So imagine the tackiest wedding ever! I mean, like "The Wedding Singer in Vegas" wedding. That would be the wedding that I attended last Saturday. Ok, so I walk in with my landlord and her daughters and immediately I am like, "Oh, no...holy nast!" It was white with awful chairs and plastic flowers and...exactly how they show wedding chapels in Vegas to be. Then, I'm looking around and I realize that there are green and red lights flashing around like it's some dance floor or basketball game. So the groom walks down like normal and I'm beginning to get over the shock of how God awful this all looks, when the Bride walks down. Remember when I said it looked like a basketball game? Yeah, well now the fog machines come on as the Bride walks down the aisle. Are...you...serious! At this moment, I wanted someone to laugh with, as bad as that sounds. But apparently this is very normal and typical, so I'm alone with my smile. So then the priest man says something and suddenly the Bride and Groom face each other and jungle music comes on. You know, like the soundtracks you can get that plays tropical birds and frogs and it sounds calm and foggy? Yep, that's one. Then blah blah blah and I found out that the cake is in the wedding hall because there's no celebration afterwards (they go on their honeymoon right away). So the cake has two candles on it...cool?! They walk over to the cake and guess what happens! Not only do the fog machines on the floor come back but the cake has its own fog machine! My jaw literally dropped at this point, I couldn't hold it anymore, and I acted like I thought is was really cool. Then, you guessed it, they blew out the candles like a frickin' birthday cake. Where on Earth did they get these ideas? Then they do some more talking and stick money in a shoe, and the Groom kisses the Brides ankle and then does push-ups with her on his back and then done! As I was laughing to myself at this whole wedding, they tell me that was the funny part...riiiiggghhht. But, as they're walking down the aisle they pop those things that you use for New Years. The poppers that pop out colorful streamers. Yep, sparkling strings everywhere! Including in my face. So...totally 80's Vegas wedding gone all wrong. It was too funny! I couldn't help but think otherwise, I'm sorry! But then after, my landlord talked to them and they let me watch this ceremony that usually only has immediate family and that was cool. It was straight up Korean, they were all in traditional Korean clothes and were drinking tea and throwing walnuts around and bowing...I don't really know what was going on; but from what I gathered, the nuts represent fertility. I don't get why they try so hard to be like us when they have such cool traditions. I mean, they completely botched the Western style wedding into God only knows what, but the traditional Korean ceremony was really neat.

So this week is Halloween week! Whoo hoo!!! I totally forced it on everyone! My first and 2nd graders, which are an after school class, got to make ghost suckers (where you put the napkin over the sucker and then draw a face) and spider peanut butter Ritz things. I also found out through this activity, that Koreans are not totally down with the peanut butter. Americans on the other hand eat the stuff by the spoonful. I felt so bad that I ended up just giving them fake Oreos. I should've guess that peanut butter wasn't the best idea. When you go into a store,. there's usually about 3 containers. But I have this girl in my 2nd grade who is soooo awesome! I love her...I know I shouldn't favor but she's super smart and really polite. She helps me translate my direction and does roll-call for me since Hell if I know how to read their names! She's in one of the pictures, the one in pink...the one in pink that's smiling with a Ritz spider. After my last class, the room was a mess and she and two other girls helped me clean and carried my stuff back to my room. So cute!

I also added some pics of me and my faculty. There is this spot where everyone gathers and eats and chats. That's where we are. I made them Peanut butter rice crispy...I took a risk knowing that the PB wasn't cool with they little ones. But they loved them! And then I made chocolate cookies just in case they hated PB too. I also made my co-teacher, Kathy, a special Halloween treat. She helps way too much and her life is...well, life. I just can't imagine raising two tiny kids, being a wife and teacher in Korea, and then having a 23 year old follow you around all day. I just don't think I'll ever be able to make it up to her. So for now, I made her pudding, with Oreo topping, and nutter butters as the tombstone (my dads idea). I wanted to make mud pie with the gummy worms, but go figure...gummy worms are rare and a bit expensive. I've really had to reinvent my cooking. If it's easy to find and make at home, it's probably not ever possible to make here. I mean, my cookies have turned out ok, but nothing like back home. I mean, I'm cool with giving my cookies away back home, but here I'm like "OMG, are they ok? They're totally different! Are they gross?" But one thing I have learned is that their desserts are lower in sweetness than ours, so if my stuff tastes like flour or rice, they'll love it. That's kinda the taste I go for now.







