Spooktacular Halloween-euh

 

Trick Or Treat

Smell my feet

Give me something good to eat

if you don't, I don't care...

I have cuter kids than you *shrugs*

It's that time of year once again! Time to completely cover Little America with orange and black decorations that they've used every year since the beginning of time only for one day and then take it all down again in a hectic flurry of scissors and tape. This year especially, Solomon teacher did not want decorations to go up until the very last minute. They don't look professional I suppose. So Thursday, Shine teacher and I went to work decorating Idaho classroom during the day and then the real work began at night when all of the teachers join forces to turn Little America into a Halloween explosion. There until 10:30pm, we put the majority of our decorating efforts and tired-loopy-energy into assembling the haunted house. After about an hour of cutting and getting tangled in packaging tape, the spooky maze was nearly complete. It was at this point that the foreign teachers pretty much lost it. We found a gross old blond wig and a scream mask and thus commenced a photo shoot. Unfortunately for you, these photographs will never be seen....ever...

*Distraction picture of the haunted house process*

One very exciting thing (maybe not for all of you) was the incredible purchase of new trashbags to create the narrow pathways of the maze! We had used old, tape covered, ripped, and sad trashbags that just weren't doing the job. These new ones made the construction sooo much easier. The Korean teachers sent us home so they could finish without us getting in their way. They would do test runs and finish hanging scary things throughout the maze.

happy balloon bat

Idaho's ghost door

The next morning, Kaitie, Katrina, and I headed into work early to get started on make up and costume assembly. The themed costumes of the teachers this year was a new component of Halloween at Little America. We each chose our favorite character from the well known, creepy, Disney movie "Alice in Wonderland". The cast list is as follows;

Alice in Wonderland

Brought to you by:

Little America

Alice: Kaitie Teacher

 

Cheshire Cat: Katrina Teacher

 

White Rabbit: Christina Teacher

 

Mad Hatter: Liz Teacher

 

White Queen: Shine Teacher

 

Red Queen: Laura Teacher

 

Teacup Mouse: Grace Teacher

 

Talking Flower: Joy Teacher

 

Card Soldiers: Alex Teacher, Jennifer Teacher, Claire Teacher

 

Special appearance by: Solomon Teacher, playing....Solomon Teacher

 

Throughout the week, we played the movie for the students in the morning so that they would be prepared for our group costume. Most of them had never heard of the movie! I love spreading some memories from my childhood (as creepy as they might be...) to the students here. Possible side effects might be Kaitie Teacher being called "Alice Teacher" indefinitely.

As we crouched in our dark doorways that morning, we heard the students being led into the main area of the school. This is when the crying started. The students refused to be led through the hall, stubbornly freezing to the spot in the doorway where that last bit of light could save them from the ultimate doom that was the dark hallway. I heard Idaho class being called in and when there was no movement at the end of the hall I deduced that my girls would need a bit of assistance. Walking towards them, Jean started crying harder and backing away. Until I held her and told her it was just Laura Teacher she was convinced I was some evil royal queen there to take her away forever. After leading them into our classroom and stopping the tears, I had them help me scare the other students as they walked to their classrooms. Once this tormenting was over, the lights came on and the festivities commenced.

 

 Iron man loves pumpkin carving

The day is fully packed with Halloween song contests, birthday celebrations, and trick or treating....and that was all before lunch. At some point during a break, the foreign teachers all ventured out to get coffee in full (or nearly full) costume and makeup. We all thought Katrina teacher would scare a few people with her Cheshire Cat smile, but no one seemed overly alarmed by her. They may have made a double take, but then they just pretended nothing was out of the ordinary. Watching her order at the counter and the cashier trying to pretend she wasn't talking to someone with a giant creepy smile painted on her face was pretty darn amusing.

