Hey, for all my students that follow the blog. If you want to get a hold of me its hard to reply to your posts if i dont have your e mail address. mine is briannemarieworkman01@gmail.com if you e mail me then i can write you back. but if you just write a comment on my page then i cant really reply. :)

Jeju Day 2

Today was pretty cool, the course wasn't as neat as yesterday but still pretty sweet. We started off at Sunrise Peak. Pretty much we walked up ten billion stairs to this amazing view, then turned around and walked back down the stairs. Next we went to Seupjikoji where the Korean drama All In House was filmed. I'm not really sure what that show is but I guess its a big deal. There was a cool light house and beach though such a pretty ocean! Next we had lunch in a traditional Korean folk village where people still live to preserve their customs and heritage. It was really cool to see. The lava tube was next, it was cool but the ones we saw yesterday and the one today, well they're all pretty much the same. dark holes in the ground but this one was just really long. Finally we went to the traditional market it was insane to say the least. Well, the fish market part of it anyway. People chopping fish up, cutting off their fins, live octopus, it was cool. If I could figure out how to get the video to upload I'd show you but I can't so you'll all just have to wait until I get home. There was this little boy at the market that followed us for about 5 minutes and he just kept looking at me, so I said hi, he just stared at me and then asked our tour guide where I was from, if I was a tourist. Then he just followed us and stared. He was so cute. Oh and don't even worry about the pig heads that were for sale. . See ya in 5 days!!

Jeju Day 1

Today was an adventure. It started with a tour through Hallim Park. It was so beautiful we went through 3 lava caves and saw a bunch of really cool plants and an albino peacock. Next we went on a pony ride that lasted all of 5 minutes but it was still fun. Jusangjeolli Rocks were our next stop They are these huge rocks pillars formed by lava. It was so windy I thought I was going to blow away. At Yakcheonsa Temple there were some HUGE Buddha's, really cool art, and an amazing view of the ocean. The last stop on the tour was Cheonjeyeon Waterfalls. After the tour I went with some of the girls on the tour to the Teddy Bear Museum and to dinner. It was a great day! (check out the new pictures on the JEJU page.

Straw Sticks. :)

Jeju Night 1

Today I flew into Jeju. The Gimpo international airport security was minimal. I was so confused when I got there because I was expecting hoards of people to be going through security. But there was really no line at all. I was impressed, I didn't even have to take my shoes off or take my liquids out of my bag. The flight was short an hour and ten minutes maybe. When we landed we got off the plane onto a bus that took us to the terminal where I then got onto another bus. This bus was supposed to tell me before it stopped where it was going to stop. Well at my stop it malfunctioned and said 'Hana Hotel' after they had left the stop so I just got off at the next stop the Hayatt and walked the creepy dark windy road back up to my hotel. Don't worry I wasn't afraid. After checking into my hotel I went to find something to eat for dinner, I found a 7 Eleven so I just stopped there. I got some rice that you heat up in the microwave, some jerky, and some raman noodles. When I got back to my hotel I realized that I didn't have a microwave. I did have a coffee pot so I heated up some water for my noodles. After they were cooked I realized that I had nothing to eat them with, then I noticed two coffee stirring straw things so I fashioned them into chop sticks and tried to eat my soup. The water was pretty hot though so it made the straws flimsy. It was pretty ridiculous. So far Jeju has been and adventure and its only been a couple hours.

Last Day Teaching

Today I had my last classes. (except for the one I have next Tuesday night) but my last actual day of work. It was bitter sweet, I'm so sad to leave these kids they are all so cute! And at the same time I am so ready to go home to my own little tiny people (Jake, Anna, Carly, Tate, Olivia, Ella, and Max). and my the rest of you of course :) sorry its been about a month since my last post but I just figured reading "Today I woke up, worked, came home, ate dinner, went to bed." and my last few Saturdays "Today I woke up, had breakfast, went shopping, went to a movie (I've seen Rango, and Black Swan), came home and went to bed." exciting eh?! Tonight Esther, Daniel and Stella's mom, made dinner for me. Smoked duck, coogoie, and shrimp. It was all amazing but i have never had shrimp quite like what she made. They still had their heads and shells. I didn't even know shrimp had a shell! but once you took off their face and feet and shell they were fantastic!
Last week there was a Marc Chagall thing at one of the museums that I went and saw with Jenny. It was really cool, he has some awesome stuff!
Tomorrow I fly to Jeju island for 4 days, well really its only 2 days because I leave tomorrow night and get back Sunday morning.  Friday and Saturday I will be going on English guided tours through the island so I'm sure that I will have some exciting new pictures and things to post. I can't wait to see everyone! See you in a week!!

Finally

Finally an adventure worth posting. Today I went to Namsan Tower with 'the fam' its really cool. its on a mountain in the center of Seoul, its kinda like the Empire State Building. You go up in an elevator and look out over all of Seoul. It was really cool, too bad the windows needed a serious cleaning! it was bad! but the view was still amazing! After we went to Meyong dong for dinner and I showed H & M to Jae Eun. She kept telling me how I 'should better' not go shopping there because its too expensive, but she found herself taking back that statement tonight as she shopped and shopped and shopped at H & M. Sadly we ran out of time and everything closed before we could see much else but it was still pretty fun. And I got a free hug!

Cold

I'm sick, I have a cold. The last week or so really nothing exciting has happened that is why there has been a serious lack of posts but I figured you'd get sick of reading that I woke up taught came home and went to bed. Yesterday, Monday, I was in bed all day sick with a cold. All I wanted was some chicken noodle soup, maybe some junior mints. Yeah, go ahead and try to find that here! I settled for some spicy raman type stuff and water. Anyway, hopefully I feel better tomorrow, and I guess I've picked up a new student. Which is a good thing.

