just dance.

Saturday night I went dancing with some friends. We met some very fun Koreans on the dance floor, I love the way Koreans dance, whatever goes. While dancing one of the boys pulled me aside and said one of the greatest things I have heard in a long while, and this is what he said:

"I love dancing. I speak little English, you speak no Korean, but we all dance in the same language. That is why I love dancing."

Beautiful words my Korean dance friend. I couldn't agree with you more.

what's my age again?

24...25...26......, I'm not really sure anymore.

In the states I'm 24. Born in '86, 24 makes perfect sense, but in Korea its a whole different story, and a little more complicated. The moment I stepped onto Korean soil I gained another year, so much for 24. In Korea, your age begins before you are born. So when you are born, you are already one year old. Wait! Thats not all! With each coming new year you add on another year. This past week was Seonal, the Korean Lunar New Year. So yes, if you are doing the math I am now 26.

So how did I celebrate my 26th birthday, with an epic 5 day vacation of course! Lunar New Year is one of two vacations that I get from work, so I couldn't pass up an invitation to get out of Seoul for bit.

Immediately after work on Wednesday I headed straight for the bus station. Oh sweet freedom! Luckily my first bus trip out of seoul was a success, and about 3 hours later I arrived in the coastal city of Sokcho. I met up with a friend, who is also teacher in Korea, and a group of his friends and friends of friends. In total there were 12 of us english teachers ready to fully live up our vacation.

The first night in Sokcho I arrived a few hours after everyone. When I got to the "pension" everyone was bbq-ing dinner outside. We drank and cooked dinner in the cold, and it was great. We soon moved inside but continued our New Year's celebrating. A few hours later we rang in the New Year. And being a little caught up in the excitement of the holiday, and/or being under the influence of a little too much wine, we all decided to run the block or so to the beach and jump in the sea. Let me just remind you that its FEBRUARY and on a good day its about 4o outside, during the day. And, its well after midnight when we decided to take a dip and there is still snow on the rocks near the water. I know in my last post I said that I have never been so cold in my life, well I think this definitely tops that! But at a least now I have an interesting story and can say the I rang in the Korean New Year by skinny dipping in the Sea of Japan.

Thursday in Sokcho we went to Seoraksan National Park. It was beautiful. It was so refreshing to be out of the hustle and bustle of the city and to be surrounded by so much natural beauty. We bought some ice cream and played in the dry/frozen river bed. After our little frozen break we took the gondola up to the top of the mountain. The view up was amazing, and like any other form of transportation in korea very close and cozy. Once at the top we hiked up some a little more to the top. It was so gorgeous, so many peaks, and you could see forever.

After exploring around the top of the mountain we gondola-ed back down and wandered around some temples and saw a giant Buddha. I don't think I will ever get tired of ancient Korean architecture and design. Its so intricate and colorful and gorgeous.

Friday was a day of tickets and bus rides and more tickets and bus rides and yet more tickets and bus rides, but in the end it was totally worth it. Apparently Koreans love selling tickets as much as they love LED. Bus ride numero uno took as from Sokcho to random town, then onto our next bus to Samchuk. A quick dash to find lunch before our next bus, which was an adventure itself, apparently the korean pronunciation of ham is hem, who knew? Then yet another bus to the 2nd largest limestone cave in Asia.

The cave was so cool. I must admit before this trip my only other cave experiences all revolved around the same cave, a cave that creeped the hell out of me. Boulder cave was very creepy to 9 and 12 year old me, the dark, the bats the trying not to fall in the water. Side note: I have always and will probably always be scared of the dark. Thankfully this cave was completely different, but I did miss the adventure-y feel of Boulder cave. This cave was open, lit, and equiped with metal walkways and stairs. Oh, and of course LED. Take for example this lovely rainbow that was placed in a cave the was already naturally, amazingly beautiful:

The cave was amazing and hilarious at the same time. Every part of the cave, every formation, every staircase/bridge had a random name such as "bridge of confessions," "stairway of eternal love," and so on. Koreans have a lovely way of cheesin up natural wonders. Oh, speaking of cheese, one thing I did find especially entertaining was the rock formation shaped like the virgin mary. It reminded me of Cheesus, you should all take a look at "Look! It's Jesus", a wonderful little book of Jesus sightings in things like burnt toast and Cheetos, freakin great!