After lunch the students would rotate among the different rooms, each containing a fun Halloween activity. Kaitie and I were in charge of the "scaredy cat" room aka for the students who opted out of going through the Haunted House. Although a lot of the students were quite brave, many of them broke into tears at the thought of having to go through that very dark, very scary pathway. Even Joy teacher wasn't thrilled with the idea, but she had to put on a brave face and lead the students through. Instead of being jumped out at and crawling through dark tunnels, students in our room could make scary monster popcorn hands. Sounds much more tame and cheery, yes?

Once the wee ones were all packed up and stuffed with sugary sweets, it was time to prep for the elementary students. I was put in charge of the dissecting room, where students had to put their hands into boxes and feel the disgusting body parts I set up for them. Due to some miscommunication and hectic planning, the items in the box were not as gross and slimy as I would have liked, but improvising is an important skill of a teacher. After telling the students a scary story about finding a body in the park and cutting it up for the students to touch, I led the students one by one down the line of boxes to test their courage. Despite my severe lack of scary-story skills, a lot of students wouldn't put their hands in the boxes! I was proud of myself when I managed to scare them that much. Is that awful of me? No...don't answer that... In the boxes were some brains, intestines, hair, and teeth (Aka rubber gloves smothered in lotion, a toy snake, a wig, and some corn kernels).

For the next group of students, my job was to scare them in the haunted house. Honestly, I absolutely hate going in there. Its just completely pitch black at first. I had to sit and allow my eyes to adjust for a while before looking around my hiding place. After a mild freak out because there was a terrifying mask on the ground next to me, I calmed myself down ready to terrorize some children (I'm a terrible person). Some students weren't phased at all by me jumping out and grabbing them. One girl actually said, "Oh hi Laura Teacher" like we happened to bump into each other in the cereal aisle at HomePlus. I got better reactions out of other students who refused to get out from under the table, which would lead them to the rest of the haunted house. By the end of my time in there the plastic bags were showing the wear and tear of being pulled on a run into by a small army of elementary and kindergarten students. The best decision made this year was to not let the oldest students go through the maze. Last year they got violent and would lash out haphazardly usually landing some solid blows on whatever poor teacher happened to get in their way. This year we used that time to completely tear down all of our hard work and set them in front of "Are You Afraid of the Dark" episodes instead. It's crazy how hours of work to put up the spooky haunted maze is erased in about 15 minutes. When the bell rang for students to head home, Little America looked almost back to normal, like nothing had ever happened.

We all know the truth though...

Hope everyone has a very spooky Halloween! xoxo

Korean of the post:
체셔 고양이는 커피가 좋아요.
(Chaesheo goyangineun ceopiga johayo)
"The Cheshire Cat likes coffee"

Caterpillars, Sports Day, and Sky Park

Anyeong :) I'm back again. This month is flying by, mainly due to the ever-exciting Halloween celebration that will happen at the end of this next week! It seems like it has not been a full year since the awesome ninja adventures from last year (miss you Shanna!) but I'm so ready to make new memories with new costumes and new friends. Before we get to Halloween however, I need to update you on the past few weeks.

Starting off with another cooking class with my wee ones. This time we would be making banana caterpillars using peanut butter glue, raisin eyes, and pretzel stick legs. Though half of the ingredients found their way into the students' mouths before they had the chance to be a caterpillar body part, the kids enjoyed this delicious and slightly nutritious snack. Most of the students didn't know what peanut butter was! My jaw hit the floor as I scooped a spoon full and stuck it in my mouth to comfort myself after that terrifying discovery. Peanut butter is a stable food in my life. But enough about peanut butter (how many times is she going to say peanut butter......peanut butter).

 This was one cooking class where I took some of the extras and made my own, because let's be honest. Peanut butter (hah) and banana is the best combination of foods ever invented by man.

The next event was Sports Day! Again, it feels like we JUST had a sports day but there we were again on the big green soccer field with Bear Teacher running around like mad people. The weather, despite it becoming a tad colder each day, was beautiful. A perfect day to spend outside playing organized relay games with 30 kindergarteners. Bear Teacher brought his usual bag of tricks with him including scooters, foamy six-legged-race-thingys (scientific term), and HUGE inflatable orbs for students to push around.