School Days

Back to school, back to school. Well the holiday is over and school has kinda started. The school schedule here is so strange. Right now they are having early days kinda, so some of the kids get done around 2 some earlier. so I'm teaching from 1-930 Mon., Wed., Fri. and 930-1030 then 2-5 Tues Thurs. and in March i get to work Saturday! wooo! Its okay thought I do get to sleep in now. Today I am going to play BINGO and teach the little girls (Minseo, Sunny, and Jeheo) a song, and maybe get some ice cream for them. Not for me, no more ice cream for me! Weight Watchers style eating for me only! Well I added some more pictures of things that I have already talked about, not too much going on this week maybe Saturday will be an adventure?

65..ok 20

Today I went with Esther, her husband, Daniel and Stella to Gongbok Palace. It was really amazing, nothing like the palaces in London but still incredible in their own way. To enter you have to go through three gates where there are guards, just like in London but these guys look scary like ninjas ha. The palace is decorated and in the same style as the Buddhist temples elaborate and beautiful. It really was a cool experience. After walking through the palace we had lunch, I ate real sushi, like the kind that is a piece of fish on top of a piece of rice. It was pretty good. Poor Stella though every time she has something food or a game or a pencil, seriously anything, Daniel takes it. And she just sighs and lets him. So her food was brought out first and before she could even pick up her chop sticks Daniels fingers were in her soup digging out a piece of beef, and when she went to take a bite he took her chop sticks out of her hands and took it for her. Poor girl! I can't believe her patients! Can you imagine what would happen if Jake took everything Anna had constantly? That would be very very bad. Next we went to this street that was close by where we did a ton of shopping. It was a really artsy part of town and they had some really neat stuff I got something for Ryan, Danny, Anna and Carly. Then we parted ways I went to Coex mall and they went home. At the mall I pretty much just wondered around because I didn't want to go home and then I decided to go to this Hyeung Dong to go shopping I found an H&M so that was pretty sweet! Then Jenny called around 10 and I met her at Dongdemun and we got done shopping at about 2 30 am. ugh! The first place we went was a 7 story 'mall' where the people bargin with you over clothing price and everything! So I was looking at this jacket and the lady took my stuff made me try it on ooooooo it look good! ok for you 65000 won.
Its too small.
No it fit good don't zip up it getting spring.
No I think it is a little too small.
Okay for you today only 50000 won.
No its too small.
Okay how about this one?
No I don't like the color.
Oh okay this one for you 35000
Its still too small
No No No not it look good. 2500
good price but still too small
So she hides her hands behind the jacket and puts up a 2 for 20000 won hahaha yeah no. STILL DOESN'T FIT!! haha but man was she working me! It was an interesting night. And I didn't even spend too much money!

Happy New Year

Today is the official Lunar New Year here in Korea. Day two of no working was great, I went with Harry to a folk village in Seoul, to a man made river, and to a statue of a King. First stop, folk village, it was really interesting. when you walk in it looks a lot like a china town entrance with big gates but it was definately Korean style. A lot of the people were dressed in traditional Korean style clothing and playing old traditional games. We walked around the village and saw the huge time capsul that Korea made. it was huge and there is a whole huge section of the village that is dedicated to it. next we went around to some traditional homes, they are huge but at the same time so tiny. The rooms are small but it is very open and the design is really cool. We even saw some people that actually lived in these homes. They all have small fireplace type things under each room for heating the floors inside the home because in the winter it can be very cold and also when they sleep on the floor its nice to have it warm. Next we got lunch at this place called VIPS. Its like a steak house but very different. I have found that American food in Korea is just about as American as Chinese food is in America, kinda close but really not even close at all. It was still good anyway. Then we went to this huge man made river/creek that flows through the city Harry thought it was so cool because it was through the city. Little does he know there's a creek just down the street, and its not man made. Anyway it flows into the Han River and goes forever. It was in a really pretty area where there use to be a road but the road got old so they tore it up and made a river/creek. It was cool in the winter but I bet in the Spring and Summer it is beautiful. Oh its called Cheonggyecheon. After we went to see a statue of a king from the Joseon Dynasty and a huge gate that guarded the city of Seoul, when Japan had control they made the Koreans tear down the wall and rebuild it angled a little more because it wasn't straight or something and they wanted Korea to be perfect. In all it was a pretty good day. Oh while we were at the folk village a little boy in his traditional get up just dropped draw and started peeing ha guess he really had to go. And in front of a ton of people haha. When ya gotta go ya gotta go.

Cha Cha Cha!

Today I went with Cha (the guy that lived with my family 2 summers ago) and his friend to the Coex aquarium. It was really cool once we finally got there, I think we drove in circles for an hour because his navigation system was freaking out. Seriously circles, u turn after u turn and around a block 3 times come to find out this is common for Cha when he isn't sure where he is going. But, he is a better driver than a bus driver so I'll at least give him that. The aquarium was awesome, from the insanely creative displays to the fish that were bigger than me. It was what an aquarium should be. It even had the cool thing that you walk under and the fish swim over you. Huge turtles, carp, some crazy thing that I couldn't pronounce, seals and a manatee. After our adventure to the aquarium we went to a Buddhist temple I saw my first real live monk. That was pretty cool, we saw some way old buildings and some fascinating art that was painted on the celing of the buildings, and a massive Buddha. Next stop the coffee shop, this is very common here in Korea usually when you hang out with people you go drinking or to a coffee shop. Hot chocolate for me, YUM! We were there forever just talking and hanging out, it was good to see Cha again. We stopped at a department store on the way home and looked at beads for my Pandora bracelet, don't even worry that they are about 3 times the price here. Won't be buying one of those! Finally home and poor Cha wants to Skype my mother, too bad it was 3:30 a.m. and she was asleep. Next time maybe he can talk to her. Then we went to dinner, we tried to find the Chinese restaurant that I like but sadly I couldn't remember its exact location so we went somewhere else that was just as good, but their chop chay wasn't as spicy sadly. And that my friends is the end of day 1 without any children!

