So much

I'll start where everyone is wondering. Yes, I met a nice guy, yes we get along, no i don't know what's going to happen. I'm leaving and we both know it so we're just enjoying the first and last week we have together, or rather the few hours in between his work/training LOL.
Now to other things. I cried about 10 times in the last 12 hours! I thought I had crid so much last nite that I wouldn't cry at school but silly me. I made it about 20 min. I ate lunch,hugged the lunch lady walked into the teachers room and myviceprincipal said "I won't be here when you finish so i'll say goodbye now" He shook my hand and told me thanks for teaching and he'll miss me and good life and I started to tear up. 3 of the teachers saw me. i pulled it together went and taught/played with the frist grade. The teacher came in and saw us playing, watched then left Of course the kids started fighting 5 min after he left one of the kids ran to get the teacher but they stopped finally and I distracted them with another game. Crazy 1st graders. 2nd grade never showed up so I cleaned and took down all the decorations. Mentor teacher took me to say bye to the principal and he said thanks for coming and I was a good teacher and gave me a box with a few gifts in it and I started tearing AGAIN. Then administration ladies saw me and got said we'll miss you faces and I started tearing even more then my students came looking for me so I cleaned up in the bathroom. Then one of the teachers brought me coffee and they all told me to calm down and they'll miss me and all that. I got up to go teach but then the 3rd graders came in the teachers room and I couldn't look at them without tearing they came over and hugged me and said teacher don't cry which of course made it worse. Then finally one girl wanted to take a picture and told me "you must stop crying because you don't look good" so i laughed and took pictures then went to teach the 4th graders. We played and I said bye, cleaned up the classroom for the last time and went to get my things. Hugged the secretary shook hands with all the teachers and started walking away, one of the teachers gave me a ride to my town and I walked the rest of the way home, it was nice to walk, it calmed me down long enough to get through my apartment door before I started crying for real for like 5 min. I think I'm ok now for a lil while. I gotta finish packing and figure out if I'm throwing away or sending home all the stuff that can't fit in my luggage. Someone needs to come over and take some of this stuff! I think I'm going to cry once a day til I leave. I know I'll cry when I leave my Korean family, forsure!
P.S instead of everyone saying "you should come back to visit" or "yo should get another teaching job" or "I hope to see you again" people are telling me "you need to marry a Korean man so you can stay" LMAO ... I LOVE KOREANS

Excited to come, happy to stay and sad to leave.

It's 12:30am and I couldn't sleep cuz I was crying. It's not that I don't wanna go home but I don't wanna leave either. I'm so grateful I was able to have this experience. I'm thankful for everyone who put up with and/or helped me. I'm not even upset at the ppl who wronged me. All I know is that in 2 weeks it'll all be over and I'll be sitting in a room wondering if I was really on the other side of the world. I know it won't seem real, it will always seem like a dream. Not in the sense that everythihng is perfect here but just the thought that I would have the opportunity to live in Korea for 5 months and that it actually happened is unbelievable. I still have 7 more days of class but already I'm crying thinking that I'll prolly never see my kids again. It's also strange to think that even if I could put my feelings into words I can't tell any of my teachers how I feel lol. I still have strong classroom jealousy and wish my teachers woulda spent more time with me, but I understand why and wouldn't trade my school with even the nicest ones I've seen.
The vice principal sits facing all the teachers in the teacher's room. I still think I see amusement in his eye everyday when I say hello in Korean. I appreciate that he attempted conversations with me those two times he brought me home, even though it puts him at a vulnerable position. I know he genuinly worries about me especially when it started to get cold. Even without words I felt his fatherly care.
I can't help but smile when I think of the 1st grade teacher. He was everyone's grandpa. I'll miss seeing him play and joke with the kids, or help them finish the last of their lunches. I admire that the kids love him but he was also not afraid to punish them. He also treated me like a granddaughter without babying me. I looked forward to seeing him because he almost always spoke to me even if it was in Korean and we both knew I didn't understand. He made me smile everyday especially when he started yelling at me for not speaking Korean.
Tim's mom and the office administrator was so bubblely and smiley. I don't know how she handles the energy her boys have but they are all so sweet when they calm down. (and super smart!). I can't wait to see what they become...if i ever get to.
I'll miss the "oh, you made it here again, good to see you" looks from the 2nd grade teacher. I'll miss seeing the 1st graders trying not to be seen rushing through the halls with their hands folded behind their backs. I'll miss not hearing "victoria teacher" 500 times a day. I'll miss walking into my classroom never having a clue what i'll find or who will pop out from under tables, or out of cabinets LOL. I'll miss the school wide tag/hide and go seek games. I'll miss seeing Mary and Peach's matching outfits and the pretty lil Sopia and Isabel who look like twins but everyone swears they're not related.
I'll most def miss the lunch lady, she always so happy to see me and cooks such wonderful things. The school nurse too both take care of me the best they can, always shovig extra food at me! And everyone who knows me knows that's the easiest way to make me happy.
There's just so much that I feel like I'm leaving. I know no one will really miss me, there will always be another English teacher, another foreigner in the strange building or at the bus stop but it doesn't bother me. I'm just glad that Korea opened it's doors to me. The TaLK program was to better educate the Korean people but I feel like I've learned so much more than I taught anyone. I can't believe I'm gettin paid for this! I'm just so grateful.

I was excited to come, happy to stay and sad to leave.

