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We had a great time blasting around Southeast Asia when we left South Korea. We toured through four countries in about three weeks. In the video, we start out in South Korea at The Welton School, then quickly leave. Next, we tear through Thailand, hang out in the mountains of Laos, tour Halong Bay and take a motorcycle tour in Vietnam, and finally end up in Cambodia. Angkor Wat was really amazing and where we took most of the pictures.

If you haven’t pressed play yet, or even if you have, I recommend going to the high-quality version on YouTube.com, hitting the full-screen button and cranking up the speakers! Also, because of the nature of the video, I recommend watching it twice to really enjoy all the shots.

This video was made from piling every single one of our 1,250 photos into iMovie. The inspiration for the video came during a long bus ride while I was looking through pictures on our digital camera. I held down the next button and watched all the pictures fly by, and thought it would make a pretty good video. Don’t worry, we will still post more galleries and blog entries to keep you entertained for a while longer. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 4th of July everyone! Here is a video compilation of a bunch of old footage from my students at The Welton School, in Seoul, South Korea. Thought you might enjoy seeing inside the orderly Korean classroom. The video starts off with my morning class (Miami class) and ends with some pictures of my afternoon class (Seattle class). An interesting thing to remember is that none of these kids are over six years old. I have way too much footage of these darn silly kids!

Once a month at school we have a birthday party for all the students whose birthdays fall in that month. May’s was the biggest party yet so I thought we would share some photos with you. For the birthday party all the students gather in our school’s gym after lunch. There is cake, snacks, juice, balloons, music and did I mention cake... lots of cake. The students who are celebrating are given a birthday hat and a seat at the honored guests table. The other students sit on the floor eyeing the cake above. We sing “Happy Birthday” in English and the traditional birthday song in Korea that goes a little something like this. “Congratulations, Congratulations, Congratulations.” (Over and over again). I’m sure that’s all there is to it. After singing and taking pictures with their teachers, the kids dig in and go crazy for all the sugar. I have yet to see a kid get cut off at a birthday party, the cake and cookies just keep coming.

The highlight of this birthday party for me was when the cake ran out. For several reasons, but mainly because my student Kevin decided he hadn’t had enough. He ran around looking for kids who were momentarily distracted from their cake so he could plop down snag a bite and be gone again by the time the looked back. I watched him do this to about ten different kids. It was too cute to tell him to stop and I was done teaching him for the day, so I didn’t care how much sugar he consumed.

One of the students I teach right after lunch apparently had too much cake at this birthday party. That or Language Arts just really makes him ill. Either way my afternoon was not pleasant.

The birthday party was chaos, as usual, but it made for some great photos. Check them out on our Welton School Birthday Party photo album.

We wanted to share with you some of the outfits our students wear to school. We don’t always have our camera around but we have tried to capture some of the greatest outfits we have seen.

One thing I was not able to capture enough of is the princess dresses. Some of my kindergarten girls go all out. They have huge dresses, that they wear with light-up heels, plastic jewelry, and the lastest craze to hit my class... red lipstick. This was not something they got from me, but my little five year old girls break out the mirrors and lipstick every chance they get. I will go to the bathroom and come back to four little red-faced clowns. When I ask who brought the lipstick, they look at me with pouted lips and blank stares. I can’t help but laugh.

The boys love to wear Konglish t-shirts, funny hats, and  Burberry. The boys never know what their shirts say but they will proudly take a photo when we ask.

The most infamous of fashion victims at Welton is one of my favorite students, Tights McGee. Tights McGee, also known as Philip to some, was given his name because he wears tights...everyday. Now you might be thinking, “That’s weird for a boy to wear tights under his pants or shorts.” This is where you would be mistaken, you see, he wears tights in lieu of pants or shorts. His shirts tend to be rather short as well and never match the usually striped tights. As you can see in the picture on the right, he chose brown and tan striped tights to pair (his favorite pair) with the bright blue Welton polo. To make this situation even better, Tights never likes to sit nicely in his chair with his feet towards the floor. Rather, he perches up, feet on chair, leaning on the table, behind pressed towards the sky. It’s really hard to not laugh while telling him to please sit down. He is a cute little boy but I hope this fashion is only a phase and that his mother will realize it really isn’t a good look to carry on into Elementary School.