For lack of words here a few cave pictures:

Friday night we went spent the night out exploring downtown Sokcho. We found the only "happenin" type bar, played apples to apples and danced and danced. We decided that our next stop would be a Norebong. Norebongs maybe one of my favorite late night, early morning activities. It works like this: you and your friends rent a room with couches, you choose you song you choose your light settings and you sing your heart out. Yep, just a little karaoke room for you and your friends, its awesome. Well on this particular night we didn't find a Norebong, but we found a Nore-bar. We were the only foreigners in the bar so we were invited to jump in on many songs, and sang a few of our own. Each song was a wonderful disaster, as always.

Saturday, surprisingly, we got up early and set our on another day trip. We went south about 30 mins to a very, very small coastal town. We went to an old abandoned light house. Mostly we just looked at the ocean. There is something so refreshing and energizing about being near the ocean. The love I have for the ocean is hard to put in to words, I feel like it is so rooted in my soul and my history, I feel so connected to it. I feel so at peace whenever I am near the sea. After the lighthouse, we waited around for a bus to our next small town adventure. In the next town we saw the most beautiful temples built on the sea cliffs. The scenery and the temples were so gorgeous. There was one temple that had a glass square in the middle of the floor where you could look down and see the waves breaking on the cliffs below.

Our last night in Sokcho was mellow and wonderful. About half our group had already went home. The rest of us went out to get shabu shabu for dinner, so far my favorite korean dish. Luckily for us our friend Chris had met a Korean guy on one of our many buses and he took us out to dinner. So nice to have someone to translate and explain what was happening haha. He was very nice. After dinner we bought wine and drank it on on the beach. Overall it was a wonderful vacation. I met interesting, fun people, saw an old friend, took a much needed break from city life, and finally got to explore more of Korea. Hopefully I will have another adventure to update you on soon.

Much Love!!

1.11

Oh hello 2011! You have been so good to me so far!

The new year has brought with it a wonderful few weeks of Korean firsts. I experienced Korean snowboarding for the first time. Played poker and actually won money, not bad for my first time ever gambling. I saw my first homeless Koreans =(. Went to my first restaurant where you take off your shoes and sit on the floor. And peed in my first squatter toilet.

More details on that later, but first I would like to say that I love and miss you all very much. I love traveling and meeting new people, but I always seem to realize the same thing while I am gone: I already have the most amazing people in the world in my life. No matter where I go, or who I meet I feel so lucky to have you all to call my friends and family. You all mean so much to me, and I just wanted to let you know how important you are to me! I am truly incredibly lucky.

Ok with that said let me continue with the update-ness:

Last weekend was very fun. I have been spending a lot more time with my co-workers lately and it has been really nice. A few co-workers and I went out to dinner last Thursday. We had to take off our shoes and sit on heated floors. We ate a dish called Shabu Shabu. A large bowl of

spicy broth is placed on a burner in the middle of the table and you add vegetables and ramen noodles and wait for it to boil. Once the soup starts to boil, using your chopsticks, you pick up pieces of froze beef and hold them in the broth till the meat cooks. You also eat the rest of the soup. Once almost all the soup is gone the waitress brings a bowl of rice with a raw egg on top. This is added to the remaining soup and its all cooked up together. Then you eat this. So much food, but so good. Also at this restaurant, I had my first encounter with a squatting toilet, yes pretty much just a porcelain drain. I had heard they existed but was still slightly hopeful I would never have to use one, especially after having drank a few shots of soju. It really wasn't a big deal, just a funny thing to say I've done.