Awww, so on the note of differences in food. My pumpkin sucked! So I was looking at real pumpkins all week (Koreans have tiny green pumpkins that they cook with. The big orange one that we use for Halloween...I'm not really sure what they do with them). So I finally went with my co-teacher, Kathy, and paid too much, according to my friend Brian. Get this beast home and I cut out the top really easy! I think "this is cool!" Then the inside is not like American pumpkins, as the pictures show. I can pop the seeds right out of the guts without on issue and very little soaking to get the nasties off involved. Then I go to make my face and it's cracking everywhere! Every cut I make creates a bigger crack until finally, the forehead falls off. This is after I have cut myself 3 times because I'm getting so frustrated. So the head falls off and I decided F* it! I'm keeping the insides and making soup! So I cut up my non-jack-o-lantern and freeze the pieces. As this is all happening, I'm telling Brian how much the Pumpkins suck and guess what...today I get pictures of his and all his foreigner friends pumpkins. So I guess it was just my pumpkin because he was nice enough to rub in my face the fact that they succeeded! Luckily I'm going to where they live tomorrow and I'll at least I'll be able to enjoy looking at one or two! And I suppose 1/2 the fun is making a mess and then eating seeds. And that I did for sure!...Although my pumpkin had about 12 seeds:( But I ate them damn it!

Oh, also I've been having issues with my health. I'm bloated, gain 8 pounds in about 5 days, feels full and tight and vomited the other night. So I did some research and found a few possibilities. I could have cancer, I could be pregnant (Oh please! I haven't been that lucky in God knows when), I'm the virgin Mary, or I have some food allergies. Ok, so since there's so many different things I need to do to figure this out, I've decided to go with easiest: food allergies. This would not normally be a big deal but Koreans are very...judgmental. I didn't even know where to begin explaining this problem. I can't say "Yo! You're food makes me barf! Whats up?" It's very, VERY good food so idk what to say to them. I finally went to my co-teacher when I started getting rib pains (I looked this up too...it's actually sore muscles from vomiting the other night). I was so nervous that I started crying. Ok, this culture is so concerned with their foreigners all the time and they also make judgments and assumptions very quickly. I was crying because I don't want them to think that they have bad food or I don't like it or I'm turning down what they love and eat everyday. Again, it's soooo good. But I've been sooooo sick. I'm pretty sure Kathy understood, so we decided that it was ok for me to bring my own lunch. I read that I should cut out grains, wheat, dairy. blah blah blah, since those for common food allergies. It may also just be that the food is new and has new diseases that my bodies not used to. So for my lunches, I bring only fresh fruits and veggies that I have cleaned in bleached. Well...my co-teacher did not tell anyone that I was doing this so they were all very concerned and some even said "Diet?" All I can say is sick. It's kinda hard to describe whats going on...believe me, I tried for 45 mintues. But get this: everything Koreans eat are "good for your health." "I'm sick." "No, Miranda, this is good for your stomachache. No Miranda, this fights cancer. No Miranda, this gives you energy. No Miranda, this good for health..." OK OK! Jesus! Nothing here is making me sick, it's all healthy! Got it! So please, give it a go. Try and tell them my problem. It's not easy; it actually sucks because in a way, I'm isolating myself from them. Like I said, they are very judgemental and everyone does the same thing. Different is just not done. But I don't really know what else to do! I'm sick...period. So something so simple as a food allergy has turned into a big concern to the other teachers. Oh, and now they just say diet and I go with it. If they're cool with "diet" but not cool with "sick"...then yeah ok, diet!

Oh and P.S., the personal trainer said that we're good friends when I walked in the other day...so yeah...I'm good friends with a cute, possibly gay but who can tell when all Korean men look gay, guy! Score!

Oh, and if you're thinking that I wear wierd makeup to school...you're wrong! It was Halloween and considering I'm using my old Miller Girl uniform as a costume, I found a tiny face painting was the most appropriate. So no, I do no go to school with purple carp all over my face. Just on Halloween! Happy Halloween everyone! P.S.S., it's nice and pretty warm here for all those in WI and MN! Can you imagine a warm Halloween? I know! I still can't believe it!