Please check out more photos of Tights and other fashionable students in the photo gallery.

We discovered this video a few weeks ago on the internets. It was a huge hit in the office at work! We don't know these guys, or really even know much about where Geumchon is. But we thought we'd give these guys some cyber props and let you enjoy their hip-hop tribute to expatriate life in South Korea.

Of course, the video goes over a lot more smoothly if you've experienced the intricacies of living in South Korea as a waygook (foreigner/haole). With that in mind, I've provided translation of the hip-hoppery.

Written by Christian Zonts. The EV Boyz are Christian Zonts, Mike Nance, and Brian Peterson. Lyrics jacked from Lofbomm.com. If one were so inclined, one could Digg this!

This song has gotten frequent spins and laughs in our Welton School teacher's lounge. We really appreciate these guys' wit and skill at writing catchy tunes.

One thing about living in South Korea, you have to get used to eating a lot of kimchi. I love kimchi! Kimchi, kimchi, kimchi! Kimchi is a traditional dish of fermented cabbage, covered with powdered chili pepper, and served with nearly every meal. Except pizza. With pizza, they eat bread and butter pickles.

I never had a desire to try kimchi before. My sister, Deverie, often had kimchi in the fridge at home but I never considered it. When I came to South Korea about five months ago, I officially tried it with some galbi and loved it.

Megan and I eat kimchi everyday at the Welton School and we love it. The best thing about kimchi is that it goes with everything. I can have my kimchi mixed with tuna fish or just put some on top of rice and mix it up with other sides. I can throw some thick chunks of kimchi cabbage on the galbi hot plate to cook it, or, I can eat it cold. There are also many different kinds of kimchi, including some made with scallions or cucumbers.

Needless to say, I am hooked on kimchi for life. But to get the full experience, Megan, her mom, and I spent an hour or so touring the Traditional Kimchi Museum in Coex Mall. We learned a lot of interesting things!:

1. Kimchi is traditionally made by bundling the components (heads of cabbage, other vegetables and chili powder) in a jar and burying it in the ground to keep a steady temperature for fermentation. In a traditional village you can see hay structures made to keep the ground dry.

2. The chili powder that is so prevalent in kimchi (and shows up in many more Korean dishes) was actually introduced to Korean culture after the time of Columbus. Traders first brought chili peppers over from Mexico.

3. Kimchi contains vitamin A and C, and minerals calcium, phosphorus and iron. Kimchi has very few calories and lots of dietary fibers, making it good for diets while facilitating metabolism. Kimchi has abundant antioxidants, anti-carcinogens and is very good for your body. Particularly your digestive system. I thought that eating so much spicy Korean food would have a disastrous effect on flatulence. Quite the opposite.

4. Kimchi has a very strong smell. Many officetels, (including our first one) come equipped with a kimchi refrigerator so that the rest of your food does not smell like kimchi.

5. When taking photographs, South Koreans often use the word "kimchi" the same way English speakers would say the word "cheese".

After gaining some awesome knowledge of kimchi, we had a small, private tasting and left our mark in the Guestbook. (Something lurking readers are always encouraged to do.)See our incredibly interesting pictures of lacquered kimchi in more detail in our photo galleries!

On Friday we had our second field trip with our students. The field trip was a spring picnic and celebration for Children’s Day. May 5th is Children’s Day in Korea. This is a day to celebrate your children. I was told this is the day on which Korean children get lots of presents rather than on Christmas. As a gift from Welton School our students all received Super Soaker-esque water guns on the day of the field trip. We saw the guns arrive at school and figured they would be sent home with the children but not played with at school. We were wrong. We packed a water gun and poncho in each student’s backpack and loaded the buses.