Last Friday my co-workers and I had a pizza and poker night. Korean pizza is very different. It resembles traditional pizza in appearance but definitely not taste. Although it taste very different, it is still good. It is very hard to find a pizza that uses tomato sauce, most have a potato paste. Toppings range from corn to sweet beef to shrimp, and sometimes they top it off with a sauce that taste something like honey mustard. However, Friday night we ordered pizza from a place that makes pizzas very much like you find back home!! As far a poker goes I had never really played before, nor had I EVER gambled. But I stretched the truth a little, said I had played a few times before, and googled how to play beforehand, haha. It actually went really well. I was surprised how fun it actually is. We played all night, and in the end I walked away with a little over double what I had originally started out with. I was just happy not too lose anything.

Sunday I decided to do some more exploring. There is still so, so much in this city alone that I have not seen. The cold can be very intimidating. But I decided to brave the freezing temps and go out to see an area called Insadong. This district has many antique shops and its alleyways are closed to traffic most days. The streets are lined with vendors selling food, antiques, spices, ceramics, art and common touristy items. I went to a really interesting little tea museum, saw some really beautiful, traditional Korean architecture and mostly just wondered around. I would really love to return to explore more when it is not so freezing outside.

This weekend has been great also! I went snowboarding!!! It was so exciting to try the Korean version of one of my favorite things in the world! It was so different, but pretty close to what I had imagined. We went a place called Phoenix Resort in Pyeongchang. We got up super early, caught the first subway to our bus, and bused a little over 2 hours to the resort. Once at the resort we were picked up by a guy from a local rental shop. He drove us into the nearest town, a tiny little Korean ski town, in a rickety old van that was missing most of its seats and doors that really didn't shut. We rented all of our equipment, pants, coats, boards, boats and headed back up to the mountain. Luckily one of my co-workers brought along a Korean friend of his, a really fun and sweet girl who translated all of this for us. The resort only had a few runs to chose from and there was very little difference between them. They were all wide, straight runs. No options, no tree trails, no variety of any sort, just wide and straight. They had speakers installed everywhere, so no matter where you were you could hear Korean pop music. The chairlift situation was very interesting. They unstrap from their boards every time and carry them on the lifts and walk off. Getting on the lifts is much like getting on the subway here. Everyone crowds into a mass group and pushes their way through. I think most of our time was actually spent in line. There were so many people. With the majority of the people still learning how to snowboard or ski, most of the runs were like a game of dodging unpredictable beginners, or newbies on their cell phones! I think it was mostly fun just because it was so different, but not because it was a good day of boarding. And I can honestly say I have never, ever been so cold in my entire life. I swear Korean cold is like no other cold I have experienced EVER! Overall though it was a great experience, so different, so fun!

So there are the highlights of my last two weeks. I hope you all are doing well and that 2011 has been good to you as well.

LOVE LOVE LOVE!

-oh, and p.s. I have been adding a little more of my soul to this lovely world wide web. This is still definitely a work in progress. Hoping to get some better pictures and more pictures up soon. I would love some feedback. But most of all just check it out, just some shameless self promotion of stuff I have been working on lately.

http://brionnahughes.com/

expat xmas and an interesting new years

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season. Christmas abroad, well it wasn't really Christmas, but it was good.

Christmas to me is being home with my family, tamales on Christmas Eve, Christmas music, cinnamon rolls early Christmas morning, the smell of a real Christmas tree, last minute runs to Fiesta Foods because its the only store open and we forgot something important, the whole family coming over for dinner, playing games, sneaking away with the cousins and and my sisters to go look at christmas lights around town, and more than anything just spending quality time with the most important people in my life.

Christmas here wasn't nearly as important as it is at home. There were decorations and christmas music, but overall people didn't seem to care much. My students weren't even excited. They told me that in Korea it is celebrated more with your girlfriend/boyfriend/significant other, than with family. Many people go out to dinner with their partner and buy them a gift. Young children spend it with family. Not nearly as celebrated as in the states, but they go to church, have a family dinner, eat cake, and open a present.

Christmas day really just felt like any other day, so I decided that I would find some Christmas spirit. I decided to go to the busiest shopping district, Myeong-dong, by far the most crowded, craziest shopping area I have ever been in. According to Wikipedia the floating population of Myeongdong is estimated to be around 2 million a day. There were christmas decorations and music and Koreans dressed as Santa!