Free at Last!

Today was my last day of teaching until Monday. It is a huge holiday here this week starting tomorrow so no classes! I started my morning off with a lesson with Leo, followed by a nice bowel of Cheerios. For lunch I met up with Harry (a son of one of the teachers that Jae Eun knows) for lunch at a Japanese restaurant. I had sushi, first time since leaving the U.S. kinda strange, I thought I would have had at least had more than one roll by now. It was pretty good though. After lunch was my LAST CLASS! We did some workbook stuff then we played Where's Waldo and UNO. They're my little girls and you know how little kids get when they're excited for something? They would NOT sit still today so mostly we just played and talked. During our lesson I got a package from my fabulous mother filled with only the best things, vanilla, nerds, Junior Mints, a cake mix in the box, powdered sugar, some jewelry, medicine and some stuff for the kids and family I'm staying with like taco seasoning. Great package! After class I met up with Qwon at the Coex mall and we had dinner at this Japanese resturant called Teriyaki it was okay, i had a philidelphia roll but it had pickles on it. . so that was pretty nasty. I really really want a vegas roll from Sushi In Joy though or an unugi tempora from Teru. after dinner we went to see Gulliver's Travels at the Coex mall theater. Ok so we should invest in this idea. . . multiple kinds of popcorn!! Caramel, cheese, regular, garlic, and there may have been something else but i can't remember and the best part is you can pick more than one kind! so of course I had to go for the regular and caramel. It was fantastic! Then it was time for home. I ran in to some Americans and a Canadian. the Americans were from Kentucky and Utah and the Canadian from Ontario I think. They were very interesting bunch. Good thing I got off at the next stop. The rest of this week should be an adventure. Wish me luck!

SCHOOL!

Today the kids started real school. That means I had all morning to myself. I woke up at ten, had breakfast and went to Lotte Department Store. I was a little overwhelming. Kinda like Hyundai Department Store. From there I went to my classes and then came home. Jae Eun came and picked me up today from Jamsilaru because it was snowing and it was really wet snow. She knew I didn't have an umbrella and didn't want me getting too wet when I was walking home. How sweet of her. After dinner (She and the kids had fish head soup, I had chicken and rice), I had Eric's class, we did mad lib's the kids loved it. Eric and Minseo have a hedge hog who doesn't have any food left so today Eun Young brought home food for him. . too bad it was dog food! Ceasers dog food. But don't Eun Young said it was okay because it was nutritious! I don't think they fed him any though. That is about it for today.

p.s. every time I write the word nutritious I think about the time Jenna Morgan and I made a menu for our Powell trip one year and we had 'Delouse and Notorious' salad, chicken and rice, and brownies I think ha. Oh man. Can't believe she's getting married! Love you Jen!

Korea National Museum

So Thursday and Friday were the same as all the other ones. I just had classes. For my little girls on Thursday we did some book work, but that is no fun so we played UNO then we went on an adventure for marshmallows! 4 stores later we found some. It was tricky to say the least. What did we do with these marshmallows that we desperately needed? We made Rice Krispy Treats of course. I got the idea from this cookie thing that Eun Young brought home on Wednesday night called Hangwah. Its a Korean traditional cookie that pretty much looks like a Styrofoam packing peanut rolled in rice cereal. And the best part, it tastes about the same. So I decided to add some sugar. They liked my treats! Friday Esther made me dinner, she made Sam Gup syahl. . Its like fatty bacon that they put inside a piece of lettuce with rice, tuna paste and your choice of sauces, all of which were good, and I have no idea of their names or what was in them really, sesame oil, soy sauce, and other things made them up I think.
Saturday I got to sleep in and talk to my parents on Skype for a while because Jae Eun, Minseo, and Eric all had to go to school. At about 1, Jae Eun, Eric and Violet came to pick me up and we went to the Korea National Museum. It is a really cool building and it's HUGE! We spent about 2 hours on the top floor looking at stuff. We took a break about half way through and had some lunch, at lunch pretty much all cafeterias here have the same stuff, noodles, soup, a different kind of noodle, curry and rice,  and pork cutlet mmmmm. so i had rice with weird curry sauce and rice. It was alright but I saw a little cafe right outside the cafeteria so I decided to get me some hot chocolate and a muffin. I waited in line, got bumped and pushed. Typical for any line you are standing in. Personal space? What is that? People literally stand on top of you even when there is no need at all so in all of this i got bumped and when I was handing my card to the cashier we both mishandled it and it dropped between the counter and the fridge. That was an easy fix. So I got to be the line holderupper because they couldn't process any other transactions without me going first. At least my muffin was amazing right?  Then looked around the gift shop and went back to the 3rd floor.  (Mom I got you something! It's going in the mail tomorrow). After our visit to the 3rd floor we made our way to the auditorium for a free performance where they played some traditional Korean instruments. A big sideways harp sounding one, a huge bamboo flute thing that had a breathy sound and what looked like a drum attached to a stick with some strings that you played with a bow and of course an electric violin, no Korean traditional show is complete with out one of those! It was a really cool show, other than the part where the entire time the accompaniment music was making my eardrums bleed because it was so freaking loud. The best part was at then end when these four girls that were doing the show were dancing around playing their instruments, picture this, off the stage jumps the drum string thing, violinist and bamboo xxl flute. They're all skipping and spinning and dancing around when WHACK!! The flute chick spins around and hits the violinist in the face with the flute thing as she skips merrily into the spinning bamboo flute of death! It was so funny! Good thing that was the last number... or was it!? So the girls all go off stage and after a few minutes they come back for an encore, well everyone but the violin chick. So they're playing this song and all of the sudden the accompaniment music stops. So they all stop. They stand there for a minute then they start the song over. . It was 3/4 of the way over! Ugh! So they start again, then at the exact same part of the song it stops again. They stand around for a second then they just finish it without. It was okay ha.
After the performance we headed back to the museum and went to see two last exibits on the first floor. one was this huge famous Incense Burner of Baejke. It truly nothing less than amazing. It was Huge! We also saw this amazing crown and belt from the Silla Dynasty made out of gold and some other jewelry made of gold. It was so cool.
On the way home Jae Eun took a wrong turn and we drove close to 10 min in the wrong direction which in turn made our trip home extra long because of the crazy traffic. Finally we arrived home. Jae Eun made Kimchi fried rice, no thank you, I ordered pizza from Pizza Hut. It was so good!
In all Saturday was a good day. Oh I also became a member of the Finger Bandits thanks to Danny.