As we arrived at a beautiful (never thought I would use this word to describe something in Korea) park with a large lake in the middle, all the teachers quickly took notice of a bungee jumping platform high above the lake. We did attempt to go bungee jumping at the end of our picnic but it was closed for lunch. We have already planned to go back next weekend so stay tuned for that tale. The park was already swarming with school children, soon to be extremely jealous school children, when we arrived. We unloaded the buses and quickly found some shade. As soon as we found our spot, all the kids opened their backpacks and  whipped out individual plastic mats, juice boxes, sushi rolls, cookies, chips, and on and on. These kids are serious picnicing pros. They chowed down their goodies and were anxiously awaiting the much anticipated water fight.

We put a raincoat on every student and made the unfortunate mistake of thinking we wouldn’t need one ourselves. The kids looked like little Ghostbusters with their water gun backpacks and protective coats. Everyone lined up to fill up their waterpacks. Once full, the mayhem began. Teachers were the first to be soaked. Of course we were given water guns a third the size of the students, so we were constantly running to reload. I have never seen these kids have so much fun. The poor children from the other schools suddenly didn’t think jump roping or hula hooping was very fun. They all stared at our students and wanted to join in the fun. Luckily our students wanted them to join in too, kind of. Several of our students were seen spraying unarmed onlookers. My little Kevin even took it upon himself to share the fun with all the bikers in the park. He stood on the biking trail, spraying anyone that rode past.

The water fight lasted for quite sometime. We were all drenched by the end of the day. The unplanned English lesson of the day was getting the kids to say “Say hello to my little friend” before firing the water gun. We found it hilarious, but I’m not sure how the director felt when we lined the students up for a group photo and we had several little Al Pacinos posing for a photo op.

The field trip was a great end to the week and probably the most fun we have had with our students.

Enjoy the photo album from our second field trip.

Geotagging is a process by which you show exactly where your digital photos were taken. Once they are tagged you may have a little more fun with your tours of wide and distant lands while showing them off through Flickr Maps or Google Earth.

There are many ways to geotag. Some involve owning a camera that costs more than a family sedan. Some involve bringing an extra GPS device with you while you take pictures. But I am very lazy, so I did some research and found the very easiest way for anyone to geotag digital photos.

If you use a PC, then God bless you. If you use a Mac, then you can download a very cool and very free program called Geotagger. Once installed, use Google Earth to surf to the location your pictures were taken. From iPhoto or the Finder, drag the photos directly over Geotagger and let go.

There is no Step 3. The GPS coordinates are non-destructively written to the picture file. Should you choose to upload the picture to a site such as Flickr of Panoramio, they will show up on interactive maps. You can even build Google Earth tours out of your pictures that whisks you over 3d terrain.

As of this writing, the Geotagger software is at version 1.2, and requires Mac OS X and Google Earth v4. Geotagger is made by Craig Stanton, a fellow from New Zealand who appreciates donations by thankful users.

Eventually, we will all have 3G iPhones which take photos and video and synchronize your approximate position into the metadata based on wireless triangulation. But until that time, we’ll have to settle for our little wonderful MacBooks that make it so easy … geez, someone needs to pay me for this stuff.

Last week, we took our first field trip with our students. We took an hour long bus ride, during which Jay taught the kids how to hold their breath through tunnels (some kids took it so seriously and I thought they were going to pass out, while others plugged their noses and continued talking the entire time), to Wawoo Temple. I felt bad for other visitors to the temple on this particular day. If they had come for a peaceful, enlightening experience we may have put a slight damper on that.

We arrived at the temple and sixty little red fleece vests piled out of the busses. One of my students, Kevin, is quite a handful. I had tried (emphasis on the tried) to implement the “buddy system” with my class, with me as Kevin’s buddy for fear of what he would do during this outing. It started out great, each student had their buddy in hand and I was doing “buddy checks” about every 2 minutes. As I tried to keep my eyes on the other children, Kevin, while holding my hand, managed to squat down pick up some rocks and start hurling them at the bus.

Once all the busses arrived, we headed up a hill. This was a steep hill for many of the teachers (some were extremely winded once we made it to the top and some even had to energize themselves by eating a donut during the climb), let alone for these  tiny kids. We made very few stops while ascending the hill. Once at the top every kid whipped out plastic picnic mats, plopped themselves down and enjoyed massive amount of snacks their moms had packed for them. Inevitably, once we hit the top of the hill Kevin (if you have not hear my Kevin stories yet, he is one of my favorite students but cannot manage to stay in his chair for more than 2 minutes at a time and cannot manage to make it a day at school without going the bathroom in his pants) had to go the bathroom. I frantically tried to get one of the Korean Teachers to watch my class so I could run with Kevin down the hill before he changed his mind about actually going to a bathroom facility and just went in his pants.

