Random Tidbits of Life in Korea - Summer Edition

So this blog is going to be all about some random thoughts, stories, or pictures that I have collected during the summer.  There are many times that something happens and I want to share it on my blog but its so little that it doesn't work for a whole blog.  Or there are times when I take pictures of something that I want to share and again its just one picture.  And there are some short stories of life in Korea to share and it just seems like the best thing to do is record them all haphazardly and with no real rhyme or reason for ordering in a miscellaneous blog.  And so below is a bunch of randomness from my first summer in Korea.

• Koreans share food.  Their meals are designed so that a lot of side dishes are places on the table as well as a bowl or plate or stove-like object is in front of everyone and you just use your chopsticks to grab some food and eat.  There isn't really a lot of taking out of the dish to put on a plate to then eat.  Most of it goes straight from the dish to your mouth.  It doesn't really bother me.  However, at school its a little different because everyone as their own tray.  But I eat very little Korean food so there is often food left on my tray.  There are times when my co-teachers ask me for my food and take it of my tray or they just take it because they know I don't like it (i.e. kimchi).  But one day, the principal sat across from me and then started talking to my co-teacher in Korea and pointing at my food.  And then I realized he was asking if I was going to eat my eggplant.  I graciously move my plate towards his and he grabbed the eggplant from my tray and at it.  That to me was very odd and yet not in the Korean perspective.  
• Nicole and I found this random store set up that was selling ice cream.  It was advertised that it was from America.  Well the ice cream was just regular vanilla soft-serve but the toppings were indeed American.  They had butterfingers!  Butterfingers are not sold in Korea and yet they had them.  They also need a marvelous job of ensuring that every bite had topping in it by putting in a little ice cream in the bowl and then topping and then a lot of ice cream with even more topping.  It was delicious and a wonderful surprise treat on a hot day!

• While talking about American candy, I went to Homeplus (basically like Walmart) one day and found that they were selling Skittles.  Now this was huge to me for two reasons: 1) I had been randomly been craving Skittles for about 2 weeks and 2) before that day I didn't even know they sold them in Korea.  I thought they were like Reeses or Butterfingers and simply were not sold here.
• I found a few new Korean snacks that I like because they are offered to me at school by various teachers.  I'm always hesitant to try what is given me but most of the time it ends up being good and for that I'm thankful because they are a lot cheaper than buying American brand snack foods.
• One day, one of the fifth grade teachers started asking me questions about what websites I use to book my flights with.  Well come to find out she had booked a flight using Expedia recently and wanted to change her dates but couldn't figure out how to contact customer service or how to ask them.  So I spent about 30 minutes helping her find an email (which took forever because they wanted you to just call) and sending the email.  Unfortunately, the price was too high to change to the new date but it was a new experience for sure.
• Another new experience was spending about an hour helping a co-teacher help her friend translate an abstract of a thesis into English.  She would tell me basics of what the Korean said.  Then I would work through that and try to form a sentence and she would then think through the English to see if it was really saying the same thing (meaning-wise) and if not we would work through it some more.  It was a process for sure but also enlightening in how difficult it is to translate.  Rarely is translation able to go one-to-one.  There has to be a consideration of what is being conveyed in the meaning and not just what the meanings of each word are.
• I think it might have been June.  It was getting hotter outside.  One of my co-teachers was talking with me and said the weather was sweltering.  It was 81 degrees outside.  I wouldn't go to sweltering (but I know many people who would agree that that is pretty hot).  It seemed like a lovely day to me.  I love warm/hot weather.  I would agree that anything in the 90s is working its way to sweltering, especially if there is high humidity.
• There was one day when I was riding the bus.  I wasn't really paying attention to much around me but was frustrated with the man behind me who had leaned forward and had it head on the back of my seat.  I just leaned slightly forward and to the side against the window.  Then we stopped and I looked up and the bus driver was walking back and got the man up and off the bus.  It didn't seem as though he was kicking him off, but more that he was ensuring he got off at the right stop.  He didn't really seem mad but I'm certain the man being helped off was completely drunk.  I found it interesting that no whatever the circumstance the bus driver, literally stopped the bus came to the back of the bus and helped the man off before moving on with his route.
• I laughed one day one one of my students came in wearing a shirt that said USA across it and his shorts also said USA.  The back said US Olympic team.  Why not Korean?  
• There was one summer afternoon that we had a storm while at school.  My co-teachers described it as "crazy" but to me it seemed like a normal summer storm.  The sky got really dark like night and then it started to rain really hard.  Then it started to hail.  I said so to my teachers but they didn't believe me.  Then we looked out the window but didn't see any.  I was certain it was hail because of the sound it made.  Well the storm lasted about 45 minutes and the hail was maybe 2 minutes of that 45.  About 30 minutes after the storm ended my co-teacher looked up from my computer and said "You were right!  It was hail."  They just don't have storms like that and she was very unfamiliar with hail and especially the sound of hail.  We then spent the rest of the day talking about storms and specifically times I've been in severe storms as well as storms with tornadoes or tornado warnings.
• It took me 10 months but one day I looked down and noticed that the lunch trays are engraved with the school name.  How did I not notice that for 10 months?!?  I need to be more observant.  I guess its so if they ever leave the cafeteria they can be rightfully returned to the school.  No idea but they are all engraved.  I've looked for it several times since I first saw it and its been on every tray I've had.  
• Korea's summer vacation doesn't start until the end of July.  When back-to-school supplies are starting to show up in stores back home my students are just starting their summer vacation.  It took a lot for me to fully wrap my brain around that.
• And finally, in June I signed a 6 month extension.  The Board of Education (BOE) did not extend any contracts for August contract holders stating a desire to move everyone to contracts beginning and ending in February.  For me it wasn't a huge deal.  Mostly it meant that my bonus for completing a contract would not be given to me until March, but I wasn't up for an increase in pay so it was okay that I was only extended and not renewed.  It also made renewing my visa easier since I didn't need another health check.  What I did find interesting though was that they still hired new people who would be on August contracts.  I guess they want to gradually move to February contracts by simply only offering extensions every August to people who desire to stay and over time allow that to change to everyone having a winter contract.  But for me, it means that I am contractually in Korea until Feb. 25th…for now.

