EV Boys

Some tunes from some Americans that live in Korea.... they make some hilariously true points about Korean culture.... i love it. I saw them play on Saturday night with some friends... they were singing/performing at this bar in HaeBongChan....

A-E-I-Love-U



Kickin' it in Geumchon

Tattoos and Korea... bad mixture

Yes... I have tattoos... if you don't know this, then you don't know me.

I happen to love my tattoos. I don't believe in getting tattoos just cause you like the design. I think that all tattoos should have a significant meaning. They should make you feel a certain way or remember an event in life. I have a few tattoos...

I didn't know that they would be a huge deal like they apparently are. I didn't know that my every move would be judged and more harshly criticized because I made a choice to get ink in my skin. I am not stupid. I am a very smart person and a great teacher. The kids LOVE me, and I love them... we get along, but they also learn and have fun. Our classroom environment is amazing.

The boss here at Delicious English (yes... thats the name... funny eh?) hates my tattoos. One of her first phrases to me upon meeting me back in August was "only prostitutes have tattoos". I tried not to be offended, but in all honesty... I totally was offended. It was rude and thank you.... but I am not a prostitute. I am a college educated person. I am smart, I am kind and I have a lot of friends. I've gotten to do so many things in life that people will never get to do. Apparently one of those things is to be discriminated against by Koreans because they are too stuck in their conservative world to notice that there is a whole world around them that doesn't have the same staunch beliefs.

Thanks, but I hate the fact that they want me to cover up my tattoos when it is 90 degrees inside. I told them that I refuse to cover them up if they don't make the temperature more comfortable. Its not unreasonable for me to ask that. If they cannot do that, then I will "lose" my long sleeve shirts.

Screw them, I'm not a child... I can make my own decisions and if the parents seriously think that their 5 year old is going to go get a tattoo, then they have far more to worry about than just my influence. They should take a good hard look at their parenting skills.

________________

So... today is October 17th. Friday. TGIF!! I can't wait for the weekend. I want to relax. The smog has been so disgusting here recently, I can hardly breathe. I'm starting to get a serious cold... and I want to get rid of it before Sunday when Erik, Kristen, Christine, Gina, Chandra and I are going to Everland. Everland is the biggest amusement park in all of Korea. I can't wait. I love rollercoasters. Its nice to be around people here that enjoy them as much as me!!

AND, I bought a new camera last weekend, which is so rad. I love it. The screen is big enough that I can actually SEE the photos after I've taken them. My last camera had the smallest screen. It would drive me crazy everytime I took a picture.

I took photos of all my kids today including some videos. They are amusing kids. I need to take more pics of my elementary kids. I don't see them as often or for as long as the Kindergarteners, but they are cute too.

Speaking of cute... Alice. Is. Adorable. I'm so in love with that kid. She's the best. Today we had "Friday video time" which we do every Friday after lunch. The kids all sit in the gym and watch Tom and Jerry. Alice was attached to me, as usual.

I was sitting there with her on my lap and Yuna and Emily attached to my sides.... when Alice reaches back and grabs my nose with her little hand. She then lightly holds on to my nose for about 2 minutes straight. It was hilarious but so cute at the same time. She didn't take her eyes off the screen at all, she just felt she needed to hold on to my nose.

I'm going to post some photos.... a blog is not complete without pics of random stuff....

Ballerina Alice and Ballerina Chloe on Ballet Mondays here at Delicious English


The peace sign is very common here... Here is June. My funny man


Me and Alice, on Ballet Monday. Yes... she really does sit on my lap that often. AND she was doing her "AH?" look... she looks shocked and I'm laughing


The park... Central Park actually... from our office window...


Me and Kristen with our prizes from the mini street carnival in Hongdai
She looks drunk and I look mentally handicapped.


Kristen and I with some celebrators for someone's bday. Buddha's bday is in the spring I think... so it wasn't him...


I don't know what he was making, but it sure made a big ::splat::


Cutest vegetarian restaurant ever.


Me and Alice... she's so cute.


Kristen and I were lost... this picture captures the reasons for our confusion perfectly. "Um excuse me... should we be on line, double line, big o, line, horizontal line? or... is that the wrong subway"

My Nephew

I am so in love with my nephew, London. He's the most beautiful baby and I am so sad that I won't be seeing him for a whole year of his life!! He is so cute and I left when he was only a couple months old.

I feel that I'm missing a vital time in his life and I won't get to know his personality until I get home.

BUT, he will be the most spoiled kid ever when I get done with him.

Here are some photos.

London in the beanie I bought him in Seattle.... before he was born. He's a rockin' kid.







London with his beautiful Momma, Bekah



London playing with his mom's fake hair pieces....



