A year of thanks..

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thanksgiving: a time to reflect on the past year's blessings and give thanks for those blessings. Even though I am not at home enjoying the big meal with my family (stomach growling), I certainly have a lot to be thankful for on this day, thousands of miles and 15 hours away in Ulsan, South Korea.

As you might have guessed Thanksgiving is not a holiday that Koreans observe. Although they do have a holiday that's similar, honoring their ancestors, celebrated back in September. Thanksgiving day at school was fun. I brought little pumpkin candy treats to share with the teachers and all my students. After letting my students enjoy the tasty treat I had the older ones read a short Thanksgiving poem. Then I made them come to the front of the room one by one and speak about three things they were thankful for. Hearing the chorus of whiney "Teeeaaaccccherrrr!" when I told them they must come to the front to speak, it was surprising how many students were still thankful for their teacher....or maybe they thought I would give them an extra candy if they brown-nosed! Either way it warmed my heart a bit. :)

Now it is my turn to make my list of thanks for this year...and I will write in complete sentences just like I made my students.

~I am thankful for graduating from college! In four years! Wooo!
~I am thankful for the free housing my last year of college even though I whined about having to shovel all the time. (It WAS a crazy, hard winter though, you must admit) :)
~I am thankful for my free housing now in Korea. A comfy, cozy, warm one room apartment. It's going to be a sad day when I must pay rent again.
~I am thankful for all the great friends I met throughout college....I miss you guys!
~I am thankful for an amazing (although short) backpacking trip through Europe with amazing friends (included here are all the new friends we made) and amazing adventures.
~I am thankful for my Grandma's long and sweet life on this earth that blessed so many people.
~I am thankful for the two months I spent at home being a lazy bum trying to figure out my next move.
~I am sooooooo (uber) thankful for my job in Korea. It is quite a miracle that I ended up here...not to mention at a good school, with a great director, and friendly Korean co-workers.
~I am thankful for letters and packages sent from family and friends. There's just nothing like getting mail from home. Thanks Kat and Nell and fam!
~I am thankful for all my new Korean friends (Hangu chingu) that take such great care of me and have taught me so much about their culture and language.
~I am thankful for my students who at times I want to slap but at most times make me smile a bunch.
~I am thankful for a new president.
~I am thankful for my relatively small student loan debt that I am working on paying off.
~I am thankful for finding a good church and fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in Korea.
~I am thankful for Skype and Skype dates with friends and family. It's so nice to hear your voices!
~I am sooooo thankful for Kat joining me in Ulsan and for her joyful, adventurous, kindred spirit.
~I am thankful for an extended and BEAUTIFUL fall season (which we are STILL in btw). Jealous?
~I am thankful for the beautiful Korean terrain that surrounds me (mountains and ocean).
~I am thankful for Rotiboy buns. The perfect treat, all the time.
~I am thankful for English bookstores.
~And last but not certainly not least, I am thankful for KIMCHI...in all it's fermented goodness and speculative health benefits. :)

Welcoming change...

The winds of change have blown over America recently with the exciting election of Barack Obama as our next president and similar (but not quite as blustery) winds of change have blown over my life in Korea in these last few weeks as well. Both I am welcoming with open arms.

Speaking of welcoming, I have been busy welcoming another Iowan to this very lucky city. After playing recruiter these last few months it was fantastic to see the lovely Kat Lundberg finally on Korean turf and ready to tear up this place up with me. Living only a few minutes from each other we have shared many adventures and laughs already.

The next big change happened at the same time as one term (1 term=4 months) ended and the new began. The end of the term was a very busy time as I had to evaluate each of my students (which is a LOT of students mind you) speaking abilities with a designated speaking test for each level. Each student is taken outside the classroom one by one, asked a series of questions, and is graded on their comprehension, pronunciation, grammar, fluency, and use of vocabulary. It took almost a full week to get through all the students and let me tell you...after asking, "What day is it today?" and "Where does a firefighter work?" for what feels like the 250th time it's hard to act interested in the students' response. I had one of my Pre-Step (younger, very beginning level English) students snap at me when he noticed my eyes glazing over and my mind obviously spacing out as I asked him his list of questions...."Hey! Teacher!" It was too funny! But perhaps the biggest challenge (and NOT so funny part) of the speaking test time is keeping the students in the classroom quiet and controlled while you are outside giving the test. There are only so many worksheets you can hand out and only so many times you can pop your head in commanding them to sit down and be quiet before you just give up and pray they don't kill each other.

Halloween came at the perfect time this year, on the Friday at the end of the term, so we could truly observe it as a "fun" day filled only with snack parties and games. We teachers all dressed in costumes (I was a bunch of grapes...see pictures in last post) and had a runway show for the younger students earlier in the afternoon. After the second runway show I pulled off all my grapes and let the students fight over the balloons...it almost got messy! The older students played this game called chicken fight where they would sit in a circle with two players in the middle hopping on one leg trying to knock the other down with their other leg that is folded at the knee. It was pretty entertaining to watch (and slightly dangerous), especially when a few of the girls showed up the tough boys.

With the stress of the term ending and the Halloween holiday near, Kristen and I decided it was the perfect time to initiate some co-worker pranks. Jerome, our Korean friend and key player in our prankster team, has helped to translated ambiguous messages into Korean for us and other various tasks. No one was suspecting us but now I am afraid we have been discovered. After Simon (a part time worker) feverishly looked for his shoes (that Kristen and I had swiped and locked in a desk drawer) for two hours the other night, Jerome broke down and returned the shoes, admitting our prank. So sadly, we will have to wait a little bit before we can do more office pranks.

The new term brought a new schedule of classes to teach and a number of new faces in the classroom. I have kept many of the same students just moved up one level but have unfortunately lost my two favorite classes of the lower level English students. All in all I'm enjoying my new schedule, the change, and the fresh start so it looks to be a very good term ahead.

Much of my free time these days has been filled exchanging language lessons with Korean friends and I love every minute of it....oh how beautiful communication is! I have so many stories to tell, so ask me over Skype sometime!

Love and miss you all...

Some pictures from the latest hiking adventure:

Beware, beware

Sorry I haven't written in a while but here are some pictures from Halloween Day at school to hold you over until my next post...and let's be honest, you enjoy the pictures more than my babbling anyway!