I mostly just wandered around, in and out of shops, and through the maze-like streets. Its was exciting to be around so many people, and so much color and neon. And it smelled delicous from all of the street vendors. I bought hodo-gwaja (translates to walnut cakes). They smell like doughnuts and maple syrup. They are little pancake like balls filled with walnut paste and a walnut. They sell them everywhere, even in the subway station. They are very yummy.

After exploring Myeong-dong I went home and made myself a Christmas dinner, curry and wine, my favorite! Totally expecting to have a mellow Christmas night. But plans changed quickly and I ended up in Hongdae with my co-worker and his friends. I quickly found out how Christmas is really celebrated by younger Koreans. The rest of my night involved a lot of dancing, most notably to Spice Girls and the YMCA, some drinking, and meeting random friends and a lot of Christmas merriment. It was really fun.

This last week work has kept me very busy. We currently have intensives. While Korean children are on winter vacation from school we offer morning classes in addition to the evening ones. I teach morning classes a few days a week. My class is a listening and speaking workshop, which involves me playing a TV show and having the kids discuss and answer some questions about the show. This past week's lesson: Sabrina the Teenage Witch! So fun, the kids loved it! My night classes are going well. Although for one lower level class, the kids are about 8-9 years old, we are reading Arabian Night short stories. Reading a story where the sultan beheads his wife after she "takes other lovers" and main characters with names like Scheherazade, Masrour and Shahryrar is more than a little challenging. Thanks to whoever decided 9 yr olds could pronounce or even like a story like this.

Although I worked until after 10 on friday, my co-worker and I decided to go out for new years. We planned on a mellow night, but of course that is nearly impossible in Seoul. We went to a small Australian bar in Itaewon. The owner is an old hippie with long hair, but bald on top and strangely no Australian accent. He was very nice and sat and talked with us for a while. We rung in the new year in this quiet little bar, but soon decided to go see what else was going on. We went to a few different places and then decided to go home. Catching a taxi was impossible, and the subway was closed and wouldn't open again until 5am. So what did we decided to do? Of course we made the responsible decision of going back to a bar and playing darts and hanging out for about 2 more hours, until the subway was up and running again. Highlights of my New Years Eve, falling on the ice, delicious Kebab/sharawma, claiming I was really good at darts,dancing to Backstreet boys, and falling asleep on the subway at 5:30 in the am. I really hope this isn't a preview to the rest of 2011.

I hope you had a fantastic NYE! I wish you lots of love, adventure, and happiness in the new year! Miss you very much.

a little gift to you....

Brionna's suggested listening for a wonderful beginning to the new year, old, new, completely random, but all very good:

1. All I Want Is You -Barry Louise Polisar
2. Own Stunts -Breathe Owl Breathe
3. Rattle Your Bones -Black Whales
4. Anything At All -Tristan Prettyman
5. Discovery Park -Jordan O'Jordan
6. Brusies -Chairlift
7. Hysteric (Acoustic) -Yeah Yeah Yeahs
8. Fly Mama Fly -Moondoggies
9. Forever Young -Bob Dylan
10. If You Aint Got Love -Mason Jennings
11. Not Tonight -Tegan and Sara
12. The Reeling -Passion Pit
13. Slowness -Calexico
14. Like a Wheel -The Tallest Man on Earth
15. Those To Come -The Shins
16. Swept Away (Sentimental Version) -The Avett Brothers
17. True Love Will Find You In The End -Daniel Johnston
18. Who Knows Who Cares -Local Natives
19. You're Not Broken -Sera Cahoone (My current favorite!)
20. Firecracker -Ryan Adams

One down 11 to go.

Hello again my little blog readers! Ready for another rambling shamabling?

Its a beautiful sunny, Saturday in Seoul. The sunshine is A-mazing after a long week of bitter cold.

I can't believe I have been here for a month already! The last couple of weeks have been full of crazy children, snow, immigration ish, friends new and old, nuclear bomb drills, exploring, and the general day-to-day excitement of navigating a new life in a foreign country.