Jean racing around a cone

My Idaho Caterpillar

Adorable pigtails

Found someone.

Sadly, we lost Liz Teacher. Death by giant inflatable ball. You will be missed terribly <3

After sports day the kindergartners are either wired and full of sugary snacks that they parents pack for them (thanks parents...) or physically exhausted and passing out in the buses on the way home. The teachers usually take the second route but as we have a full afternoon of classes to teach, we don't get to take a nap and watch a movie that afternoon. *fast forward to the weekend*

Saturday, after getting some grad school homework finished, and a workout done with Kaitie, we met with Alex and Liz near the World Cup Stadium to grab some lunch and explore a plant festival at Sky Park. We stopped in a small fish market to find some deliciously fishy food, Kaitie's favorite.

The stew was perfectly spicy and had so many different kinds of seafood in it as well as the usual veggies. These giant tentacles didn't taste too bad either. After stuffing ourselves with marine life, we made our way through the market up to Sky Park to wander around the grasses.

Sky Park is located about a 10 minute walk from the stadium. Usually, you can walk up a winding staircase to the top of this hill, but due to the crowds we took a more gradual-hill-style route to make it up to the festival. The tall pampas grass completely takes over this park, allowing you to kind of forget you are in the middle of this huge city. The park actually used to be a trash heap, which was then converted into an eco-park. A layer of soil was put on top of the garbage heap and now it is covered with gorgeous plants and plenty of benches to watch the sunset over the river. Wind turbines and other green-technology makes for a very environmentally friendly Sky Park, well done Korea!

The winding staircase

 As the sun began to go down, the lighting of the park became even more beautiful. The grasses created an ocean-like effect around us. Koreans were going crazy with selfies and photoshoots obviously.

My beautiful coworkers

And then we found this human bowl...

Then, suddenly, I turned and saw a strange metal structure in the distance. I was pretty sure it was a UFO, so I decided to investigate. It turned out to be a giant, flower-shaped cheese grater. So, nothing to be afraid of.

 Unless you're made of cheese.

Then you can be afraid for many reasons.

The sun set as we stood facing the Han River together enjoying some bananas and dark chocolate (yum thanks Kaitie and Alex). Watching the sun go down behind the mountains of Seoul just reminds me how beautiful this country is. It is easy to get bogged down by the negative or less wonderful parts of city life. Like kimchi splats on the side walk or crowded-sardine-subway-cars. But there's nothing a good, old-fashioned, gorgeous sunset won't fix.

Once the evening is dark enough, the park shines colorful lights onto the grasses, creating a sea of rainbow on the fluffy white canvas.

Overall, a great way to spend the day. I love learning more about my Korean coworkers and getting closer to them. Both Alex and Liz are amazing people and they have so much love, advice, and support to give to both myself and my other coworkers. I love them both and can't wait to spend more time with them over this year!
That evening, Kaitie and I met a bunch of friends out to celebrate a birthday. We met at Reilly's Taphouse in Itaewon which turned out to be a great little spot up on the top floor where I caught up with a whole group of people I hadn't seen in a while. From there we ventured off to Hongdae for the usual debauchery at Thursday Party, enjoying the night full of music and yelling-conversations.

Today, after a bit of a slow start to the morning (a side-effect of Thursday Party) I met up with Kaitie, Katrina, and Tarah to get started on our Halloween costumes! Going with an Alice in Wonderland theme at work, I am prepping my "Red Queen" costume, Kaitie, her Alice costume, and Katrina has a great Cheshire Cat outfit coming along! Tarah, who doesn't work at Little America (unfortunately) is being a Loofa this year, therefore we had a bagillion yards of brightly colored tulle in Kaitie's apartment. After some math and calculations, Katrina and Tarah began the process of folding and cutting in order to create the human-loofa. I got my skirt all ready, a small crown, and created a Mad Hatter hat for Liz teacher's costume!