Snow!!

Finally two days in the snow! We spent two days at Elysian Resort. It was so much fun I was so happy to finally be riding! The resort was small like most things here in Korea but it was nice and not too busy. everyone at the resort was pretty much a beginner except maybe a group of 10 guys but pretty much all they did was bomb because there is no out of bounds and no trees and no park no nothing but the groomed runs. Matter of fact even if I wanted to go off the trail i couldn't unless I had hiking boots. There was no snow!! None at all! Just dirt and some trees. Pretty weird. Pretty weird indeed. Every time I got on or off the lift the liftys would just say hi! or Hello! Then laugh it was hilarious. Hi, hahahahaha. I guess they thought they were funny. The ski resort food is nothing like what we have in the states. Its noodles and weird pork stuff. Nasty, I did try some of the noodle soup stuff the first day for lunch and it was okay but really I'd only eat it again if I was starving. Which I'm not. They did have good ice cream though gelato and dip n dots, that we did eat. And they were good! It was a beautiful couple of days too sunny and no wind. Cold but at least it wasn't windy and snowing and cold. There were these 5 kids there on Tuesday that were dressed as animals. there was a bear, a dalmation, a seal, another bear, and I don't remember the other one. It was pretty funny. The girls dress like gangsters huge pants and hoodies and coats and hats everything is like 10 sizes too big. and the guys, well they're mostly normal except for the animal boys ha. Our condo that we stayed in, ok, so we walk in, take our shoes off, put our stuff down, Jae Eun walks into the first room and says ok, Brianne this is your room. I say okay and head in to a completely empty room. COMPLETELY! I mean nothing, no bed, no night stand, lamp, nothing. Then she walks across the hall and into another room and says oh just kidding you can have this room it has a bed. I'm thinking what? Where is your bed? what are you and the kids going to sleep on?! I guess its a traditional room, they sleep on these mats, that were hidden in the closet, on the floor. so i slept in a bed with a fantastic down comforter. ( I miss mine sooo much) and they slept on the floor. I felt a little bad but I did try to trade multiple times and they weren't having it so whatever bed works for me! And it was a queen so I slept so good! Sprawled out all over it was so nice! I really miss my bed, a lot. Good thing I take my pillow everywhere. I even brought an extra pillow case. New pictures!

Incheon-China Town

Friday I taught Daniel and Stella how to make fajitas. They LOVED them! Also on Friday I went to Hyundai Department Store, I rode the elevator to the top floor and rode the escalator all the way down. And I only bought two things, a curling iron and a sweatshirt, and they were both on sale! Today we went to Incheon, and to China Town. China Town was pretty sweet nothing like the one in NYC though, a lot of little stores with really random trinkets of which I did not buy a single one! And no little Chinese men sneeking up behind you whispering things like, 'Rolex? Handbags? Wallet?' When we were in China Town we ate lunch at obviously a Chinese restaurant, I had these noodles with green and red peppers and onion all fried together they were spicy and oh so good! I am going to learn to make them! While we were in China Town we went into a few museums that use to be old banks, mostly they just talked about the history of the harbor at Incheon. Then we walked up this hill to Freedom Park where there is this HUGE statue of General Megada... Jae Eun, when she was telling me that we were going to go to Incheon was trying to tell me about this American General that helped South Korea not be communist. I knew some Korean history from school but I had never heard of General Megada. So I Googled this park and Incheon after Jae Eun had tried to explain this to me, come to find out its General MacArthur not freakin Megada! haha After we left China Town we went to some island to see the ocean. I'm not quite sure why because right after we got there we got back into the car and drove back to the main land. . but the bridge we took on the way back is the longest in the world so I guess that was pretty cool. After we got home I met Jenny at Lotte Department Store, we walked around, talked and sat at Krispy Kreams for like 2 hours then I took a taxi home (pretty sure the driver was half asleep! he kept nodding off!! so scary)! And now I'm here in bed!