Daily life is still an adventure. Normal things that would seem so boring to report about, going to the grocery store, walking to school, riding the subway, ordering food at a restaurant, are all so complicated and exciting.

My little monsters/students are so cute. I love them! They are constantly making me laugh. The highlight of my teacher life last week? Teaching 9-year-old Koreans how to say refrigerator. So funny! Also, students choose English names at the beginning of the term and are allowed to change them every once in a while. Welp, I now have a class of five students, and three MUST be called Zombie, Killer Jack (not just Jack, but Killer Jack) and Brionna 2. Yes, a little boy now will not answer to anything except Brionna 2. I guess I will take that as a compliment?

Next week will be my fourth week teaching. How crazy is that? I am definitely getting use to the routine and time is going by so fast! I have definitely changed my sleeping habits. I use to live by the whole "early to bed, early to rise" adage. I think that this is largely due to the fact that I grew up on a farm. But ask anyone who has known me for a while and they can attest to the fact that my family is usually in bed by 10pm and up by 7am (at the latest!). Well sorry parents, my internal clock has been reset!! I teach from 4pm - 10 pm and I usually can't shut my brain off till well after 2am, and usually find myself falling asleep around 3ish. I wake up around 11 (gasp!) Sorry mom. =)

This last week I had to go through the hassle of becoming a legal alien of Seoul. What a freakin pain. Good news! After a few trips, a few chapters in my book (which is horribly strange, My Mother She Killed Me, And My Father He Ate Me, a book of new fairy tales if you are interested) and a few hours later I am now a registered alien, woop woop! I know you are excited for me, right? Ok, but something exciting did happen during this little trip through the Korean immigration system. While sitting in the waiting room, watching numbers click by slowly, praying for them to magically skip through all 40 ahead of me, I see a kid I know from college walk in. Completely random, and the second time that has happen to me here! Small world.

A little more exciting news, not necessarily the good type of exciting, this week Seoul had emergency nuclear bombing drills. I missed most of this, but I did hear all of the sirens and alarms from my apartment. It mostly affected students and people living near the DMZ. It did make the whole threat of war set in a little more. Every time I read the news there are stories about the North and South and the increasing possibility of war. Then I walk outside and no one seems to be concerned, just another day. I have talked to many different people and they are pretty confident that we are all very safe. So mom, I love you, and I really am ok! Please no more skype wake up calls telling me I am going to die! Also my head instructor did go over an evacuation plan with me, which places me somewhere in Japan or China, if something does happen. Life is dangerous, my friends, no matter where you are, don't let it scare you, don't let it stop you.

I have gotten a decent grasp on the extensive Seoul subway system and have been doing some exploring. Although I must say, the cold did keep me inside more often than I would like to admit. I did make it out to Itaewon, the international district. It was very strange actually. I took a taxi from my area, where I rarely see another foreigner unless I am at school, to Itaewon. When I stepped out of the cab I was standing in front of a Taco Bell and everyone was speaking in English, it was very bizarre, like some weird time...or culture warp. It was a really fun night! I met up with some fellow cougs and it was nice to be around familiar faces from my past life. I have been back to the area once to go to an English bookstore. I really wanted a new book, however after walking around for well over an hour I left empty handed. bah! English books are expensive! So for now I will finish my strange, strange book of fairytales. Any suggestions on a book that is worth my hard earned teaching wons?

Hmm... a few other small victories: I can now navigate the complex Seoul subway station with only the occasional hiccup. I found some great art stores in my favorite area so far, Hongdae. I found some great markers, which makes me really, really, really happy. I have so much free time and inspiration right now, its great! Oh and I finally found postcards! I love, love, love old fashion snail mail, writing and receiving. So check you mail boxes peeps! (if you gave me your address, if not its not too late to change your mind)

Ok. Good night, or Morning for you all on the other side of the world!

Love and miss you all so much!

"Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit."

-e.e. cummings

finding my way.

Monday morning. Drinking fake, sugary, yummy, Korean coffee. Listening to This American Life (about people who find themselves in situations far from the beaten path, where there are no guidelines and no useful precedents haha). I am a happy girl.