Korea

I've noticed a few things in Korea and know I'll miss things so figured I'd start a list.
1. Kimchi - love it now, still think it's strange but can't go a week without it.
2. Shiny things - Koreans love to shine! Shiny suits, hair clips, puffy jackets, shoes, everything
3. Spicy stuff - they eat hot peppers dipped in chilli sauce... often. Nothing more to say.
4. Hot stuff - the soup is served boiling and it's finished 5 min after it touches the table! how u eat boiling stuff? no idea, i thought it was physically impossible.
5. Soju - everyone drinks it, all the time. it's cheap, makes friends, lets ppl have more fun and speak english, magic stuff!
6. Heated floors - even though it takes longer to heat a room they're amazing
7. Parking - it's where ever u feel like it. Don't have to pay for it, doesn't even have to be a spot. U can park on the sidewalk, in the middle of an intersection, middle of the road, doesn't matter.
8. Crazy buses - I'm not sure they teach drivers how to use the clutch when driving cuz the gears grind like crazy. Also they drive like the buses can't flip over. Which brings me to #9
9. Random speed bumps - couldnt understand why there were speed bumps in the middle of country roads or empty roads til i started riding the bus. It's so the drivers don't kill people!
10. Bang obsession - 90% of girls and 80% of boys have bangs! It's to make their faces look smaller but my goodness! The k ajust is a must when walking by any reflective surface. The girls run holding their bangs down! It's ridiculous.
11.You die! - Playing games is fun because A: there's always punishment involved like gettin flicked in ur forehead or slapped on the wrist or pounded on the back. and B: you never lose a game... you die!
12. Lunch time - eating at school is great! The teachers eat with their class and the students must eat all their food and show their empty tray to the teacher before gettin permission to leave. I wish American schools were lik that (if they served better food).
13. Quipta - Koreans are cute ALL the time. The only Koreans i've seen in public with out a complete outfit on are the bums. The boys not only wear clothes that fit but they dress like they have a job. The girls dress like they're going on their first date all the time. It's crazy but it also is making me scared to go home. I hate seeing people looking bummy all day every day.
14. Konglish - the English craze it literally crazy, i wish they would tone it down but I do love Konglish and seeing English mistakes or just off the wall things written on shirts, especially when ajumas are wearing them.
15. Saving Face - I LOVE that Koreans are fake (to a certain degree). Theyare generally respectful and secretive about their personal issues. Everyone either ignores you or is super nice. Everyone does their best to appear good, nice, perfect, put together and pleasing. Makes friendship more special and life easier.
16. Fireworks on the beach - what a great idea, there's a million places to buy fireworks and a bunch of people fire them off and it's so much fun.
17.Teacher - I love when my kids call me Victoria teacher or say anything and throw teacher in like "ok, teacher" or "teacher whyyyyeeee" or "teacher..umm..hello how are you? I'm fine. and you? fine. Bye teacher" or my new favorite "HiAnnyonghaseyo, teacher!"
18. Muli-yo and nei- they're just amazing phrases to learn and will get u through any situation.
19. Korean bathrooms - so easy to clean, amazing set up if u live alone. A lil frustrating when ur in a rush and get ur socks wet cuz didn't bother with slippers.
20. Late closing time - closing time is 6 not 5 like in the states AND a lot of places stay open til 10pm AND fun places stay open til 6am not 2am like in the states!!!
21. Cheap transportation - I LOVE CHEAP BUSES, TAXI, and TRAIN rides! I travel every weekend and am not broke! AMAZING!
22. KPOP - so catchy, fun, interesting, mixes so much stuff together. I'll miss hearing it blasting from phone and beauty stores.
23. Delievery - everyone even McD's delievers! Some places even bring a tray with dishes and stuff and when you're finished u just leave it in your apartment hall and they come pick it up!
24. No tip - eating out is fairly cheap and there's no tipping. Service industry is amazing and ther's no tipping! Makes going out that much more fun.
25. LPM - like the Korean TJMaxx but better cuz they sell everything and funnier stuff.

There's a bunch more but I'm tired and need to sleep so i can wake up early and work on lesson plans.

Procrastinating again

Haven't written in 2 weeks i think. Someone on skype said they read it and it reminded me that it's about time for a new post... I'm supposed to b writting lesson plans that I haven't typed up in 2 weeks so figured I'd blog instead.
My open class went well. i was super nervous when the teachers showed up WITH a video camera! But it went really well. They said they liked me a lot at the meeting we had after. SOOO much has happend in two weeks soo much so:
Thanksgiving I went to Gumi's Waeguk Cook for a thanksgiving dinner. Arrived at 7:30 and didn't eat until 10pm so u know i was upset and starving. They ended up running out of food there were so many ppl and the electricity in the kitchen blew. Ended up calling off school on Friday cuz I knew we weren't gonna make it back home. Hung out and went out in Daegu all weekend. Almost missed school on Monday, hot mess I know!
I went out for dinner and drinks every day the rest of the week. It was my Korean friends bday tue, then went to a moder dance performance wit Joyann, Ana and Daehwan. Next day headed back to Gumi for another bday party. Ended up gettin my jacket stolen at one of the bars and just to make things fun I had left everything important in said jacket! I always always take my phone and cards out of my jacket and put them n my pocket but didn't that nite and so everything was gone. I had no phone, bank card, ARC, student ID, bus card, apartment key..nothing. Had to borrow a jacket but we all went to Busan anyway. These nice friends paid for my food and stuff for the rest of the weekend. Such a crazy weekend! Bday girl ended up with a briuse on her forehead lol. Someone tried to sell me off to a crazy old Korean man as his wife. They even told himI was the princess of Quebec or something! The man not only followed us to the train station but bought a ticket to go back with us and found a nun so he could find a place for us to get married!! Stalked me on the train i had to hide for an hour. Finally made it back. They started cookin, steak, ribs, potatos, corn, greens and brownies. I couldn't resist so i ended up stayin Sunday nite instead of going home. Some of us were watching tv in the living room when we heard a loud boom. (we were watching jarhead so we thought it was a bomb from N.Korea) we yelled to the ppl in the kitchen but they didn't answer. Found out it was the stove. Still dangerous but we hood LOL anyway...Next moring jumped on a bus home and realized i didn't have my key, my landlady was no where to b found so i had to go to school that day with all my bags frm the weekend and without putting myself together or havin my lesson plans!
Today had a great day at school. Did a money/shopping lesson, it was so cool. And i went to dinner with Daehwan and Hyo Ju I'ma miss those two soosoooo much! I'ma cry when I have o say bye and I hope they come and visit me.
Tomorrow Dr.Koh comes to Pohang to visit us, check up and hopefully not yell at me for ignoring class stuff. I'm still looking forward to dinner. I'm so happy I was allowed to have this experience and thankful to her for putting it together. I don't think home will be the same and I'll miss here so much. I've caught the travel bug. Worldwide and locally. Traveling every weekend here made me realize it is possible. Even though in the states it's much more expensive. I just can't stand being home or in one spot for too long. (the spain trip i was looking at before Korea is still open and I'm def doing that one or coming back to Korea.)

Diversity

So I never thought about it before I came here but... Korea is filled with Koreans. Korean food, music, people, everything. I like the way Koreans think more so than Americans, i think it's closer to how I think. But I miss seeing other people sometimes. I haven't been annoyed being stared at all the time, sometimes I wish they wouldn't but I understand especially in my area I might be the first foreigner they've ever seen. I grew up seeing international people, having ELL in my classes and stuff. Never thought the rest of the world is just one ethncity. Kinda weird thinking that you could grow up with ppl that all looked, thought and acted like you. Either way I won't be surprised if Korea takes over the worlld. I mean they make all kindsa stuff from nothing. No resources, no space and thy have a ton of ppl who are dedicated workers...just saying.
I think I could stay in Korea for a long time if 1.) I put more effort into actually learning Korean 2.) I found a good place to Salsa 3.) Could find a place close by tht had music that I miss like reggae/soca stuff 4.) Got more connected with friends.
I'll def com back if I get a chance. I can't believe I'm thinking about home already but it's mostly cuz of school. Tryin to get that together is a headache! There's still so much that I want to see and do! I haven't even gotten to go on a date with a real Korean LOL. 6 moreweekends and only 2 that don't have anything planned. I gotten make it back to Daegu to buy stuff I want and see friends, I wanted to go to Seoul to see the kids I used to tutor but getting i contact with them is proving more difficult than I thought. Anyway I'm procrastinating from writing my lesson plans for my open class next week. I gotta turn it in tomorrow and do my lesson plans a week in advanced. I think they caught on that I'm slacking. i think I forgot to turn in a few days of plans when the printer was broken. Not to mention i kinda wing it a lot. I know I'm not the best teacher, I just hate having to come up with new stuff every day with out having a goal to work toward. Like if I knew what they wanted to teach or learn it'd be easier. Oh well.