Once snack time had finished, a good 45 minutes later. It was time to head back down the hill. It hadn’t really crossed my mind while we were heading up this steep incline that the way down might be a bit more difficult. My little “buddies” started falling over left and right, two by two. Trying to stop slow down their momentum and their urge to start running was no easy task. My class had a bit of a hang up midway down when Rosie and Daniel (these are two of my students that need an entire blog entry of their own for me to explain their relationship, I never knew 5 year olds could be in love until I met these two) got into one of their notorious “lovers quarrels”. Daniel threw himself on the ground crying “Rosie doesn’t like me anymore and won’t hold my hand” as Rosie stands there, hands on hips, rolling her eyes (I kid you not). When I finally convinced Daniel life would go on, we preceded down the hill.

Once we reach the bottom, it was time for class photos before getting on the bus, and heading back to school. When we got back to school, all the teachers joked that we could have walked up and down any hill for this field trip. I don’t think my students would have noticed the difference, because the next day when I asked them what we say on our field trip, they told me what kind of snacks they ate.

Enjoy this photo album with all our pictures from the field trip.

About two weeks ago we hung out with our good friend Min Kim. We had not seen her since we did some summer sessions together at the University of Hawai‘i. Min was born in Seoul and made for an excellent tour guide around the city. We talked a lot about the intricacies of Korean life and how we all miss living on Oah’u.

Then on a whim we decided to try some sannakji 산낙지, or live squid! Watch the video to see how much we enjoyed it and how we are now hopeless addicts! Min also introduced us to a new kind of herbal soju, sansachun, which really helped wash down the tentacled fellows.

It was really great to meet Min in her home country and have a Korean friend! We hope to visit with her again soon!

NOTE

Many of our new videos are YouTube players. This means better performance and playback time for everyone. As well, click on the video at any time to go to YouTube.com and watch in Full Screen!

March began a new semester for us at school. Some of our old students left and others stayed behind. We have been given new classes and new students.

Enjoy a photo album while we cook up some new posts for you at NoPeanutButter.com. Click here to go to the photos.

Something everyone must experience in  Seoul is Doctor Fish Café. It is a small coffee shop tucked away in plushy Gangnam where you go and have your tea and strumpets, then strip off your socks only to have sea creatures nibble on your nubbins for a half an hour. But as soon as you stick your feet in, you will be laughing hysterically.

Doctor Fish are often used in spas in Turkey, Japan or China to eat your dead skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow. Check out the video to see the fun we had.

DISCLAIMER

Gratuitous foot-play ahead; If you’re not a “foot person”, you might want to skip this.

After our big bust of a boat tour, we were pleasantly surprised to see a small fair occurring where the boat docked. There were many traditional Korean games being played, singing and a snow hill. We pushed the keiki outtathaway and made the hill ours.

Thought you’d enjoy this video and also to know that we got quite a bit of snow here today. And according to Korean custom, Christmas season doesn’t go until the snow does. Leave us some love in the comments!

We had lots of things planned (read: Megan had lots of things planned) for Maureen to do with us. We started out early and took a boat tour of the Han River which runs through Seoul. The boat tour was a little uneventful. It should look a lot nicer when the city is green with spring flowers. All we really have to show for it is this one panoramic picture.

Click here to view the picture in a new window.

Then we headed into Myeong-dong, which is a diverse outdoor shopping area in the heart of Seoul. After a lunch nearby, we headed up to the Seoul Tower on top of Namsan Mountain.

Click here to go to the Photos page.

Thanks to everyone for being such loyal readers of NoPeanutButter.com! We have been a little busy over the past two weeks entertaining and exploring with Maureen, Megan’s mom. She flew in 15 hours from Arizona to stay with us in Seoul! We welcomed her in typical Korean fashion with a handmade sign. We also made sure she stayed busy and found lots to do around the city.