Made In China

I didn't write yesterday and today will be short as I have had a pretty uneventful couple of days. Yesterday I just taught from 9-6 came home had dinner and went to bed. Oh but I did take my first ever taxi ride all by myself, which was a little sketchy because I had to pretend that I spoke Korean when I told the driver where to take me. Don't worry we made it! Today I taught for 4 hours and made fried rice for the fam. Onions, garlic, eggs, shrimp, pepper, soy sauce. It was pretty good. Way better than my failed attempt at brownies. Then it was off to the show Ballerina who Loves B-boy. Yeah, the title should probably be The Ballerina Who Loves a B-Boy, but what can ya do? It was pretty good. I was really impressed with the b-boys. Not so much with the ballerinas but the rest was great! The story was a little hard to follow but the dancing was incredible! Makes me really wanna see the Jabbawockeez when I get home. Then it was home and time for ice cream and bed. I had to order a movie for one of the girls I'm teaching we are reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and watching the movie along with it to point out differences we ordered the movie last night around 11:00 pm and got it today! Shipping here is so fast! But I just figure it's because it's all made in China so they just have to hop on their little boats and pick it up. Too bad our mail system isn't that good in the U.S.

Thank you very much!

Today I went climbing again it was so nice! And it gave me a reason to eat ice cream! Taught English to Minseo and Geeheo. After we decided to go to the Coex Mall and to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I had really spicy soup and some spicy noodles and rice it was so good! After we went on an adventure to the mall. I thought the Hyundai Department store was huge, so was this place! Massive! It was such a cool mall. I wish we would have had more time to shop, I'll have to spend a day there when I have some time! So on the way to the mall some drunk guy came up and was talking to Eric and Minseo and kept saying thank you very much to me. I guess thats all the English he knew. Thank you very much. Then on the way home we ran into another drunk guy on the subway who was talking to the kids and kept pointing at me I guess he didn't know I was with them haha. Jae Eun told me that the old men were talking to us because she has a 'special' family hahaha. Mostly because I am with them I guess that makes her family
'special'. Well check out the new pictures.

Zeebra Leggings

Today was FREEZING! Even more than yesterday I think. Today with my first group of students, Eric, Violet and Eugene we attempted to make brownies. Mind you I have been searching all week for ingredients! Simple things like powdered sugar, vanilla, real butter, ya know things that when we run out at home we just run to Millers, Matthews or Griffiths for. Yeah not here in Korea. Finally I did find what I needed. well kinda the vanilla was in powder form and the powdered sugar was in a bag that was about a half cup and when I got to the house we would be making them, yeah no measuring cups or teaspoons! Good thing I have made the stupid things enough to know how they're supposed to taste before they get cooked (in the random huge square pan) the batter tasted pretty good and we baked them the only problem was that the oven was 1. not level and 2. cooked uneven, but that could have been due to the whole not level thing. the brownie part tasted pretty good but the frosting was bad! We did end up finding realish butter for the batter but only had crisco butterish stuff left for the icing. It was horrible! and the powdered sugar was grainy! But they seemed to like them. Sadly I was not satisfied. So next time hopefully I can have some of the necessities imported by my mother courtesy of Macey's. Korean's clearly are not bakers! At Esther's house today I told her that I would teach the kids to make chicken fajitas on Friday and that if I could find vanilla and dark corn syrup that maybe we'd try for some oatsies. I asked her if she had a measuring cup and she laughed and pointed to a Pyrex glass measuring cup that sits on the sink and holds utensils. (very common here random jars that hold forks spoons and chop sticks instead of putting them where they go in the drawers, which they have places for ha).  So Ester and I laughed about it for a minute and she told me that its just easier to buy stuff she doesn't like to bake. Where is the fun in that? Nowhere that's where! When I got home from teaching today we had dinner Coogoogi but curry this time. It was yummy I didn't take a picture cuz it was mostly gone by the time I got home so just imagine yellow rice with pork, carrots, and onions. After dinner Minseo and I wrote a letter to Sean Choi. Minseo decided that she wanted some cute stickers to put on her letter don't even worry that it is around 12 degrees here and windy so freakin freezing! But, we went out anyway. She was all ready to go in her snow gear, pants and all and I in my sweet 2 dollar zeebra leggings and jeans! Off we went! My leggings are sooo stinkin warm! they are my new favorite! We ended up with some cute robot stickers and some bear stickers! Mineso was right they were just what the letter needed. Hopefully tomorrow isn't as cold!

My name is Brian. B-R-Y-thenumber7-theletterQ

Well it was an uneventful day here in freakin freezing Korea! I got up went to church met two new people that are close to my age that speak English, one just got back from Orem where she spent the last three months and the other I'm not quite sure. The one that just returned from Utah, her name is Quwon like Q 1. She is really nice and hopefully will be someone to do things with on slow days. And the other, her name was Jenny. She was funny they were both cute girls and amazed at how tall I am. Other than that nothing exciting happened today. It was -11 all day and currently is -14 Celsius.. which sounds way colder than Fahrenheit so we'll go with that. Today has been the coldest day of the season and tomorrow is supposed to be colder! Jae Eun says it's Global Warming... um its not warming.. IT'S FREEZING!! She made coogoogi for dinner with rice and of course Minseo and I had to have our ice cream (Hagen Daaz from Costco) It was quite fantastic, despite the current weather. Sad to say it but that is really all that happened today, I caught up on some much needed sleep and do nothing time and just kinda lounged around all day.