Lotte weekend

My plans for Everland got canceled so Friday on the bus home I talked to Gina nd decided to go to Lotte World with her. Had half hour to grab stuff and get a taxi to the train to Cheonan. It was miserable, I was hungry, tired, had a headache from all the tunnes and pressure changes. longest ride ever. Finally got there ate and Natassia told me she doesn't turn on her heat! It was so cold, i was on the cold floor, couldn't sleep. Got up to catch our 9:30 bus which never came apparenty it was broken. The ticket lady said another one was coming at 10:15 so we got breakfast came back at 10 saw a bus pullin off and a lady told us that was our bus. N flipped out at the ticket lady but she wouldn't change our tickets or understand English. An hour of fighting and a few people tryin to help we finally got on a diff bus that was also half hour late, took the 2 hour ride to Seoul but realized Gina and them were at a diff station. It took another 20 min to figure out wherethey were and how to get there. But i'm gret wit maps so we finally got there and still couldn't find them, went to Lotte World ate, they came and met us. We had a few hours of fun. They had rides like at cear Point which was awesome, power tower, max air stuff like that. It was like a mini Disney too. Went back on the bus slept on the cold floor left around 12 stood for 3 hours to Gumi, made a Korean friend though. Met up wit Keitha took a nice hot shower felt better, went shoppin at the store on post they were out of Swiffers! So mad but got some american candy and dish soap at least. Hang out ate wit a few friends went to Norebong, got back to Keitha's late, ate chicken yum slept woke up early again to make it home but called off work cuz i didn't feel good, rested and chilled all day. Nothin I cooked came out rite though so I'm soo lookin forward to Korean lunch tomorrow! I'm going back to bed!

Just knowing and Good Girls

Just sayin: You can find good girls in the club. You won't see that side of them there because they purposefully left the good girl part at home. So believing you found love at the club is balogna. If u meet someone wh is willing to see u again outside of the club and you happen to work things out then, then great. Don't go expecting to find a girlfriend or boyfriend or someone to care about. Don't assume the person you saw at the club who u also see the next day helping the old people is a fake. Good people like to let go, dance, go out, have a good time too.
Me? I like to go out, I love topeople watch, i love to dance, I love the game, But i'm also super logical which means I don't get drunk, I don't give out my number and I don't make many bad decisions so if you see me at the club you prolly shouldn't talk to me LOL

N E Way..

I found an old break up convo today and another really sweet convo from another bf last week. I'm glad I save these things cuz it not only reminds/teaches me about me but always makes me think. In most of my emotional conversations I've had with people about relationships I've always just said "I just know. I don't know why but I do." It used to worry me because I beleved my feeling of knowing wether or not that boy was rite for me at that time in my life and didn't know why but it has always seemed to be right. Only in my last relationship did I realize that feeling was the Holy Spirit. I'm so glad that's my logic and I'm not a highly emotional person. I know what's right and wrong and I make mistakes or choose things knowing how they'll turn out majority of the time. I hav't had many surprises when it comes to relationships. I've always seen things coming. I've dated knowing things wouldn't worked out. Does that make me a bad person? Cuz I also feel like I made them a better person and it was fun while it lasted. I hate to hurt people but is it okthat I get attached and let ppl get atached to me knowing that in the end we're not going to be serios? I make a point to do my best to better the ppl who let me in their lives, especially if they care about me. Idk just thinkn out loud

My Students

I was looking at the pics I took of my kids when I first got here and I realized I'ma miss the lil boogers when I leave. I'm always happy to see them after the weekend and on the playground. They're so fun and cute and crazy. I won't missall the screaming, running, jumping and general phyconess of class but I doubt I'll remember that after a month or two. I won't forget the kids though. We played a game like jepardy so they had to say a category and then 100-500 level. Billy kept saying 2 hungry instead of 2 hundred and it was so cute. Jerry pointed it out of course and him and Mary made fun of him but he's such a ll trooper he kept going. Poor thing gets made fun of all the time cuz he's little but he tries so hard when he gets a chance. I wish I could tutor all these kids individually. Hoonki started tellin me jokes to start off our convos. He was tellin me Korean jokes and translated them. So they didn't really make much sense but I laughed and liked his effort. Today he told me ths one: What does a penguin drive? Alaska. I was laughin so hard! First cuz it's funny, second cuz only in Asia does Ka = car. I love Korea.
I started teaching them tongue twisters too. I figured it's a good way to bump up pronounciation and it's just funny. Anyway tomorrow is Peppero Day and I'm so excited, a whole holiday with no other purpose then to give candy. Greatness. Now if only Koreans could discover sugar and use it like Americans....

All this for groceries?

Today was a long day. Woke up with a sore throat again. Got my lesson plans together and headed to the bank to get a new bank card. Luckily the lady remembered me from yesterday cuz I’m not sure how I would explain that I needed a new card. Got to school had an ok lunch. Had some kind of seaweed mixed with strips of pear, kinda made me sick and the thick wet seaweed with chilli, which always makes me a lil nauseous. But the mini sausage, fish, rice and beef stew thing was good. The printer is still broken so I had to change my lesson a lil. I decided to do review and play some online games. It worked great. My kids paired up and answered questions about colors, numbers, clothes, animals, jobs.. all kinds of stuff. My 5^th graders were supposed to finish their research on the first Thanksgiving but I left the game up from the earlier class and they saw it so I found a harder one and let them play. It was the most involved they’ve been all year. They didn’t know a lot of the job questions because they were really hard but I have more things to teach them now and if I use the game as motivation I think they’ll pay attention. One of the kids even said on his way out “Fun class, teacher”. I got to play with the little girls outside before going to catch the bus. Then went home for a few mins to change bags then went downtown, met up wit Dan and Joyanna, my favorite Pohang ppl (outside of the ppl I came wit) we had shabu shabu (i think that's what it's call) it's chicken, chilli, cheese, greens and rice. Also got hutdug awesome street food thing like a doughnut/pancake with melted honey/maple syrupy stuff inside...soo good. And dunkin doughnuts cookies and cream latte also yummy. They went grocery shopping with me at HomePlus! I was so happy cuz I hate food shopping. They were such a big help, I basically walked and they put stuff in the basket (that Dan carried I love him! such a sweetie). Walked back to get the bus, finally got home put everything away and Marshal called. I went over there to work on Dr.Koh class stuff and hang out wit Marshal since he'll be gone to Jeju, lucky bum. Finally got home around 1 to sleep.