We will have more blog posts to read this week, so stay tuned!

Megan and I have been getting more comfortable with our digs in Korea since coming back from Thailand. The kids at Welton are still cute. They make us frustrated and they make us smile everyday.

Megan's mom is coming in about 6 days and we are very excited to see her. She will be staying at a hotel about two miles away.

We are excited to be moving to an even bigger abode in a little over a month. One that has a loft so it is effectively two stories with about 16-foot ceilings. It is also in a different part of town so a change of scenery will be nice.

Seoul is "bone-chillingly" cold this time of year. Usually in the single digits Celsius, but the lack of water in the air makes you feel it more. In fact, it has only snowed a few times. When it does, the white blanket makes the teeming metropolis much prettier. We leave you with some pictures and a video of the city of Seoul covered in snow.

We hope you all are enjoying the Superbowl and festivities as we make our way to school to teach young Korean kids proper English.

We have been back from Thailand now for a month. This past month has gone by quickly. We have been teaching Monday through Friday and exploring different parts of Seoul on the weekends. It is beginning to feel more like we are actually living here and less like a vacation now. Things are becoming more familiar and more routine. Our students are adjusting to us and teaching is becoming easier (sometimes).

No matter how comfortable I become as a teacher in Korea, there are some things I will never get used to. In Korea, education (and appearance, but I will save that for another day) is everything. Our students are pre-school, kindergarten, and elementary age students and many of them go to several schools for several hours a day. I have asked my students what they do after they leave school and their answers are always “go to another school” or “homework”. I find myself asking my students if they ever play, because all they talk about is school and homework.

This dedication to education definitely pays off; these kids are brilliant. I am teaching four-year-olds the curriculum you would teach a second grader in the US. Not to mention this curriculum is not in their native language! Everyday I am blown away by how smart my students are. However, I am constantly reminding myself that these children are four-years-old. I have trouble disciplining at times because I understand why they don’t want to sit in their seat and do more Phonics.

This brings me to hardest part of my day. Monday through Friday I dread 1:55pm. One-fifty-five pm is when my “kindergarten” class (my main students, the four-year-olds of which I always speak) goes home. You may be saying to yourself “Oh that is so sweet, she doesn’t want to see them go home”. Well no, that is actually not true. I am quite ready for them to go by then, for I have had enough for the day. The reason I dread this time so much is because I have to give out an award.

The Best Student of The Day award is this horrible idea someone had (I know that person will never read this but I apologize if you do but I can’t lie the idea was awful) to award one four-year-old student the “Best Student of the Day”. I keep repeating that these children are four not to make you feel like an idiot who didn’t pick up on that first five times I said it but to emphasize how young these kids are. At four if someone uses your crayon you cry. You cannot imagine the amount of tears I see falling when I have to give out this award to one student. I have tried giving them to all the students everyday, but was scolded for doing so. I was told that was not the point. I explained my problems with the reward, that I didn’t think you should be picking a “best” student and send the others home in tears everyday.

As a solution to my concerns my boss introduced a new aspect to this reward system. The “I Was Bad Today” card. I was now told to give out the Best Student reward and if anyone cried I was to send them home with a devil-clad card that said “I Was Bad Today....I’m Sorry”. I was blown away by this idea and just so you know I still have the entire stack of these cards on my desk unused.

My problems were far from solved. I record who I give the rewards to and rotate through the students systematically. I hope the mothers don’t pick up on this because they are keeping track as well. I have many students tell me that they get a prize from their Mom after they receive a certain amount of best student award. When I hear “Teacher this is my 37th Best Student Award” and everyone else in tears saying “I hate teacher”, I know that 1:55pm is the worst part of their day too, unless you are the Best Student.

Today, we thought we’d give you a little taste of our school’s talent and let you see what we’ve been cultivating over here in the Far East. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Now presenting, Iris, Irene, Jessica and Ellie singing “Jingle Bells”!

“We Wish You A Merry Christmas”

Kate and Evan . . .

Check back tomorrow for more updates!