London with his Grandpa. Adorable toothless smile :)

Museum (With 2 videos)

Today is Friday in Korea... for the rest of the world by the time Friday starts... my Friday will be over.

Thank god for the weekend.... it has been hell here in Korea. Mostly because they don't believe in hiring subs when teachers are absent, so we are all worked to the bone from covering classes left and right.

Kristen, a fellow teacher, and a friend of mine... had to go to Hong Kong to get her visa (much like I did in Japan last week). She had huge problems there regarding her visa and she's not back yet. I hope that everything goes well for her, because without her here..... we all have to pick up extra classes. Needless to say... I'm not a fan of picking up extra classes.

Not only that... but today we were supposed to go to the zoo with the Kindergarteners. I was so excited for this because I haven't been to a zoo in forever AND the Kindergarteners are so cute that they just make you so excited for everything. Unfortunately Korea had to rain on our parade. Literally....

It hasn't rained in about a week and a half and of course it picks today to rain. Lame.

We went to the art museum instead. As you can imagine, the kids were less than thrilled to be in a museum. But they handled it well and entertained themselves with "TEACHER JUMP" and various other teacher-harming activities. In the museum were about a billion of Koreas youth... most of them in the early high school stage. They were in love with our little kids. So many photos were taken of them by random Korean young adults. Very random.

I've never had so many people say HI to me in my life. I was walking down the road with a kid on each arm and 5 more in tow and these high school kids were just saying HI, one after the other. Then one says "You are very beautiful". I almost kissed that person. That was very sweet. I felt quite happy to hear that.

My favorite part of the day, besides being paid... finally... was when we were sitting in the museum during break time. Alice is attached to my hip and everytime I sit down... she wants to be on my lap. So I was holding her and she was singing the "Erik Teacher song"... featured below... Then she turns to me and puts her lips against my cheek and says "I love you".

Erik Teacher song:



It was so adorable!!! My heart soared. These kids make my pain and anguish and frustration completely worth it.

Then later in the day, I walked by Alice while I was teaching the elementary students and she was chewing gum and reaches into her mouth and pulls the piece apart and gives me the other half. So gross, but so cute!!

I love that kid....

this video below shows how cute she is....

The Tiny Reasons for Living.

Everyday here in Korea presents a new obstacle to overcome. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my experiences here more than I could ever have imagined... but that doesn't mean it is easy at all. It gives me an incredible sense of self to know that I am making a difference in these kids lives. I'm an adult they can look up to, I'm of a different culture so they are no longer single minded regarding the world. They learn from me in many ways and I get to see them grow and develop right before my eyes.

My kids are the reason why I'm here. Despite the frustrating days when I go home knowing that I will never want to reproduce.... they are wonderful. They attach themselves to you so completely that you cannot help but love them. Even someone that has a cement heart like me can't help but adore them so completely.

Here are some photos of my kids. I have 7 kids in my class and 3 kids in another class (10 Kindergarteners in total). In the afternoons I have a few classes of elementary... I don't have as many photos of them... Someday i will

These are my Kindies:

Alice (The most adorable and sweet kid ever. She has an amazing personality already and she's only 3 in the states (in Korea she is 5)). She can't go an hour without sitting on my lap or grabbing my hand... Adorable



June-- SO smart and a bit silly.



Max-- heartbreaker



Yuna-- silly



Emily-- shy but beautiful



Eric-- my little rock



Kate-- loves to draw butts on the white board... strange but hilarious kid.



Chloe-- weirdo



Daniel-- pain in the butt



Edward-- No photo yet. He is new.

Around Seoul (In pictures)

I try to take my camera wherever I go in Seoul and around where I live so that I can document my daily life. My first few days here were basically me being terrified of going anywhere. Once I got to know my coworkers I was a lot better and I started to have a lot of fun.

Kristen is amazing because she's a lot like me and is very adventurous. She took me and showed me what she knew of how to navigate the subway. The little that she knew helped a great deal. From then on we are putting our knowledge together to get wherever we need to go. We can navigate the subway with our eyes closed now.

Here are some photos of the neighborhood where I live:










And.... here's some photos of my uber small apartment. I kinda like it... weirdly.









And... here's my bathroom... with a drain in the floor and a toilet seat that is too big for the toilet.





Erik and I found a really nice black chair on the street corner in my neighborhood... we grabbed it and put it in my apartment. It's a nice little addition to my place.

I kinda like it.

Here it is:

Coming soon to a Korean near you

I'll be updating this soon!!

I promise!!

I want to put up photos of my many adventures around Korea, to DeokJeok Do, and to Japan.

But I have not had internet at my apartment at all, and now that I officially have my work visa, I can finally get some!!

I can't wait!

Once the internet is not touch and go.... things will be updated. I promise!!

I am still alive and having a great time!

Peace buddies.