Korean Doctor

So I've been feeling like crap the last few days. Sore throat, same thing every year. The weather changes and I get strep or something. Anyway, I felt like my blood was made of ice. I couldn't get warm and my heated floors decided to stop working. I drank an entire pot of tea and it wasn't helping. I was also starving. Luckily Jenine came over and took me out to eat. We had wanted to try the smiley face french fries that this place had so we walked down there and ordered the fries and some chicken. The chicken wings looked sweet but smelled spicy. Seeing as I could barely eat, i wasn't in the mood for spicy anything. Jenine tried it and said "It's got a lil kick to it but you should try it". Her face was starting to turn red and she had drank half her water after one bite. I knew she was a liar but I tried a piece anyway. IT WAS HOT! We tried not to show that we were dieing but both of our mouths were on fire. I could only eat 5 wings. Jenine had 3, we went through a bottle of Cider, 4 glasses of water, all the fries and two bowls of the cereal snack things to try and calm the burn. The Korean couple next to us ordered the same thing and they were chuggin beer and tearing up after their first piece. That made us feel really good. Walked home in the cold. My body was still freezing even though my mouth was on fire. I took a hot shower to relax and it helped me breath but the hot water touched my lips and almost made me cry again!
That nite was horrible. I was sore all over, weak, so tired but couldn't sleep. I was a lil scare that my throat was so swollen that I'd choke and die. Iknow awful thing to think but i felt bad. The old man next door started making so much noise I couldn't sleep either. Finally fell asleep only to wake up around 5 and every hour to half hour after that, tossing, just couldn't get comfortable. I couldn't stand being in bed any more so I got up had more tea, texted my coteacher that I needed to see a doc, cleaned up, layed around, fell back to sleep and got ready to go. The pain killers kicked in by the time I left so I was in an ok but tired mood through school. Couldn't really talk much, thank God for my coteacher she was such a big help. Then we walked to a clinic by my house. The doc saw me rite away looked at my throat for 2 seconds, said I was weak all over and I said yes he said ok you have tonsilitis, told me to take some pills 3x a day and that was it. The whole thing took 5 min. But then my coteacher said that i had to get a shot. She saw my face andsaid "you're an adult, it's just a shot". So we waited until one of the nurses brought me in a lil room. She pointed to her butt and looked at me. I said "In my bum!" She nodded her head and motioned for me to lower my pants. I said "in my arm?" She shook her head. So I unbuttoned my pants, she pulled them down just a few inches and shot me in my hip then slapped me a few times, i started laughing, then the two nurses started laughing. Went next door, got my meds, three days worth and home I went. Now I'm watching modern family, made rice and tuna but it wasn't satisfying so I ate some Pepero and grape juice but nothing I've eaten lately has made me happy. My body is craving something and I can't figure out what it is.

I'm an awful teacher! I never have my lesson plans done in time and I never stick to them! But today went pretty well as usual. I thin that's why I never get my plans done cz I always change my mind on what I want to do anyway. Time is going by faster now a days. October is almost finished and I feel like I was just looking forward to my bday. I gotta start doing something and being more involved. I can't believe I just stay home almost everyday after school! Lately I been feeling a lil sick and so at least I have an excuse to rest but then I never go to sleep early. I think I'm gonna get up and go joggin in the morning. If not then at least get some yoga in. I might even go into town tomorrow too and buy more food. We did get paid today!
Had fried chicken for dinner. It's weird cuz it's like really chicken and KFC is not. Felt a lil lonely tonite. Def lackin in cuddling time since I got here! But not enough to wanna come home yet. I admire the beauty of this countryevery day on the bus ride to school. It's all mountains, fields and rivers. It's so pretty. I'm gonna start studyin again tomorrow too. i was workin on practicing theother counting system today with my coteacher. I can count to 6 no problem in both but after that I gotta think and forget most of it. I'm gonna miss this place when I leave!
I need to buy more clothes. I heard it's gonna be cold tomorrow and I do't have any warm school clothes, barely have a jacket and nothing to keep me warm when it really gets cold. Urgent shopping trip sometime this week!

Sorry

I havn't blogged in a reall really long time. Hopefully I'll go back and write about all the stuff that I've done..It's a lot. Things got really really good and now they're almost normal. I love Korea! It's beautiful and fun and all good things. I'm really tired so I'm gonna try to make this short...
Went to the Busan firework festival this weekend with my new friend and two of her freinds. I met up with another Korean guy who I thought was someone else but it all worked out cuz he was super nice too. None of this makes sense but it does to me and that's all that matters lol. OK back to this weekend. Left on saturday took forever to find a motel. the rooms were like 300,000won which is crazy. So we went to eat at this taco place. That's pecial cuz there are no mexicans in Korea therefore no Mexican/Spanish food. Unfortunaly the lady who usually makes the tacos was gone and the ppl from the bar next door were filling in and didn't really know how to make tacos. I appreciated the effort and was starving so I ate it..all 50 onions and all. Finally found a place and I decided to wear by high heels cuz we were going salsa dancing after watchin the fireworks. We finally got to the beach and couldn't get to the beach. The crowd was so big we couldn't even get down the steet close enough to see the beach! We saw the fireworks though. They were amazing! Seen ones i've never seen before like one that make a cube, a dimond, a smiley face and ones that stayed lit til they hit the water. I got the finale on video! Then walked around and around lookin for some where to eat. Everyone was full. My feet were KILLING me! I almost cried. We finally just had sumgipsal and a lil soju then went to find the salsa club. Found out it was closed and so were all the other latin clubs :( I almost cried but we went to narebong instead. Sang our lil hearts out and left right before we fell asleep. Woke p te next morning had to leave early to meet my friend in Daegu, who decided not to answer his phone, so I spent extra time and money traveling to a city ot of the way and ended up going home anyway. I was just a lil upset...just a lil. Although I had fun, now my feet hurt, i have a bruise on my hand from the broken tamborine, my body's sore from walkin and sleepin on a couch thing and i'm sleepy. I wanna go back to busan wit more time and visit the aquarium. pretty city. I'm not ready for it to be cold! There so many beaches in korea i wanna visit and I alrady need to wear a jacket! Stop getting colder!
So i promise to do a better job of blogging. I'm going to bed! School tomorrow

Things I miss

Not surprisingly I don't miss people in particular much. I mean there are moments when I see or hear something and wish a certain person was there in the moment. Or I just can't contact them cuz they never get online so i miss talking to them but that's about it. The things I really want that I can have are:

1. Burger King - they do have them but I haven't eaten at one and the McD's that I tried didn't really size up so I'm thinkin the Burger King doesn't either. Although McD's delievers so they pretty much rock.

2. Being rude and making fun of people to their face (mostly jokingly) - I barely have conversations with people and if i started making jokes they wouldn't understand so the only time I get to is when I'm skyping someone and not tryin to catch them up on my life, which is rarely.

3. WiFi - I missed this when I was in MI too lol

4. Dresing down - I gotta dress up for work which is in the middle of the day so that's pretty much the only thing I wear all day.

5. My car - this is prolly going to be closer to number 1 pretty soon but gas is sooo expensive here so I wouldn't be able to use it much even if I had one.

6. Carpet - All hardwood, all the time.

7. Eevesdropping - try as hard as I can, I can't understand a word of it.

8. Tutoring - I love my classes and students but I wish I could tutor them one on one as well as in a group.

9. THE RADIO - I need background sound. I only get to hear it on the bus sometimes.

10. Salt/Sugar/Chocolate - I'm still an American. The candy out here isn't cuttin it. I haven't had a cookie or cake in over a month! My 22 year sugar high is officially over. (Although I do like and appreciate all the thought and health that goes into Korean food AND luckily they eat ice cream like it's their job so that's cool)

I know it's been a while

I'm sitting in my classroom. It's my short day so I have a free hour after lunch and before my students stream in. I had 5 more min left with nothing to do so decided to write for 5 min. 4th grade is still my favorite but 5th is getting close. I need to find ways to get closer to students and teachers. I met a new admistrator today and she speaks a lil english and she's my age so AWESOME. Hopefully i'll see her more and get to talk to her. Two hours of teaching today and then I'm done for a week! It's Cheosuk next Tue, Wed and Thur. I heard it's like Thanksgiving but then I read a cite that said "Don't compare it to Thanksgiving." Basically you have to go to your parents house, clean up the tombs/graves of your relatives and have a feast for them. Still not really sure how it goes BUT Keitha invited me to go with her to a celebration with her friend. So i guess I'm stayin with her all next week in Gumi. That should be cool and interesting. I'm ready to see everyone again. I've only seen the TaLK kids in Pohang since orientation.
I was sick this week so that sucked. i started feeling it on Monday and was just kinda crapy til today. At night it's worse than during the day. I've just been tired and weak feeling. I was trying to drink more water but the bottled water makes me sick i think so that didn't help. Still had my pizza party on Wed. Marshall, Nicole, the twins and Jenine came. It was nice, we all just hung out and talked until they had to go to TaeKwonDo. The kids are here so I gtg

Everything is settling down.