Thought I would take a minute to update you all with the latest in my new Korean life.

Last week was my first official week teaching. I LOVED IT! I teach the most adorable children ever! Sure some drive me crazy. And some force me to desperately try to find my serious side, when all I want to do is bust up laughing, but I have to maintain classroom management, bah! Most teachers pass out candy like there's no tomorrow, I have yet to adopt this form of classroom management. I'm not sure if it has more to do with the fact I feel guilty shoveling candy into children's mouths, or if its more because I am too cheap to buy mass amounts of candy. But I am afraid that I may have to break down and start the candy bribing routine, I don't want to become "that teacher" haha, the stingy, mean one.

Teaching is so much fun. I love when the kids can't find the English word or phrase they need they go into this huge, animated, miming explanation of what they are trying to say. It is hilarious! Very creative kids. I love that they add extra syllables, most commonly ah and ie to the end of every word. And I love that they have no filter. They will say just about anything, this isn't much different from any other child, but its still hilarious.

During some exercises the students must create sentences using a given structure. One sentence was ________ prefers_____because______. Most kids say things like I prefer ice cream because it tastes good. However, one kid stands up and yells out "My dad prefers to hit me because he likes it." And then continued to yell out how, and with what, like it was no big deal, and the rest of the class, including the teacher I was shadowing, just carried on without hesitation. Another time we were talking about hugging. I asked one boy, about 8 yrs old, who do you hug? Do you hug your parents? His answer: "Not my dad, my dad, (animated mocking of someone drinking, a lot!) then he (very, very animated imitation of puking) and then he stinks, so I don't hug my father." OK, moving on, haha.

Another thing that never seems to grow old is that fact that I have my nose pierced, or that fact that I am single and live on my own, both are shocking really! My name has also been a great topic. "Bri-onna" "Rhi-anna?" "No Bri-onna" "Vienna........Vienna Suasage!!!" "Piranha......AHHH Piranha!"haha, this never gets old.

Another highlight of this past week was a trip to Costco with my co-workers. It was interesting to be in such an american store in Korea. I only bought a box of cereal. There were somethings I thought about buying, pepperjack cheese, trail mix, and a few other hard to find items, but then I realized that the bulk size would last me a year, or go bad before I could eat half of it haha. But it was fun to go out with my co-workers, which is something that rarely happens at my branch. Hopefully this changes.

Also worth noting, I will be moving soon!! YAY! Not far, just a short distance from where I am now. My co-worker is moving home after being here for 2 years. She is leaving behind several things, and has a BED! This is very exciting, and will save me money. Now I only have two more weeks of sleeping on the floor, so happy! (and for those that have been asking hopefully I will know my address soon!)

What's the best way to end a great first week of teaching? Go out and explore seoul of course!!! I was originally suppose to go out with two of my co-workers, but was late because I lost my subway card, and meeting up without cellphones is difficult. So I talked my temporary roommate into going out with me instead. And its really funny how things seem to work out. We decided to go out to Hongdae, a very lively, energetic area. Its a university district, tons of people, bars, clubs, street vendors, and neon lights. It was so much fun. We danced our way from place to place, just soaking in the whole experience. So much fun! Towards the end we randomly decided to stop into one last bar. It was a good choice because I ran into an old friend from college!! So random but totally made my night! We stayed and met cool people and danced late into the night. I quickly learned that its very easy to lose track of time when bars don't close and you are having fun! By the time we made it into bed the sun was coming up. Apparently this is a very normal night in Seoul.

Great end to a great week! I definitely feel like I am beginning to settle in. I am slowing finding my way in this crazy part of the world and I am so very happy.

I love and miss you all very much!

"What will we make of this time? What will it make of us?"

-Gregory Maguire

2 weeks in Seoul.

Tomorrow marks two weeks living in South Korea and I feel a new post is way overdue. Summing up the last two weeks in a single post will be a challenge, but here goes........