OHHHH and geeze, one more thought. You wanna know what I miss the most? Driving. For those of you who know me, you know that I drive when I'm happy, sad, mad, stressed, anything! Now what! I have my Ipod that my super awesome best friend Jen gave me, but it's not the same. I love driving with the music blasting and singing at the top of my lungs and dancing my really bad dances. No one can hear you and you can just zone out. Imagine loosing the one thing that relaxed you. It sux! So now guess what I do. I walk down to this bike path really early in the morning with my Ipod and sing outloud and kinda bob around a bit; it's the closest I can get to driving and singing. So what I want for Chirstmas is for some nice Korean to let me drive their car around the block, alone, a few times. 10 mintues driving around a block would be soooo sweet! Just a few rounds around the block! I promise! Now to find a nice Korean that likes me enough to let me drive...Wish me luck!

Ok, so lesson learned; do not wait two weeks to post a blog. Here is my part two and it will be long as well. I'm sorry! Hopefully my stories are interesting enough to be worth two posts and possibly 20 minutes of your time. My super awesome friend Brian has a goal of it taking no longer than 7 minutes to read his posts...not going to happen with me. Although I believe that he post more than once a week...cheater.

So last week was my first real week of real teaching. I would say, overall, I give my self a 70%. Some classes made me walk away with a "hell yeah" attitude and some made me think that I really needed a good cocktail after school. Mondays and Tuesday and teach 1-4 grade. The 1st and 2nd graders are a after school program that the parents have to request to get into. How they choose...I don't know. Probably everyone's in, I'm not sure on the process. 3rd grade has been very hard to plan for. They know the basics...I mean the basics! So not only do I have to plan something very simple for the children but I have to make sure its easy enough to explain to the teacher. One of the 3rd grade teachers is very good at English and I can make up whatever and she'll most likely understand. The other 3rd grade teacher...ummmm, well, let's just say we didn't end up playing tic-tac-toe. The 4th grade is 1/2 and 1/2! My co-teacher is one of the 4th grade teachers and the other one speaks pretty solid english. It makes it alot easier when you can explain a game or activity to the teacher and then have them interpurate it to the students. Otherwise, try and explain but if you cant, give up and move on to the next activity cause you're wasting time. The other 4th grade class is the Devil! They run around and do whatever they want! They open windows and let wind blow papers everywhere, they play with their toys, they talk and run around and jump on desks...I have no control nor does their regular teacher. It feels awful to want to help and yet be so helpless. There is nothing you can do at this point expect look dumb and clueless. It's also very sad to know that they're only screwing up their education. And their screwing over the students that actually want to be there for that matter. I have been thinking about this class since Monday and I am determined to get this right! If they're bad, the lessons aren't fun for anyone. I ended up calling my parents for emergency advice! I was so scared and nervous and thrown off. But I think I may have a few ideas now, due to my parents and an old teacher friend from Wyoming. So wish me luck with them! 5th grade was...apparently not memorable cause I can't think of what to tell you about them. But I would say that's a good thing. Not memorable to better than Devil kids. 6th grade is fun! They can understand alot more and one class I kind of just assist the regualr teacher but the other class I own! This class is my favorite because they're wicked smart, super competitive, and just good kids. So they really get into activities and when someone is confused or falling behind, they help them. I love to see other students helping other students. It makes my job easier and it's just nice to see...nice people I guess.

But I have to tell you about Monday, my worse day ever! It was going pretty well until my Devil class. They just really screwed up my day! So I had this day that was full of suprises (being my first day of teaching) and then had the class from Hell. So, I was on the verge of tears and on my way to the gym to burn off some steam. Then...of course...I fell down the stairs! It was like "Of course I'd fall down the freakin' stairs on a day like today!" But, instead of getting more mad, I found myself laughing. I mean, how mad can you get when on the worse day ever, you trip and fall over? It was just too ironic and kinda funny. It ended up making my day better actually.

So, here's what I like to do: Mon-Friday I go to work, go to gym, eat dinner, watch some of a movie, and go to bed. I like "me time" for sure on the weekdays. But on Tuesday my younger co-workers asked me if I wanted to eat with them (we were all still at school late). I was actually about to just go home and go to bed but this was the 1st time I'd been invited by the them. So I kind of had to say yes. They ordered sushi and it was fun...in a ""I kind of feel like part of the group" kind of way. It can be hard because although everyone is nice, you will never be real friends will them unless they speak VERY good English or you speak VERY good Korean. You just have a huge language barrier that enables you to have really solid conversations. But it was nice to be with them in a more casual enivornment.