A lil gap between the last post and this one. It's 3am and i can't sleep but i'm super tired. Just had an awesome weekend in Gimhae with a fam that i love! They got me a cellphone and took me to dinner at an old Korean place, spent the next day chillaxin at a stream in the mountains....so nice! But the bus ride was 3 hours so i slept and now my sleepin is messed up I guess. Not ready for tomorrow school. I feel like every week is gonna be class class, rush to the bus station to visit someone, cram a million things into a weekend then back on the bus and class on mon. idk if i can do it but that's the only way to get everything done. We'll see. I got internet at my house now too. Things are finally starting to come togethe. i can't imagine how hard it is for families to move and do this kinda stuff with no help! Crazy. I'm startin to miss ppl but i think it'll go away when I get more of a social life. SOOOO Tired!

Gettin better?

The kids came to my door, knocked and rang the bell as 6 this morning! Freaked me out I thought it was Nicole and I had overslept. When I saw what time it was I just went back to sleep. They came two more times after that, before it hit 9. aaghhh! Nicole came to my house around 10:30 today and she brought me to the school. We waited 20 min for the bus, it was late, idk how late, Nicole couldn’t explain the bus schedule to me and apparently neither could anyone else. Easy enough to get there, it’s the last stop on the bus route, literally, we got off and the bus did a U-turn. Jenny was there and I met the vice principal, head teacher and two more teachers, I think. Then the head teacher went to the principal’s office then he got us and everyone straightened up before walking into the principals office (they call him the president and treat him like it). He had a nice office. Really nice, welcomed me and then kicked us out kinda. I don’t think we’ll be having many conversations but he seemed nice enough to me if we ever get the chance. I gotta figure out what to call him. Then I saw my classroom, it’s a science lab so there are globes, human models and science stuff all around but I’m happy, it’s pretty nice. Jenny explained my schedule and what papers I have to fill out, gotta turn in lesson plans everyday for the following day and sign in everyday. Tried to fill out a paper but Nicole had to do it cuz I couldn’t read or follow directions. Then we left. I’m excited about the whole thing. There were some kids reading in the library (which was such a cute nice library) and it’s their summer break! I hope all the kids are so well mannered and smart.

So since most people are sleeping while I’m awake and don’t get any responses I’ll write to myself or letters that I’ll send once I get internet. First I’d like to express the strange feeling of not being able to do anything. It’s frustrating but it’s more of an experience rather than something to get upset over, at least now because I’ve had someone to help in most situations. Today I wished so hard that I could understand all the conversations around me but couldn’t. At school I told Nicole what to say to the principal before I met him so that wasn’t an issue, it went over pretty well. But then he spoke back to me and I had not a clue what he said. About ten conversations were held in front of me about me and I could only make out – English teacher, Singwang, American, Italian, Jamaican, English and no Korean. People have to tell everyone that I’m an English teacher from America and then explain why I don’t look American. Then the have to explain why I don’t answer them when they speak to me. From the voice tones and gestures I figured out that the story of the lady and me and how I cried was told at least 5 times. So now I’m embarrassed but every woman on the block prolly heard and has my back. My mentor teacher made me show her the mom’s house and she very politely but strictly told her not to come to my house, ever, if she did the cops would be called. I wasn’t sure how it was gonna go over when my teacher told me that’s what she came for but it looked like it worked. On the way out the lil girl rode in and she explained it to her as well. I felt a lil bad but Jenny said they’re not good ppl and sometimes they just don’t understand when to stop. Idk how things will go when I see them on the street, I mean we live two buildings apart, but we’ll see. Majority of reactions to the story have led to pity faces toward me or “she’s crazy” or “so sorry” so I don’t feel so bad about it all.

I still get almost teary every time I see my Ju-In Ajuma (landlady) cuz she’s kinda like my Korean mom. She lives the floor above me, works on the first floor, has keys to my house and is kinda responsible for everything. She makes me miss my mom! I havn’t talked to her in a week and I’m so sad. I cry when I think about it so I’ll stop…

Another thing that got me emotional today was when Nicole handed me the phone while we were waiting for the bus. I figured it was my mentor teacher, Jenny, cuz that’s the only other person I talk to but it was Eunjeong!! I was so surprised and so happy I almost cried again. She said she missed me and then she put Jihun on the phone and hearing her voice made me get emotional, I could barely talk but she asked how I was doing and invited me to visit them this weekend. I said I’d try and I gotta figure out how to get there. I’d love to see them but I have got to get over this crying mood that I’m in.

I’m confident that I can make it to the school by myself on thru. I’m not so sure I can handle waiting at the bus stop. Everytime I go in there, ppl talk to me and about me. Usually it’s all old ladies but Jenny took me a lil bit ago and old men kept saying hi in English and Korean, they got so loud we had to go outside to finish our conversation. A few ppl commented to Jenny about me. She ignored most of them but one shocked her and she told me an old lady asked if she was my mother-in-law. Everything is everyone’s business around here. Something else to get used to.

I’m going to go outside to check my messages again before it gets dark.

Hopeuflly I wont have much to write about between now and tomorrow. I’m hoping to have my neighbor, Lim, over tonite even if it’s just for a lil bit. May be I’ll be lucky and she’ll invite me over so I can eat! (no fridge = no food)