 Once we made some significant progress it was time to get ready for the Pretty Parti. This concept was introduced to us by a friend, Jeanine, who has had several of these with her friends from home. The idea behind a Pretty Parti is to get a group of girl friends together and ultimately share how amazing each of us is to one another. After some hilarious ice-breaker games, we pick a name from a hat and that person we must come up with 5 things that make them beautiful as a person, both inside and out. Going around the table we have girls who have known each other for varying lengths of time, sometimes only seeing each other twice to spending almost a year and a half together. It shows you just how quickly you can meet and make lasting friends here. As expats we do not have a lot of time with each other in the grand scheme of things. These friendships and connections make your experience here meaningful and amazing. I love each of the girls at the party tonight and I wish I could have picked everyone's name from the hat. After everyone feels happy and better about themselves and each other it's time to exchange gifts. This is the second aspect of a Pretty Parti. You must pick an item that is your favorite thing. Could be your favorite nail polish, or candy, or clothing item, anything. You buy one for every person at the party and so by the end of the night you leave with a goodie bag filled with one of each of everyone's favorite thing! I love the idea of this party. It helps us connect more with one another and also create a positive and loving relationship between us all. <3 As girls we need to stick together. Girls rule, Boys drool.

The clan

A pretty good haul, no?

Tomorrow is already Monday. This week will be spend practicing my Halloween song, making crafts, and attempting to avoid all Halloween candy so I don't turn into one of those giant inflatable balls (RIP Liz Teacher).

Until next time xoxoxo

Korean of the post:  
나는 찌개에 큰 오징어가 있애요.
(neoneun jjigae-ae keun ohjingeoga isayo)
"There is a large squid in my jjigae"

Hikes and Things

Time to play catchup! I've waited a few weeks since the last post just because the Japan post was so long, I wanted to you have a break...also I've been a tad lazy and busy with grad school, etc. I do think about you all though, I promise! This is when I do one of those seventies montages to get you all up to speed with what is happening in my life. Turn on some old disco music to read along with...

Firstly, the end of September marked yet another Birthday party and song contest. Lisa celebrated her birthday with the usual hullabaloo of cake, balloons, and gifts. For some reason this particular celebration, the free-dancing time especially, was much more energetic than previous months. The kids absolutely let loose and screamed til their voices were gone while simultaneously dragging their friends around the room in a crazed frenzy of excitement and over-stimulation. Katrina and I looked at each other silently asking who snuck these kids pixi-sticks and coffee while we weren't looking. I was worried about collateral damage as students spun, kicked and wiggled around the room.

breaking it down

The rest of the party finished with a little more self-control exhibited by our students (seriously, who do they think they are? Kindergarteners or something?). My girls performed "Zippity-doo-dah" and did a spectacular job at it!

We worked really hard on saying "satisfactual"- I think we will be doing this one for the open house in March (ah don't even want to think that far ahead...slowly back away).

The other teacher's classes did a great job on their dances too. I think last month was a tough one for us all with forgotten lyrics and difficult dances, so this month we stepped it up and it showed as our kids performed!

Fast forward to the weekend. I met with some friends to see Avenue Q in Jamsil (aka super far from Bucheon...) For those of you who don't know Avenue Q, it is based on the idea of the classic kids show Sesame Street. As it turns out, many of the original actors actually came from that show. The performers, some with puppets and some without, bring up topics such as racism, life's purpose, and homosexuality. These more adult topics juxtaposed with puppets makes for a hilarious and light-hearted experience. The theme is that everyone was told how easy life would be by parents and TV shows as kids, but they find that life doesn't turn out how they thought. A key character is the landlord of this broken down neighborhood dubbed "Avenue Q", Gary Coleman (aka pitying his peak of fame at the age of 8 and then disappearance from TV completely). Overall my friends and I truly enjoyed this show and were thoroughly entertained. I was humming "It Sucks to be Me" and "If You Were Gay" for several days after that. The play not only had subtitles in Korean (obviously) but it also placed some current events in the dialogue including political happenings and jabs at North Korea. If you get the chance, you should definitely check it out!

