one of my kids rubbing my leg is disbelief, hope all is well and I love hearing from you all:

PICTURES ARE UP! - UPDATED

Ok, I finally got most of my pictures uploaded, here is the link:

http://s535.photobucket.com/albums/ee360/quincylsmith/

Also, if you look at the top right of this page, you will see a new section of the blog entitled "Links" where you can also find the link to my pictures. I will use this section to add other websites that I find interesting or that have more stuff from Seoul (for example, a link to my YouTube page when I get it up). So, whenever you want to see any pictures, all you have to do is click the link to the right.

UPDATE: My apartment ARE NOW UP!

I also have the capability to post pics directly to my blog, heres an example:




This should be my K class during their arts and crafts class, we made "hand fans."

So Im moving, twice

So yesterday at school I was offered the chance to move apartments to a bigger one that is "a huge step up. " After talking to the people that are about to vacate (they are teachers about to finish their contract) I took the offer. While my apartment isnt that bad, theirs is a huge loft with high ceilings and a bigger bed (because they were living there as a couple). Also, they said they would leave all the furniture and everything that was in the fridge and cabinets. So, while Im really excited about having a nicer and bigger place, it means that I will still not have regular Internet or TV for another week.

Also, my Kids College campus is closing, so I, along with everyone else, will be moving to one of the other campuses after this coming week. After Sept, there will be a brand new and supposedly really modern new building opening up that everyone (both campuses) will be moving into. The good news is that both places are really close to where most of the teachers live so instead of having to ride the bus every morning I will be able to walk 10 min if I want. The bad news is that everything is in the process of being packed up so it has been even harder to to find the things I need to teach.

Its now Sat afternoon and I went to Costco this morning with two teachers and got a bunch of stuff that is hard to find in the neighborhood stores. I picked up some Honey Nut Cheerios , ravioli and sauce, sandwich meat, cheese, and some granola bars. Tonight Im going with a fellow teacher to one of the foreign neighborhoods for a bar opening party that is being thrown by a friend of my recruiter. My recruiter is a Canadian who is the essentially the mediator between my school and me and helped place me in my job. According to the invitation the majority of people there will be teachers so Im looking forward to meeting some more Americans and Canadians. Dont worry, Ill be safe!

Thats about it, hope all is well in the States. Still no pics, sorry, I promise Im working on it.