I have this girl who is the 2nd grade and she is sooo smart and too cute! Korea does these English contese which each county should hold. So our county had 9 students participating and they were all in 6th grade except for our 2nd grader! Her name in Min Yeje (I believe her first name is Yeje because she sisters name is Min Go Eun). Anyway, I'd work with her everyday on this speech and have her pronounce the words correctly. For example: they tend to forget their S's...loves, moms, flowers... or Photographer versus Photography. She ended up getting 3rd! How cool when she was competing with 6th graders! But she was a huge help in my 2nd grade after school class. I'd tell them some game we were about to do and she'd end up explaining it to them. Or if I student was acting up, she'd go over to them and make them behave. She's great. Then after class, we had to work on her speech. So we worked on it a bit and then ended up just talking. She drew me a map and showed me where I lived (which is scary because I didn't realize students knew where I lived) and then where she lived. And then she showed me a pumpkin and then drew a Jack-O-Lantern and asked me what it was called. And then she told me that the boys in our class where bad...which they were but I couldn't tell her that exactly. It was just so nice because your sitting here feeling like "Am I actually doing anything for these kids?" Then you get a student like Yeje and it really makes your day.

On Thursday, we had a faculty only field trip to this mountain that is close by. It's so grougeous right now was the leaves changing and all. So we left school at about 1:30 and then got there at about 3:30 and hiked for awhile. We'd pause every now and then to snack and drink Soju. Although the women in my particular school don't really drink so it was mainly the men. It was kind of funny because they asked if that was how we hiked and I said NO! It would be illegal if we drank in public like that. Then we arrived at this little shop/food area and ate some funky things that I still don't know what they were and drank Makgeolli, Korea Rice Wine. They seemed to like I drank some...so that's cool I guess... So I thought our day was over because it was about 6pm by now. But no...We're headed to Sokcho! Which is about an hour away, but thank God is a really cool town. We were going to Sokcho to eat Hway (raw fish). So at this restaurant we ahve a whole room to ourselves and there's food all set up and Cider (Cider=Sprite), and Soju...or course. So we hate the food that was set up and then they brought out a whole octopus! I was way excited because I had wanted one...my own of course but what the hell? Good enough 'eh?! So they bring out this octopus and then just cut it up with scissors and give it to you. Then after the octopus, which I thought was the main dish, we get a huge of Hway. The Hway was raw Flat Fish and something else that I'm not sure what it would be called in the states. But soooo good. I really like the Flat Fish, look it up and you'll know what I'm talking about. It's very popular here. Then I thought we'd be done, but no! We got more weird sides of who knows what. In this time, I had to P.E. teacher ask me to come to their table...where the drunk men were. Now normally I would. But here, drinking is a very different culture. The men get super drunk and the women seem to hate it. Also, foreginers should be careful. You can drink, but not like the men do, even if you're a man. A faculty member even told me that I didn't have to drink that much id I didn't want to, and I probably shouldn't. She said me, Adam, English teachers should not drink like they do in that situation. Your repretation is very important here, so you don't want to mess it up with one stupid drunk night. So they are tricky Koreans! They want you to drink with them, but not too much! You need to still have people respect you. Then, I had the P.E. come up to me and tell me that I should pour my Soju for my School master. You DO NOT pour with one hand nor do you pour with you left hand. Always pour mainly with your right hand and then support it with you left. Also, you don't pour for yourself. You pour for everyone else and then one person pours for you. So I go up to me School Master, the hightest, most respected man in our school and offer him my soju. He was very happey and excited and I hope I poured right! Then he poured me a shot and asked me to pout the VP a shot. Then I learned how to say "Cheers." Then, they had me do another round and another round. After that I said peace! I was so nervous that I'd become a drunken idiot. So then I go back to my table of safety and they came back to me and poured me more shots and then did a speech for me. I'm sure it was very nice...Soju mixed with me and speeches has to be nice right?! Then they made me stand up and say Cheers in Korean. After I sat down, the other teachers asked if I was ok because I was so red. I don't mind public speaking and usually don't get too nervous. I haven't turned red out of nervousness in years! So I ahd to explain to them how nervous I was. Not only am I in a strange situation with co-workers that I've been seeing so professionally but I also don't know how much Soju I can handle. Turns out, I could probably out drink the Korea dudes! I was telling them that work get togethers do happen when "forced." I say forced, as in some special thing is going on. But otherwise you hang out with the co-workers that you actually like and trust. They understood they yes, you can drink with people that you don't have to worry being drunk and dumb around. And maybe that's just me; I prefer to drink with people I trust. But at the end of the night, the men were pretty drunk, the English teacher was just fine, and the women were 100% sober...so I think I pleased everyone. The next day I brought a snack to the faculty room just incase...