Misplaced

Yesterday Esther, Stella and Daniels mom, took Jae Eun the kids and I out to dinner. We went to Outback Steak house and ordered family style so I got to try a ton of new stuff instead of the usual Victoria's Fillet. Other than that yesterday was really quite uneventful. Today however was not. It started out at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, it was quite a drive and its set back in the mountains it was really cool and there was a lot of really neat art. The best part was there was no gift shop so I couldn't even spend any money! On our way home we stopped at Costco again, I guess we really like cheese and tacos, oh and ice cream of course! After Costco Jae Eun and I went on an adventure to the Hyundai Department Store, its like the Neiman Marcus of Korea it was somewhere around 12 stories and it had 5 basements, soo it was huge! One day when I have lots of time I am going to spend the day there. We went to see if we could find powdered sugar and vanilla because not even Costco could supply us with the things we need to bake. Who would have thought it would be so hard to find common baking goods! I guess Koreans don't bake! The powdered sugar I did end up finding only has about half a cup per bag! so I had to buy quite a few. Jae Eun need to get back home so I told her to go and that I could find my way back on the subway by myself. So after she left I did a little exploring and went to a store next door to see if they had baking goods. Well they did, kinda. Like I said the powered sugar was about the same amount per bag that you sprinkle on top of a bunt cake. And vanilla extract, YEAH RIGHT! I'm stuck with vanilla powder. Wish me luck with my baking class on Monday, I have a feeling its not going to quite turn out how I'd like it to. Anyway, after I somewhat found the things I needed and Jae Eun had left I went back to the Hyundai Department Store and had dinner. Trust me when I say trying to order food in Korea when you don't know a lick of Korean is hard! I got a pretzel because how can you mess up a pretzel, that's right, you can't cinnamon sugar amazingness! The woman behind the counter said something to me and I just kinda nodded and pointed to the one I wanted and handed her my credit card, she smiled and I walked away. That wasn't too bad I thought so I moved on to something a little more complicated, a sandwich. Which if you know anything about me I eat my sandwiches pretty much plain, turkey, cheese, olives, and on occasion oil and vinegar. Lucky for me The 'Best Turkey Sandwich' place was out of turkey so I had to settle for a Philadelphian so I pointed to the menu then pointed to the sandwich on display and pointed to the tomato and said no, the lettuce said no, pickles, no. Finally the cute ladies realized what I was trying to tell them and I ended up with just what I wanted, Yummy cheese, green peppers and garlic steak. It was fantastic, but it would have been even better with a rootbeer which I don't think I'm going to see again for 80 some odd days. I made it back to the subway just fine which wasn't a real problem since the subway station is connected to the department store, the problem was after I had gotten on the train. Jae Eun had told me something about how the number 5 train had two trains on the same track but the track split, and to make sure that I got onto the right train. Well I thought I was on the right train, the sign outside said that I was going to the next station which was on the way to Dunchon Dong, turns out that is where the track splits and I was on the wrong train! So I just got off at the next stop got on the train going the other direction, got off at the following stop and waited for the train that was going the right direction on the track that splits! Jae Eun was so worried about me I think she called me five times in ten minutes. I wasn't worried I knew exactly where I was and where I was going, I just made a simple mistake, not knowing the language will do that to a person! But her sweet worried little self picked me up right outside of the subway station by her house so I didn't have to walk home. Which was so nice since it is only 5 degrees here! And I had the worlds worst headache! So you see, I only misplaced myself for a moment and I didn't know I was lost.

HA ZSHE MA

Climbing at last! Today I finally got to put on my shoes and chalk up my hands at Cood the climbing gym that is just a short 15ish minute walk from Jae Eun's apartment. It felt so good to be climbing again even if it was only for a short time, I haven't climbed for a while so I got pumped really fast. The climbing gym here in Korea is nothing like The Front or Momentum, there are holds everywhere and the routs are not clearly marked and the routs that are marked tell you where to go so it kinda takes the whole reading the problem thing out because they are labeled 1,2,3... but it will do for now I was just happy to climb. After climbing I had a class with Minseo, Geeheo, and Sunny. we studied out of the book for about an hour and a half then we walked to Baskin Robins. I don't know what it is about freezing weather and ice cream but I love it! Before we had ice cream we had lunch at Pizza School. Its this little tiny pizza place that makes one size of pizza, but its pretty good pizza. People stare at me when I'm walking around by myself but they really stare when I'm walking around with three cute Korean girls and we are speaking English. Its frustrating not being able to read Korean because I think if i could read it it would be easier to figure out what they were saying and pick up words. But, I have no idea where to begin with the whole reading Korean thing, not only can I not read Korean I have no idea how to count in Korean so when people tell me how much something costs I just hand them a bunch of money and they look at me weird. Good thing most places I can use my debit card then all i have to do is try to figure out what button says yes on the pad when I sign my name, which is a challenge because its not like our card things in America, this is just an electronic pad that you sign. there is no green button or red button just a jumble of lines and circles. Eun Young brought doughnuts home tonight from Mister Doughnut and what do you know they are owned by LG. It was the first thing i've had that has enough sugar in it! No, not even the ice cream has enough; don't get me wrong I love the ice cream but I mean come on add another cup of sugar! Today I took a picture for you mother, it is of the McDonald's delivery scooters. Yes MickeyD's delivers here in Korea and so does Pizza Hut, Domino's, and most other restaurants. It is very convenient, but don't worry, I don't have cinnamon rolls delivered for breakfast. I am perfectly content with my bowl of Cheerio's and brown sugar (its more healthy than white sugar of course). But can you imagine if they delivered fast food other than pizza. That would be bad! Well I hope you enjoy the nonsense of this note and HAA ZSHEE MAA! (my only Korean word it means Don't Do That)! OH OH OH and before I forget! Grandma came to visit so Jae Eun made not just fish head soup whole freakin fish body eyeball, egg sac, shrimps with faces still soup. I didn't get a chance to take a picture though because they gobbled it up so fast! sorry.