Trouble

Imagine only have an hour of conversation a day. That’s what I’ve been going through for the last week. I havn’t gotten to talk to my mom and only a few text messages from home everyday. I’m getting sad that I know no one and don’t know how to get anywhere and couldn’t even find myself on a map of the town. So when that fam down the street was nice to me and the lil girl and dad spoke a lil English I jumped at it. When everyone left me for the weekend and they invited me out to eat and then to go shopping I accepted. They followed me home and I swear the mom stole about 40 bucks from me. They were all going thru my stuff and I was tryin to keep it under control so I wasn’t payin attention. I forgot I had left some money on my dresser. I saw her wit rolled up money in her hand then she tried to hide it, slipped it in her pocket and left. The kids stayed. I tried to get them out for half hour before they finally left. I was so tired but was mad so I tried to wash my clothes but the power kept going off and I couldn’t finish a load. I couldn’t tell anyone cuz I did’t have a phone or internet. I went out side and messasged my coteacher, an hour later I checked again and she said she would call my mentor teacher who would call my landlady. The fam came back to my house but I got them to leave within 15 min. Then I went to check my messages again and when I came back upstairs the lil girl was at my door. I waited around to see if she would leave but she didn’t so I went inside and she came. I got her to leave in a lil bit. They invited me to come over at 9pm for dinner, I said no but they wouldn’t agree so I said yes. I locked me door, not wanting them to come in. But sure enough someone knocked around 6. I opened it and it was the matenience man. I was so happy to see someone besides them. He came to fix my power! Then the landlady came in, then another man to help, then the mom came back! She came into my room and sat on my bed (she was way too comfortable in my house). I was keeping an eye on her though. They all started talking in Korean and two guys my age (one lives next door) decided to join in too. I managed to signal to the landlady that I didn’t want the mom in my house. Thank God she understood and started to tell her nicely to get out but then the kids showed up. So there were 9 ppl in my house all talking in Korean about the power or why this fam was in my house. The men got the power workin (apparently it was the fridge throwin everything off so now its unplugged, still no food), everyone but the fam looked like they were leaving so I grabbed the landladies arm and she tried to get the fam out. The mom wasn’t moving. They started argueing. The man got involved, they were yelling and trying to get me into it. It looked like a soap opera in my house. I was nervous and wasn’t letting go of the land ladies arm until that fam left. After 20 min of yelling they pushed everyone out of my door, literally. As soon as the mom was gone I broke down and cried. The landlady saw me came over and hugged me and said it’s ok (I think anyway) she tried to call my mentor teacher, who as usual didn’t pick up. I tried calling my coteacher but it just rang. It felt nice to be hugged though and to have someone yell at that mom and not leave me with her. The landlady said not to open the door if anyone knocks. I wrote a note to my neighbor askin her to come over when she got home and to speak in English so I’d know it’s her. About an hour after all that my neighbor came to the door and I started to tell her everything but started crying too. Then the landlady came over cuz my coteacher was on the phone and she said so sorry she can’t get here, and asked if I wanted to stay at the mentor teacher’s house and to be careful and she’d pray for me but I said I think I’m ok now that everyone knows what’s going on. The landlady said the mom was drunk, I think now she’s a drunkard. My neighbor said if I needed anything to get her but her bf was in town so she didn’t want to leave him. I said I was fine.

My power has stayed on since they left and I got a load washed but it started beeping and I checked it and they were still soaking wet so I sent them through again hoping that the last cycle was just messed up cuz the power got shut off half way thru. I’m still lonely and need ppl but I’m supposed to get picked up at 10am and taken to school. It’s 9:30 and still no knock on my door so I think I’ll be ok.

The older girl fought with me for 5 min about using my bathroom I said no but she tried to push the door closed on me, I pushed her out but she ran back in and went anyway. I think she clogged it cuz it hasn’t flushed right since she used it. I wanted the men to fix it while they were here but it hadn’t flushed and that’s too much embarrassment for one day.

So all in all I feel dumb for trusting ppl when I never would’ve been that trusting at home and letting them follow me home. I just felt so hurt that I’m so lonely and the people who were being the nicest to me stole from me and were so mean/disrespectful to my house. It sucks getting left and now I just want to go home and be super nice to all the ppl that come to A2! I’m still hurt and on the verge of tears and prolly will be until I get to spend time with ppl I know. This has been a hard day. I hope I have enough money to last until pay day! I cant wait to get internet!!!!!

The couch is what led to the destruction of modern man’s motivation.

There is a dominant gene in most humans that causes a strong upsetting emotion when we stay in bed all day. That gene is what causes us to justify the smallest action as an accomplishment, allowing us to return to our state of rest. Therefore, creating a place as similar too but different from the initial location and position is the best alternative, allowing our natural lethargic tendency to reign while also feeling a sense of achievement.

In layman’s terms: Most people hate stayin in bed all day but we like to be lazy. The invention of the couch allows us to lay around all day and do nothing (as if we had stayed in bed all day) but we’re not in bed, not even in the same room. So we feel like we’ve done something (gotten up and moved to a different room) when really we didn’t. And if our need to feel accomplished has been met than why do anything else.

Now that I don’t have a couch I’m finding all kinds of fun things to do, like spend and hour and a half dissecting and scrubbing the inside and outside of my fridge. I also spent at least another hour going through 100s of pictures on my computer. I reorganized and deleted some. I washed all the dishes that were left by the previous scholar, made a video of my house and finally went outside to get internet. My mentor teacher still hasn’t contacted me, nor have I gotten in touch with my mom. I did go down the street to see if I could find the fam from yesterday. I found their house but didn’t see anyone. I went to the place my mentor showed me the first day and managed to order Kimbop all by myself. I ate and watched youtube videos that Nate had on the ipod (I miss him). The meal was a dollar. Totally beats Subway! Then walked down a few new roads. I’ve been trying to cover a new block a day so I get used to my area. I found the police station and some kinda English classroom or something. And this really cute store that had everything cute in it! They had super cute earrings (I’m going back soon to buy a pair), hair clips, ties, bows, scarves, stuffed animals, pens, paper, notebooks, cups, hats, everything with cartoons and cute stuff on them. I bought notebooks for the kids down the street and a deck of cards for me.

I ran into the kids later (they were going to get ice cream). The fam took me out to dinner! In celebration of the mom and lil bro’s bday. The lil boy Kevin is 7 years old and is so so so cute! He laughs at everything. He held my hand the whole way to the restaurant and back. He pushed his sister out of the way so he could sit next to me. The girls played with me a lot too. They’re all so nice. We had bbq pork, really good, a ton of side dishes as usual and so much food! The kids kept eating ice cream and they got us all some when we finished eating. The dad got 2 bottles of soju that the three of us ‘adults’ polished off. On the way back I had to individually pinky promise the kids that I’d be at their house at 10am tomorrow for seaweed soup and cake lol. Happy Korean Birthday ! lol.

Orientation

We’re into the third week now and everyone is pretty tired… all the time. It seems like everytime we even think about the bus someone falls asleep. I haven’t had my camera because I’m letting my friend borrow it cuz I accidentally broke his. But he took lots of pics so I’m ok with it. But my computer is not connecting to the internet for some reason so I can’t post them online. My computer is 5 years old and I hope I don’t have problems with it next week when I’m in my own apartment. Katie got me on last nite so I could skype my mom. And I think I left my plug converter in the wall of the dorms so I don’t have that either. I can’t wait to get to my place and stop living out of a suitcase. Still haven’t gotten my bank card to work and I’m running out of money. Got 20,000 won left. About $20 bucks US. We went to visit the nuclear power plant, the beach, visit an elementary school and had lunch at a restaurant. The beach was the best! It felt so good to be in water again. It was supposed to be the king’s underwater tomb but idk about that. There were a few rocks but they looked pretty natural to me and it was supposed to be an important king. I think they would’ve had a museum or diagram or sign or something. People are starting to complain and be negative and it’s getting on my nerves. Luckily my friends aren’t but I had to sit in front of some complainers and it was annoying. The only thing I’ve said anything bad about is eatin BiBimBop for dinner…I’m still a lil upset about being force fed at the temple 2 weeks ago. It feels like we’ve been here for 2 months already. We’ve been so busy everyday. It’s good, we’ve learned and experienced a lot. I can’t wait to meet my co teacher on Tue and everything else that is to come.

First Thoughts on the apartment.