That evening Kaitie and I grabbed some Shabushabu before heading to bed to call it a night. Side note into my life- I've turned into a boring old woman who wakes up early, gyms, goes to work, then comes home, does homework, and starts yawning at 9pm. These grad classes are not too difficult but the assignments definitely keep me busy! Each class will require a paper a week plus a discussion post and comments on some classmates ideas. The topics have been really interesting so far. Mainly just learning about the methodology of teaching science and math, how students learn, and what some common misconceptions about these subjects are that should be brought to teachers' attention. I'm looking forward to using what I learn in my future classrooms where I'm teaching real science and math (because kindergarten "science" time here definitely does not count).

Fast forward once again to last week. We got Thursday off for Korea's National Foundation Day. A brief overview of the history of Korea taken from a speech contest script recently completed by one of my students: "A bear and a tiger want to be human beings so they go to a powerful [god/]prince, the prince orders them to stay in a cave for one hundred days with only garlic and mugwort to eat (no I don't know what mugwort is, that's what google is for). The tiger soon becomes impatient and runs out of the cave. Only the bear keeps the promise. The bear is turned into a beautiful woman who marries the prince. They have a son named Dangun who founded Korea." 

1. I pretty much memorized her speech after hearing it for days on end before the competition (in which she got 2nd place!! So proud of her!)

2. Yes. Korea is founded by guy whose mother is a bear-turned human and father is a god. Seems like a winning combination right there

Anyway, if by celebrating this odd conception I get a day off, I can't complain! A group of us met to hike Wonmisan. "san" is the Korean word for mountain. Wonmisan can hardly be considered a mountain, maybe a hill who has worked out a bit, but not a mountain. From our apartment, it took Kaitie and I about an hour to walk to the base of the trail while meeting up with our friends Angela, Tarah, and Andy along the way. Angela has a Jindo dog, so I begged her to bring him along. Mowgli (yes the best name for a puppy ever) is a character. He pulled Angela up the mountain the whole time, keeping the pace of our group to a bit faster than it might have otherwise been.

View from one observation point, I could see my house from there!

 Mowgli

Love the colors

On our way to the peak of the mountain we come upon one of those workout areas commonly seen in parks around Korea. If you want to learn more about these you should read my friend's post about it! (Kimchibytes: Outdoor Exercise Equipment). This specific site was a bit more intense than others with just simple bodyweight machines that feel like you aren't doing anything. This one included huge weighted hula hoops, ancient looking bench presses with barbells and dumbbells, and a variety of other exercise equipment that I hadn't seen before. The place was crowded, mainly by people of an older generation keeping limber and strong in their golden years. After walking through this fitness circus we made it to a veranda at the top of the hill. It was here where I learned Mowgli's aversion to stairs. Mainly those that have gaps in between. After being physically dragged up the first 2 (out of maybe a total of 15) Mowgli refused to go up or down again. Instead he accepted his new life on the stairs and settled in. Even after seeing a dog 1/3 his size bound up next to him, Mowgli had no intention of moving from that 2nd step.

stoic acceptance

Angela had to pick him up and carry him down to the flat ground where he walked around like nothing happened and he didn't just completely give up on life on those steps. It's okay Mowgli, we all have our fears and faults. You're just going to have to hope that stairs aren't going to be a huge part of your life. Overall, it was a great way to spend the day enjoying fresh air with good friends and a cute pup. With my homework and housework duties increasing I decided to make this weekend a restful and uneventful one. I should know better now though. Whenever I don't plan anything, something comes up. Dan and Mike (from previous posts) invited me to hike Dobongsan on Saturday, and not wanting to waste one of the last few warm days inside doing work, I decided to tag along. Before going I researched the hike a bit to see what I was getting into. A previous mountain we hiked together (Daedunsan), I couldn't walk properly for a week. After reading I decided that this wasn't going to be anything like Wonmisan, however it wouldn't be too hard either. I should have known better than to believe everything I read.