Ice Cream Crazy

After being at Lotte World all day yesterday you can imagine how happy I was to hear that my 9:00 am class had been canceled. I got to sleep in and hang out until about twelve it was so nice because I was dead tired. Jae Eun told me it was going to be an adventure day because I would have to find my way around the subway and bus stations. Jae Eun dropped me off at my first lesson in Jamshil and from there I was escorted to the subway station and told to listen for my stop and follow the signs. Well good thing I can understand the Korean accent when it is trying to sound like it is English or I would be very lost right now. I made it to my next lesson and after that I was taken to the bus stop in 15 degree weather. It was windy and so cold! Finally the bus ride from hell! I think the driver thought that she was driving a Mini Cooper or maybe even a scooter, weaving in and out of traffic stopping fast going fast, mind you we are in a BUS, I thought I was going to fall over every time the bus lurched forward! Seriously, I literally lost my footing every time we went from stop to go, which was frequent! Good news I made it back to Jae Eun's home in one piece. We had teriyaki chicken and Chinese noodles and rice for dinner (Jae Eun didn't think I would like the noodles, they were the best part)! After dinner we went on a freezing cold walk all the way out of the complex and across the main road to get ice cream from Baskin Robins, it was fantastic Minseo and I LOVE ice cream so far I think we have had it every day since I've been here. Good thing I walk a lot. In all it was a great day and roomer has it that I will finally get some rock climbing in tomorrow!

Lotte World!

Today we went to Lotte World, but before that I did some other stuff. My day started off with English lessons with Leo the art teachers son. I think they went well and instead of an hour he wants to do one and a half hours so that is great! I guess I'm doing something right. I had a long break between lessons today and I ran some errands with Jae Eun and wrote Elder Ika and Elder Choi letters and fried up some hotdoggy things for Eric and Minseo. Finally I had my next English lesson and it was Minseo's group so it was Minseo, Sunny, and Geeheo.( I have no idea how to spell her name but when I find out I'll fix it) they were good for a while but they are only 6 or 7 and they got restless so we played a matching game then we took them all to Lotte World!
Lotte World is a famous indoor/outdoor theme park in Jamshil, its about fifteen minutes from where I stay. It was pretty impressive. It is the only indoor theme park that I have ever seen. but the coolest part of Lotte World was Magic Island. It was my favorite because even though it was dumping snow the outside part of the theme park was still open. I went on the coolest roller coaster and the lines were really short because no one wanted to wait outside in the cold, which made the lines inside short too because I guess people thought whats the point of going if we can't go outside? Whatever the reason I was pleased with the small amount of people.
I didn't try any new Korean food today but at Lotte world I had Dippin Dots!! I also had caramel popcorn, but really all that matters is that i had Dippin Dots and they were fantastic! Well thats about it for today. Don't forget to check out the pictures from Lotte World.

Busy Day

Today was the first full day of teaching. It started out a short walk away from where I am staying, but today we drove because it was so cold! After my first two hour lesson with Eric and Eugene I had a little lunch, waffles and hot chocolate that Eugene's mom made with steamed milk! yum. Made me feel right at home. Breakfast for every meal or in the words of the littles "when dad is home hot breakfast cold breakfast, cold breakfast, hot breakfast and when mom is home, cold breakfast, cold breakfast, cold breakfast!" Love you Mom! Next was Iris and Kevin's home in Jamshil it is in an newer apartment complex and there is serious security here. you have to have passwords to get inside the buildings. they were cute and scared of me at first but they eventually warmed up and we had some fun. My last stop was next to Lotte World where I will be headed tomorrow I taught Stella and Daniel they are so cute! Daniel was so shy he wouldn't even look at me I think he is in third grade, but after a while just like Iris and Kevin, Stella and Daniel warmed up to me and I had them laughing in no time. It was a long day, three two hour lessons then I came home and made tacos. I tried to upload a video of Eric after he had eaten too many but it won't work hopefully I can figure it out. I didn't try any new Korean food today but only because I didn't have a chance. Esther, Stella and Daniels mom fed me some yummy brownie thing and more hot chocolate. No crazy adventures today but tomorrow I'm sure there will be. Wish me luck in Lotte World!

Sunday and Soondai!

Today was my first adventure in Korea all by myself. I had to figure out how to get back to the church I got to yesterday! It was intense! When I got to the subway my card didn't work, I had to call Jae Eun who had me hand the phone to any one I could see. The first person I tried to ask for help just shook his head and hands at me, so I moved on to some random group of kids who probably thought I was crazy, he talked to Jae Eun for about 3 min then handed me the phone Jae Eun then told me that he was going to take me to the station manager to get my card fixed. I followed the kid to the station manager and he tried to fix the card but it still didn't work. Finally we got it working and I was on my way. When I got to church a lady introduced herself and helped me through the lesson in Relief Society, in Sunday School a cute old man that has an American daughter-in-law asked if he could translate the lesson. He did a pretty good job but was more interested in finding out about me than translating for me. In Sacrament an American who is married to a Korean woman who grew up in Maine, anyway, they have lived in America for ten years and now they have been here for about 6 months. He translated the meeting for me and talked to me after for a while they are really nice. Everyone here is so concerned about what I am eating! Today i tried three new things, I tried soondae which is pretty much noodles that the wrap up in the same stuff they wrap sausage in. It was NOT good. I also tried dakboki haha. It is like a rice cake, they make them in all different styles the one we had today was hot, and it had a spicy sauce on it and had the same texture as jello. also NOT good :) they sell the kind we had today at carts on the street like hotdog vendors in New York. Then for dinner we had spicy pork and rice. That was good I liked it. I took Eric and Minseo to Baskin Robins today for ice cream and we also went on a freezing cold walk in  18 degree and windy humid weather to find an apartment building where I will be teaching tomorrow. It was so cold that we didn't even get all the way there and we got a taxi back home.