The apartment is nicer than I expected. It’s bigger than my friend’s in Seoul. Luckily it came with a bed, desk, nice chair, kitchen table with two chairs, two dressers, tv, tv stand with drawers, washer, AC, shoe cabinet and clean sheets and blankets. Alfredo left a mug, pot and pan, spatula and a few other things. He also broke the toilet seat and the shower head. The sink in the bathroom drains really slow so it always fills up the sink. The power doesn’t stay on for longer than an hour which is REALLY annoying. I can’t buy food because the fridge doesn’t get/stay cold. I asked the landlady and she said she was gonna fix it. They might have changed the box but it didn’t work.

The location is awesome! The people next door/or upstairs wake up at 6 and yell but that hasn’t bugged me yet, I fall back to sleep (after turning the power back on) downstairs is a old lady meeting area. Idk why or what its for but a crowd of old ladies block up the stairs getting in and out twice a day. A man talks on a mic for a while, they do karaoke and who knows what else then they get free stuff when they leave. The landlady has a restaurant downstairs, haven’t eaten there yet. There’s a convenient store 4 doors down which is awesome. There’s a dollar store down the block, another cheaper store on the next block and a market across the street! The bus station and taxis are also down the street and a bunch of other stores. And the bank is next to all that stuff too. I’ve walked in almost every direction and seen Naribongs and PC rooms and lots of places to eat.

I couldn’t get internet or a phone until I get my ARC so I have to sit outside on the street to pick up internet on my ipod. People stare at me but it’s ok. I made a friend yesterday. One girl stoped to stare at me and her mom pushed her to talk to me in English. One thing led to another and I ended up in their house being asked to teach the 3 kids in the house (age 13, 12 and 7). I also got invited to a birthday party on the 26^th of September. They have two hedgehogs one albino baby and the other is full grown, I think. I got to hold them and touch them, the mom poked all of us with a needle she pulled out and it hurt. They introduced me to another guy who spoke some English (he translated a lot of what we were saying) he owns a fried chicken place a few doors away from my place! He said I could come use his computer in the store any time. I think I’m going to visit them today. I have to check and see if anyone has emailed me.

My mentor teacher hasn’t contacted me since the day she dropped me off. Everyone else has visited their school and a few have internet and stuff set up. I don’t know what to do everyday or when school starts or anything.

I took the bus by myself yesterday to visit my coteacher at her university. It’s a Christian university. We ate in their cafeteria. There were a few international students and lots of English signs and stuff. She’s an RA. She told me they’re not allowed out of the building after 11pm. If they want to stay overnight they have to get written permission from her and they can only do it a few times a month! Besides that it seemed like a pretty cool school. The teachers stay on campus in apartment buildings just like dorms cuz it’s kinda far from any town. I think that’s how a lot of schools are out here though.

Well I’m going to scrub out my fridge. Alfredo didn’t do a very good job, it stinks when I open it and once my power starts working I wanna get food in here.

Jochiwon Peach Fest

Interesting day today! First free day! A girl called to wake me up. I braided her hair. In Korea it's really special to braid your hair and a lot of ppl don't know how. She was meeting her parents who she hasn't seen in 10 years! I felt special she asked me to help her get ready. Ate breakfast then met up with Tevyn and Sara and walked down the the big peach festival! This area is famous for it's peaches so i had to check it out. The whole place was mud but everyone was walking around so we sucked it up and went walking. Diff booths and stuff to try and buy. craft tables, cosmetics made from peaches, drinks/food, all kindsa stuff. I tried white lotus tea, peaches, juice, bulgogi, peach sunscreen and rice wine. All pretty good. IT WAS SO SO HOT! I've never sweated so much in my life! I jumped in with the natives and bought a box of peaches. It was 25,000 won for 13 peaches, more than i wanted to pay but everyone else was pushing and yelling and I was proud of myself for gettin involved and figuring out how much everyone else was payin lol. Went back in time for lunch. Then chilled out til dinner. Tried to wash my muddy shoes but i think they're ruined. Later 30 or more ppl started walking into town for Noribong! (karaoke) The town was small but there were karaoke places on every corner! 10 of us got a room. It was crazy, disco ball, speakers, laser lights, multi colors videos the whole thing! Everyone got really into it. Me and the twins were just watcihng and enjoyin everyone else. We all managed to order Soju from the ppl who didn't speak english lol. I finally and did my first karaoke before we left, nothing impressive. it's more fun to watch. Walked home and about to crash! Everyday feels so long here!

Temple Visit

SO another long day. Before I started I wanna get out a few things that I forgot to mention earlier. First there are odd and even elevators, like if you wanna go to the 6th floor you must take the elevator on the right side. They skip every other floor. The buttons for all the floors are there so if you get in the even elevator and push 7 it will light up but it won't go there LOL. Not everywhere but some buildings are like that. And squat toilets are not a myth! They exist. Took a pic of one today, really interesting. Didn't use it though. Last, I had coffee milk this morning. It's like strawberry milk but coffee. IT"S AMAZING!!!

Ok so temple visit...woke up at 7 to eat breakfast, met up at 9 to load on the buses and drive an hour to get to a national park. Walked down this trail for like 20 min til we reached a buddist temple. It was decorated so intricately. Everything painted and carved and had real gold statues. The monks showed us around, helped us make prayer beads (kinda like rosaries) and old fashion copying. We all met back for lunch. Bibimbop (rice and veggies) they spooned it out and you took it and went to sit and eat. Then we were told it's rude not to finished all your food because ppl worked hard to grow the food. I looked at the food again...it was enough for 2 days. I tried eating fast, then slow then almost cried cuz i knew I couldn't eat it all. Everyone else finished at my table. It brought back childhood memories of sitting at the table forever tryin to finish my food. I'm the slowest eater ever and my stomach is small! One of the leaders came over and asked if I was ok, I said no, he said it's ok you don't have to finish. I still felt bad but snuck my food in the trash, washed my dishes and ran out. Then we walked..no hiked up this mountain to see a lil waterfall. Not impressive, although still pretty, it was called the dragons mouth and was sacred to them. A couple ppl were up there drinkin and swimmin in the water. The monk acted like it was normal and one of the ladies even offered boot leg liquor to us. Had to walk all the way back down. Sweated my butt off (it was hot and hard) It was all interesting and so pretty. Walked back to the bus drove back, ate, chilled with a girl who talked a lot and finally back in my room with AC!

First Friday

12 hours of lectures today!! I'm so tired. AND we're having a med exam tomorrow so we can' eat or drink from 9pm (which was 2 hours ago) til we finish the exam. I'm so hungry and it's only been 2 hours. Went to the Korean super walmart though so I got to take my first taxi and see the town. That was cool. Bought an umbrella, hair clips, World Cup Soccer shirts like the official ones for 2 bucks and then came back. I'm going to bed before I get hunger pains..... uuggh

Poverty

So I was confused and read the wrong essay for my group. We were assigned "What is poverty" It was also a very intereting article. It was originally a speech which would've been more compelling. It was still a very strong, emotional article. The author, Jo Parker, addresses the audience using you, so directly. This forces the reader to get involved while reading. It's a way of attacking but also pulling at the readers thoughts and emotions. Parker uses very detailed imagery with tons of descriptions. She talks about everything from sights, events, feelings, smells and feel of things around her. She is a reliable source because she isn't describing something she researched, she lived and possibly is still living in poverty. She describes the awful situation and the hopelessness that comes with it. She relates to the reader and makes them feel like it could be anyone in poverty. It's not a certain type of person. It's not any easier for her to deal with then it would be for the reader. I went through pity, disgust, anger and sadness while reading. It's interesting that she refused to give biographical information. I think everyone is left curious as to how she is doing now. I think lots of people would offer help and she could be in a much better situation. I wonder if that is the reason why she doesn't want anyone to know, she doesn't want the help. I don't know. She is a very good writer, which disproves another stereotype about poverty that people are in poverty because they are dumb or have no skills. i think she could make a living or at least some money by writing. She already has the popularity needed to sell a book or essay. It's all just very intersting and leaves the readers with a ton of questions. She does give everyone a realistic look at poverty and disbands many stereotypes about it. If that was her point that she doesn't need to keep writing even though it would be beneficial to her and her family.