Yesterday, Jay and I spent another Saturday in Seoul. We went with some of our co-workers to a technology mart where you can barter for tech gadgets and gizmos. It was definitely Jay’s kind of place. He was even able to find his first Apple products in Korea! I think we will be going back there often. After a day of guys trying to convince us to buy cameras, computers, cell phones, and bootlegged DVDs we all felt like we could use a drink. We decided to have “a few” drinks with our co-workers and their friend Chris. In Korea it is legal to drink pretty much anywhere. People drink in bars, on the streets, while taking public transportation, you name a place and Koreans will drink there. So we grabbed a drink for the cab ride to the bar. The teachers introduced me to a favorite drink of theirs, Soju and Blue Powerade. “I just want to say that Powerade is delicious, it cools you off on a hot summer day, and we’re all looking forward to the release of Powerade’s new flavor, Mystic Mountain Blueberry.” Jay wasn’t down for the Soju Powerade, so he opted to start the night with a 1.6 liter plastic bottle of good ol’ Cass Ice. Jay said, “Plastic bottle? A rescrewable cap?! Genius!!”

Dublins, the bar we went to was full of foreigners, many of which our co-workers knew. The guys played some pool while Katie, Danielle and myself were entertained by the bartenders. I don’t know if it was just the bartenders at this bar or if all bars in Korea are this way but I have never seen such entertainment from bartenders. I am not talking about bottle throwing tricks and slick drink pouring moves. These bar tenders broke out magic tricks and balloon animals! I kid you not, I had magic foam bunnies reproducing in my palm and I left with a balloon poodle. And the best part, in Korea you don’t tip! This show was absolutely free. I tried to give the bartender a couple bucks anyways and he refused to take it. All the bartenders also had iPod Touchs for you to play with while sitting at the bar. Jay would have loved this but he was too busy pissing off Canadians by asking them what kind of Indians they were. (FYI: “Native” doesn’t always mean Native American)

After the bar we were somehow convinced that it was a good idea to go to a club in Seoul for a concert. Somehow we must have missed the part about the concert being Basement Jaxx and the club being a Techno club. Sorry for all you Techno fans out there but it’s just not our thing.

The cab ride to the club was probably the highlight of the night. The cab driver spoke a little bit of English and was probably equally entertained by us as we were by him. When we first got in the cab, he said “Soju”. He was trying to ask if we had been out drinking. Chris took it as the cab driver was asking him for some Soju and offered him a bottle. Good thing he did not take it because Korean cab drivers drive bad enough sober. The cab driver then got a phone call which he informed us was his “boyfriend”. After some explaining of English terms, we found he actually had a “girlfriend” and it was his “friend” calling him. It was a funny ride but you might have had to be there and had some Soju. In Korea you also don’t tip cab drivers so I left him with my balloon animal as a thanks for his entertainment.

I don’t think Eminem visited Seoul before saying “nobody listens to techno” because when we arrived at the club there was a line of people wrapping around the building. Not being fans of techno ourselves, we really didn’t see a point to waiting in line. However, our friends (hardcore techno fans) were determined to get in. Our friend Chris decided to go up to the bouncer and inform him we were friends of the band. And since we were white, he bought it. So we bypassed the crowds and got in. Jay and I didn’t stay long because the combination of the music, lasers, and previously drank Soju were making me feel ill. Nevertheless, it was an interesting night and we got some great pictures out it.

Last weekend, Megan and I were happy for Friday to come and decided we’d get up early to travel the subway into the heart of Seoul. Getting outside our little neighborhood had its highs and lows but it is an amazing city! Very big, very clean and very beautiful (the vistas we saw from the Metro line included the whole city).

You never see one police officer, yet being in the city is very safe. In crowded areas, I usually travel with my wallet in a front pocket, and I still did, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t need to take that precaution.

Riding the subway is very clean and fast. Koreans may be known to be a little pushy but I really don’t mind. Maybe it is just that nobody is pushing the tall American boy but they sure don’t mind bumping into Megan. When the train stops and the doors open, you will be face-to-face (or face-to-waist depending on conditions) with Koreans who expect to get in just as fast as you get out if not faster. In truth, they are supposed to form two lines so you can escape through the hole in the middle. There are some nice things to say about the subway rides though; if you are standing and someone is sitting down, they may offer to hold your bag for you. Being unfamiliar with this custom, Megan thought an eighty-year-old woman was trying to steal her purse.