Today was a busy day here in Korea, it started with an English lesson at Violet's house with Violet, Eric and Eugene. They are all so smart! Today we learned about helping verbs. Eric walked me to the building where he takes art classes, the son of his art teacher wants English lessons so I went to set up a time that we could study. He was really nice but he was so confused as to why I didn't want coffee or tea. He later told me that it is customary when someone comes over that you give them coffee or tea and cookies and it helps them to know that you are comfortable. so I guess he thought it was awkward. He got over it, he was a nice guy. Later the family and I went on the subway to find the church that I will go to. It is really close. A short walk then 2 stops on the train and another short walk. When we got to the church we ran into some American Missionaries, one was from Montana and the other was from Colorado maybe? I think Colorado. They were playing ping-pong in the church with an investigator. there were also four other Korean ladies there. They were so nice, one kept feeding me popcorn and pine nuts. I knew they were all talking about me because they would talk and point. Sometimes Jae Eun would translate but sometimes I just had to smile and nod. I have no idea what is going on when they speak Korean. luckily the missionaries speak English and they told me that there is a lady in the ward that speaks fluent English. The lady that kept feeding us has a daughter and son that live in Provo they go to BYU and are taking an English course. I think they will be back on Thursday, she wants her daughter and I to be friends and she wanted to know how I was doing with the food. Everyone is so concerned about what I am eating and if I like it. After we found the church we went and ate Chinese food at China Factory. It was a pretty cool place. I had dim sum Jae Eun just told me that they use to throw offerings to the sea in China and sometimes they would throw heads into the sea, one day people got smart and they used dim sum, they would use pork and meat and fill a bag to make it look like a head and throw that to the sea instead. So i guess I ate a tiny fake head. I liked a couple of them but one was aweful! We also had some smoked duck that you wrap in a tortilla with peppers and some sweet sauce. It was like a duck fajita, it was so good! We also had some shrimp noodle soup that you put on a plate and eat with chop sticks. . it was difficult and I guess Eun Young (Jae Eun's Husband) didn't like watching me struggle so he got me a fork, I was determined to use the stupid chopsticks! After dinner we walked home Jae Eun thought it would be a good idea because we had eaten so many calories, she was probably right. Oh earlier today before I went to teach I made scrambled eggs for breakfast. Minseo thought it was delicious :) and for lunch Jae Eun made soy sauce pork. Don't worry dad, I tried it!

Different.

They use burnt wood, Jae Eun says that it helps take harmful chemicals out of the air and helps filter out smells. So there is burnt wood in all the rooms. . So far, its not filtering any smells. Or maybe it is and they would be a lot stronger if we didn't have pieces of burnt wood in every room.

I guess there are no parking laws here. People pretty much park wherever they want. Including in the middle of the road and double parking.  i don't quite understand it.

They have a clothes washer but no dryer. Electricity and gas are expensive so they just hang dry things inside the apartment. the dishwasher is so tiny it fits right on the counter! We need one for the houseboat. They have a full stove but no oven and i haven't seen a microwave yet. .

Day Two

Today I attempted to eat breakfast. I woke up to the smell of curry. . I guess they eat curry for breakfast. Luckly Eric likes cereal sometimes. Jae Eun handed me a box of Kellog's Fruit Loops but they were called Fruit Rings. The box and design was exactly like the one in America. Brightly colored fruit loops in a bowl of milk. When I opened the box, however, this was NOT the case. It was filled with yellow, brown and yellowish brown. I poured myself a bowl and took a bite. Yep, just as I suspected, tastes like cardboard! I forced half of it down not even chewing most of it. It didn't kill me but it threatened to.
Finally, we made it to Costco. Pizza here I come. Don't worry, it tasted just like Costco pizza in America. I was the only foreigner in the Costco. We bought stuff to make Spaghetti which I made for dinner, stuff for tacos (carly suey would be proud) and Cheerios. Hopefully they're more like the real thing than Fruit Loops ha. I guess I'll find out when I decide to eat breakfast tomorrow.

The Costco was crazy. I should have taken pictures but I didn't. the Costco had escalators without the stairs for the carts because it was a 4 story Costco. it was intense!

First Day In Seoul

After a flight that took half my life from SLC, to Portland. Portland to Tokyo. Tokyo to Seoul.  When I arrived in Portland I decided I should probably get something American to eat. Sadly, Wendy's was the only thing I saw and it was gross but I ate it anyway because the next stop was Asia and I knew I'd be hard pressed to find anything American there. I was right. we even got hand rolls on the plane from Tokyo to Seoul which I didn't eat. . . they looked a little questionable.
When I arrived in Tokyo this American guy that is a teacher here he recognized me from the flight from Portland and helped me find the connecting flight to Seoul and when we got off the plane in Seoul he helped me through customs and through the Seoul airport. He told me some interesting things about Korea, like they have a Costco Wholesale! He also told me that Korea was the Mexico of Asia. I didn't quite understand it until I got into Jae Eun's car and we left the fancy new air port and started driving into Seoul. There are a lot of big buildings but Jae Eun was telling me that they don't fix anything. the just wait until its about to fall over then the rip it down and build an new building. The building that Jae Eun lives in is very old. She says you can tell by how tall the buildings are. The new ones are very tall the older ones are not.