Review of Friend Game

So I missed class on monday because my classes for my trip to Korea decided to start on Monday at 1, the same time as my usual class. I was a little upset because it was supposed to meet on Sat but people complained so the teacher moved it to Mon. So frustrating. That being said I missed the explanation of what we're supposed to be doing in our groups for this assignment. Two classmates tried to explain it but they didn't totally understand either. Hopefully I'll get more direction today in class. I read the article about Megan, the girl who committed suicide because of some drama on MySpace. I think it's so tragic especially because she did it when everyone was home and the neighbors didn't get punished. It's crazy that the girl was talking to her mom, ran past her dad and killed herself less than an hour later. I always thought that people killed themselves in private, when no one was around. It must be awful to live with the thought that your daughter killed herself when you were around. I don't know if I could handle that!
I was also sad to read that Megan's parents tried to monitor what was going on. It seemed like they read some of the messages and gave permission to who she could be friends with. They tried to screen what was going on online. That's more than most parents and it still couldn't stop this situation. This also brought out the bias in the article. I could tell the author was on Megan's family's side. He/She wrote all the things Megan's parents did to protect their child and portrayed the neighbors as generally disliked, mean/ at least annoying people.
It shocked me that the neighbors got upset when Megan's parents started to bug them, like smashing the Christmas present and telling everyone that they were responsible. Did the neighbors think that there would be not repercussions for their actions? I would've thought something would have happened to the neighbors, at least forced to move.
It's not surprising that the teen-age girls would make up a person and be mean to Megan. Things like this happen in real life all the time. Middle school is all about cliques and being mean and dealing with all kinds of lies and drama. It is expected at school. Everyone knows that's how girls act. It just seems more personal online for some reason.

Technology and Writing/Education

A lot of people make a big fuss about texting/chatting online and how it affects kids and their ability to write. Some people say all this technology is making them dumb and killing their ability to write formally. They text all day and it shows when they sit down to write their assignments for school. Some teachers allow some words in rough drafts but require the students to clean it up before they turn in the final paper. I think it's great that the kids are getting so much practice writing. I think they're all a bit obsessive about it but at the middle school and young high school age they're all obsessive about something, at least it's not guns or something awful. If our education system will stick to teaching the correct rules and spelling then I don't see why the students won't learn it. As long as teachers are clear about what is formal writing and what needs to stay on your phone then kids will learn and understand. They're not dumb. They switch their speech back and forth depending on who they're talking to and I feel that writing is the same. They know when and where to use which style of writing.
If it does effect the students it will be their attention-span and access to information. We can expect more out of students because they can find the answers to almost any question we ask them. We need to stress individual thinking rather than copy and paste education. We also may have to change our lesson plans from an hour to 15 min. A lot of time is wasted at school. If home schoolers are doing about 2 hours of work a day and coming out with the same knowledge then why is everyone else at school or 8 hours? Students can be pushed to do so much more if we raise our expectations and give them access to internet and technology.
I am more and more aware of how much and how many people are attached to electronic devices. It's insane. When I look at people when I'm driving they're all talking on the phone or listening to music. When I'm at school everyone is typing away on their laptops. At work people sit in front of computers... it's every where. I keep getting flash backs from the movie Wall-E. The scene where the people are riding around in their hover chairs with a three paneled screen in their face. They order food from the screen, talk to their friends, sleep, move, everything on the screens from their chairs. They can't even walk anymore from years of being in the hovering chairs. They don't even realize they're passing people or know where they are. The man was shocked when Wall-E bumped into him and broke his screen. It was like he was finally awake, just seeing where he had been all these years. I wouldn't doubt if that is where are lives are heading. Surrounded by so much technology that we forget what reality is.

Blogging about blogging

So blogging about blogging is a little strange but let's see how it goes. I never thought it was a big deal but apparently a lot of people do it. The article we read for class today made me realize that the big popular blog sites may have been started by average people. I don't know what the benefits of having a huge following is unless you can get those people to take action for a good cause but there are huge followings. Some say it's a great way to socialize. But on the other side the more followers you have he less time you can spend with each one. The article also mentioned that one blogger's blog got so popular that she disabled the comment option on her blog. There was no way to read all the comments she was getting.
There are definitely changing mindsets on the whole thing. I feel like I'm in the middle. Stuck between the old farts who couldn't find and read a blog even if they wanted to and the kids who are addicted to blogging. I've always wanted to start one but never thought talking about my interest or daily life was interesting enough to post for the world to read. If a lady commenting on Project Runway can get thousands of followers then may be someone will find me interesting too. If they do then what's the point? What is the purpose of blogging? Will it make me feel better to expose my feelings to the whole world rather than just writing in a diary like a normal person. Will having thousands of followers make me feel better about myself? Why blog?
May be I'll meet someone or someones, start a group and change the world. Probably not. I don't know if I care enough about anything to commit and organize something like that. May be someone will share a link or information with me so I can join up with a group who is saving the world. I don't know. May be everyone needs to have their string thrown into the world wide web and this blog is mine (although I think facebook is a little more connected than this at the moment). That's kind of a cool idea. I think I'll end with that.

Immigration Article

I found an article on Time.com about immigration, an issue that is important and interesting to me. Half my family are recent immigrants and the other half are second or third generation citizens. Not everyone has taken the road to citizenship and some of my relatives are resident aliens. I tend to get emotionally involved when I read or hear articles about the immigration issue. I was shocked when I heard about the Arizona law that allows officers to demand proof of residency from all suspicious people. As far as I knew an immigrant can’t be stereotyped or profiled because they all look different. We’re in America!
This particular article is explaining why the bipartisan bill hasn’t been followed through. The author, Jay Newton-Small, is placing the blame squarely on the Republicans. His argument is well supported with details of the actions of the senators and the president. There is also an urgency to pass this new bill. Newton-Smalls uses pictures and links to more photos and videos to expose the reader to what the front lines of illegal immigration look like. There are pictures of Mexicans being arrested, searched, stuffed in car trunks, climbing fences, in jail cells, in prison clothes and crossing the desert. Majority of Americans support the government taking action to limit or at least control immigration. Anyone can see that 11 million people living and working here illegally is a problem. People are on both extremes on the issue. They are rioting and demonstrating. Grant amnesty or kick everyone out? The bill is supposed to be a compromise between the two, if it ever gets passed.

Just Checking

This is my new blog spot. I'll hopefully get a lot of use out of this blog this year. I set it up for my class but it was on my to do list anyway.