And some random pictures:

Teacher's Day is May 15th.  I received a letter and some face wash from two students.

I love spending time at the park but sitting on an not-so busy beach in May was also pretty fantastic.  I love that the beach is less than an hour away.

I watched these kids play for a while.  They spent a lot of time trying to jump over the crashing waves.

I also watched this super cute daddy and daughter while they played and took pictures together.

This is a fun app that we use with our reading club students.  It can be used on smart phones or tablets.  One phone is the teacher's and they create a classroom that the students sign into.  Then the teacher selects the type of question (true/face, multiple choice, short answer, paragraph answer, or drawing) and then the teacher asks the question verbally or displays it someway other than on the phone.  The students submit their answers and the teacher gets charts of answers if it is true/false or multiple choice or they can simply view answers for other questions.  Our students love it and we use it with read aloud.

Well it started to get hot and I didn't want to run my AC so I bought a fan that was on sell for an excellent price and that had the much desired remote control (so I didn't have to get out of bed to turn it on at night if I got hot).  It also had a timer.  I was pumped to find this fan.  Got home to put it together...

But there was this ONE screw and of course it didn't come with any tool to loosen or tighten it.  So I had to go in search of one in my neighborhood.  Finally found one at the fourth store I went to.  

A completely put together fan which is great given the fact all directions were in Korean and it took some time to find the screwdriver.  I had to show the picture of the screw to people to help find what I was looking for.

One of Korean's main desserts/snacks  in the summer time is patbingsu (shaved ice with red beans and typically some kind of fruit and maybe ice cream and/or condensed milk.  Well my favorite coffee shop had this amazing chocolate one.  There are red beans in there but there wasn't many and I like the sweet red beans they use.  It was wonderful! 

Very popular in Korea is for couples to match.  Saw this couple while at the beach sand festival.  Matching hats, shirts, and pants.  

Learning to make fresh-baked bread in my crock-pot was one of the most amazing discoveries in the last several months.

I love these flowers.  I love how beautiful they are.  This one had so many various colors on one plant though.  I hadn't seen that before.  I usually seem each plant have the same color.  There was almost white, pink, purple and close to blue on this one plant.  No matter what it was beautiful.

Saw the Korean CSI bus one day when walking by City Hall.  Only saw it that one day.  And there wasn't a nearby by crime scene.  It was just parked there.

One of the best discoveries in trying to learn Korean.  It explains all the grammar taught in my textbook that is simply listed with some examples.  I'm actually starting to understand what it is I'm learning now :)

First getting an oven from Nicole was amazing.  Second finding brownies mix was even more amazing...

But the most amazing thing of all was being able to pull of the sticker with Korean directions to find the English cooking directions! 

One of our English competitions for the first semester was Golden Bell which is based off a Korean game show.  All students are given a white board and markers and a question is asked.  Students put their answer on the board.  If they are right, they stay in.  If they are wrong, they are out.  You continue until all questions are answered.

A very happy 5th grade winner (there were actually 2)

Papa John's opened closed to my school…still haven't been.  Maybe one day.

One day in one of my 5th grade classes, we were waiting for some students to finish an assignment and I looked over at this one group.  They had pulled out the game I had taught them the week before and were playing again.  Love that they loved the game and that they were playing on their own!  

Its odd if you find a store or even some restaurants that don't have something like this out on rainy days.  If they don't, they most likely have a bucket.  The thing on the right has small bags for your umbrella.  One set of bags for small umbrellas and one for large.  The trash can is so you can discard of the bag when you leave.  This way there isn't water dripped all over the store or restaurant from wet umbrellas.  Super handy.  I just wish they had it on busses so that people were holding wet umbrellas on super crowded busses.

I went to Korean class one day and instead of learning Korean we made hanbok (Korean traditional dress) cards.  It was a fun evening and completely unexpected.