The boys are a different breed of hikers than the girls on Thursday. There's a lot less "Oh look at that pretty tree!" "Those flowers are gorgeous" and more just pedal to the metal lets-make-it-to-the-top-as-fast-as-physically-possible. I definitely got my workout in that day, and my calves remind me of it even three days afterwards. The hike itself is a lot more full-body work than previous hikes we've done. I often had to pull myself up or hold on to trees to help make it up steeper areas. Mike, who is training for a 22 mile ruck march was doing this with a super packed backpack. Despite this, Dan and I remained in his dust-trail for the majority of the hike. He's now been dubbed "energizer bunny" and makes us all look bad. After racing up and looking like I just took a dip in the pool we finally reached the top. Now, I enjoy hiking, I really do, but it's a mental and physical struggle to get up sometimes. I have to push myself hard to not take breaks the entire way up. When I get to a peak of the mountain however, it's all worth it. Suddenly my legs don't feel like jello anymore as I take in the view.

Almost there

Made it- and this cute old guy started talking to me about "Pu-lo-ri-da" (Florida)

  Couldn't have imagined a better way to spend the day in this gorgeous weather. Overall the entire hike took about 4 hours. About 2 hours up, an hour or so of hanging out at the top, then maybe 45 mins to an hour down. We sprinted down. Not exaggerating. There were moments where I was running and jumping on rocks like stepping stones over a river praying to the gods (maybe the one that married a bear) that I wouldn't fall and break my neck. I already know that I'm pushing my luck hiking in my Nike sneakers, but I've been okay so far (knock on wood) with only a few slips and slides here and there. Keeps you on your toes.

That night a group of us hit the town for some fun. We headed to a bar in Hongdae and then a club to dance to some of our favorites (like "What Does the Fox Say"). So let's just say my initial plans for a restful and productive weekend hadn't exactly been met. Sunday, after sleeping in a bit, I cracked down and wrote out two papers due for class then was ready to call it a night. Maybe I'll try again next weekend...but let's be real...

This week we have Wednesday off for Hangul Day, celebrating the creation of the wonderful language that is Korean. The purpose of the Korean language was to allow every citizen, even the low-class peasants, to be literate. Originally, Chinese was the language used, which was difficult to learn and speak. This created a great disparity between the classes of Korea and therefore a separation it seemed. King Sejong made the decision to create a new writing system that would be simpler and allow everyman to achieve literacy.

(fun fact: North Korea measures its citizen's literacy by their ability to write "Kim Il-Sung").

Now, I can say that Hangul is one of the easiest alphabets to learn. Once you past that point however, things get a bit more confusing and complicated. I'm still working on studying and practicing Korean. I've gone through periods of getting better and then being discouraged, but I'm still meeting weekly with my friend and hope to keep learning! It's more difficult to practice daily. I try with my coworkers, but honestly it isn't enough, and I can cheat with them by slipping English in here and there. I've met with a trainer from my gym a few times for coffee. She speaks less English than I do Korean I think so that has helped even more than my lessons. I am forced to speak Korean the entire time. Supplementing with some charades and the translator apps on our phone (thank god for technology), we communicate our thoughts, likes, dislikes, and learn more about each other each time. Hope to keep practicing with her and ultimately working on more fluent conversation skills.

Whelp, hope this caught you all up and that I haven't left anything too important out!

Countdown til going home: 80 days

Korean of the post:
"계단이 어려워요."

(gyae-dan-i eo-ryeo-weo-yo)

Stairs are hard.

xoxox