Seoul week 1:

As I mentioned in my previous post my first week was consumed by training. Training was pretty stressful. It was full of tests and mock teaching. The material itself was not very difficult but if you failed training you were without a job, no place to stay, and no plane ticket home, which put a lot of pressure on all of us trainees. ChungDahm (the school I work for) is not like other schools in the way that train their teachers. It is very common for English teachers to just be put in a classroom with little to no direction, so I do appreciate the training. I slept little, bonded quickly with my fellow trainees over dinner and studying (aka freetime), and....PASSED!!!! Not to brag, ok brag a little, my head instructor said that my final evaluations were the best he's seen in a very long time, if ever! I was pretty happy to hear this because training wasn't the most uplifting experience.

Immediately following training they ship everyone out to their separate locations. Not gonna lie, the transition was a little rough. I met some really great people during training so it was strange to be taxied away to a little apartment that had nothing (suppose to semi-furnished) and where I knew no one. Okay, I know thats lame, but I felt really alone. So I decided to get out and explore my new neighborhood. I made it a few blocks and then...got hit by a truck haha. Well thats a little dramatic, I was backed into, but it hurt none-the-less. I quickly learned the Koreans drive where ever they please, convenient by dangerous. No worries though, this was just a bad day, the only bad day!!!

Week 2:

A friend from training has been staying with me for last few days and it has been really nice to have the company and an exploring companion. We have wondered around Eunpyeong (my new homeland) quite a bit. We went to a local bar. Korean bar snacks= seaweed, nuts and soy sauce. And have tried a few local restaurants. A few nights ago we went to a small, side-street, restaurant that was amazing. It was traditional Korean bbq, you grill your meat on a charcoal grill in the middle of your table, so good! And the staff was super friendly, and helpful. Towards the end of out meal our neighboring table, about 4 Korean men wearing the recognizable soju glow, slyly passed us some of their meal. Im still not exactly sure what it was but it appeared to be some sort of shellfish, with a little spicy salad on the side. I am a HUGE texture person, and can't stomach the thought of eating something slimy, but I also didn't want to offended anyone. I put on my best poker face, chewed and swallowed, not one but two as quickly and politely as I could. I had to fight my slime-gag reflex, but I loved the experience! And so did the drunk Korean locals, "not afraid, not afraid!" they laughed and gave us more, great, haha!

I started work on monday. My co-workers all seem really nice. They have all been here for a few years at least and the branch seems more relaxed than others I have heard about. I job shadowed for the beginning of the week and subbed weds-fri for a teacher that left. It was really great to finally get in and start teaching. The kids are so adorable, well most of them haha! It was the last week of the term so all of the classes I taught were the students last day. It was little tough to jump in to a class on the last day and keep them interested. I could totally tell that they were like "ok I only have this teacher for one day, I can do whatever I want." Also all of the students had already taken their "level up" test so they knew weather or not they were moving up a level. It was basically like getting a sub on the last day before summer vacation. It was so much fun! I cant wait to start with my own classes on Monday!

So that basically sums up my first two weeks in Seoul. I feel like I'm forgetting some major events, but thats pretty much the gist of what I have been up to.

I wrap things up with some interesting things I have learned about Korea:

1. Heated floors make it really hard to wake up in the morning (when sleeping on the floor)

2. Men buy inserts called "shoe lifts" to make them appear taller, and will sometimes lie abouthow many they have in.

3. Like I mentioned before, they drive where ever and however the please, its nuts!

4. Statistic say that over 80% of girls have had plastic surgery.

5. Heated toilet seats kinda make you feel like you peed your pants.

6. Almost all business names are in English, but nothing inside is.

7. American fast food chains are everywhere, pizza hut, baskin robbins, burger king, dunkin donuts, starbucks, mc donalds, quiznos, pappa johns, is crazy.

8. Drinking soju makes using chopsticks very difficult.

and much, much more to add later......

I love and miss you all very much. There is a lot in the media right now about the tension between the North and South and I have gotten a lot of worried messages. Please know that I am safe and happy here. It is a little unsettling but we can only hope that it will all blow over soon, if not maybe I will be seeing you all soon!

LOVE FROM KOREA!