We started out from our apartment in the morning and headed over to an area called Itaewon. It is near an American Army base, so there are a lot of Americans and foreigners. Itaewon has a lot of merchants selling clothing both fake, new and/or stolen. Good place to get some deals. We had some breaky at Burger King and called the whole thing American as apple pie.

From there we moved on to the center of Seoul; Seoul Station and City Hall. Here we actually ran into another teacher from our school by accident. He advised us to head over to the 24-hour Namdaemun Market. We did, and while it was cool to see, it was just a much more crowded version of the same type of wares we found in Itaewon. You can only take so many cheap shoe stores that stop at size 8.

The City Hall district was next. It was very nice and included the ice skating rink that Megan was talking about a few days ago. We walked around a palace and had dinner waiting for the city to light up with Christmas lights. Then we had had just about enough and retired to our 120-square-foot mansion to recuperate from the cold.

In all, we covered two very small areas of the city, but despite what we’ve seen from our apartment to school (about three miles of outlet shopping) we have been impressed with Seoul. The people can be pushy and laugh at you, or very helpful and funny. Every once in a while though, we get someone in a crowd who randomly yells out “HI!” or “HELLO!” after we’ve past them so we don’t confuse them with someone who wants to talk. They just want to show off their English skills.

Go to our new Photos page to check out our latest album of our 1st trip touring Seoul.

These little rugrats may look sweet and innocent but trust me they are far from it. I’m just kidding, I love my students but they do give me a headache daily. The top photo is my homeroom class, Seattle (each class is named after a U.S. city), where I spend the majority of my day. They are four-years-old and come to English school from 10 am until 2 pm Monday through Friday. I would say I am teaching them the same material you would teach a 2nd grader in the United States. They are so smart and I love seeing them increase their knowledge of English. I don’t, however, love seeing them all pick their noses all day. The week before I came to teach at the Welton School my class learned what a “magnet” was. I don’t think they took too much interest in the concept of magnetics, but they do find it hilarious to call me “Magnet Teacher” instead of “Megan Teacher”. One of the other teachers at our school is Ryan and the kids always call him “Lion Teacher”. However, I don’t think that one is intentional (damn those “R’s” and “L’s”). Imagine trying to teach a four-year-old Korean kid the vocabulary word “ruler”. That was one of the moments when I hated my job. For the most part I love it though!

My morning kids have five 40-minute classes a day. These classes vary from Phonics, Conversation, Reading, Math, Science, Cooking, Computers, Arts and Crafts, and P.E.(which is a favorite of most). We get to “enjoy” Snack Time and Lunch Time with the kids. Our school has a chef whose name is “Chef” (that is what I was told when I asked what his name was), who prepares all of our meals. One popular snack amongst the kids is white bread with mayo and jelly (I think I might be able to suggest something that would go a little better with that bread and jelly). My kids love that I refuse to eat the snacks because it’s just one more for them. Lunch is usually equally appetizing.  After our morning classes we have a “Teacher’s Prep” time for an hour. After our hour break we have a different set of students that come in the afternoon. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we have four afternoon classes and Tuesdays and Thursdays we have two.

My favorite class of the day is my Tuesday/Thursday “Tiny Talk” class. This class has two students (the two pictured on the right) Kate and Evan (previously Leo, I guess he changed his English name this week). Kate and Evan are 3 year olds who started at the Welton School the same time I did (a week and a half ago) and who spoke no English. Evan actually cried on the first day of school because I was the first foreigner he had ever seen! Now he loves me though and I get hugs every time he sees me. Jay and I both teach Kate and Evan during the day. So far I have taught them “Hello, Goodbye, Please, Thank you”, colors, numbers, etc. Jay has been teaching them their ABC’s and desperately been trying to get them to say “Hip Hop Anonymous”. I think he should have been satisfied when they said “apple” and not pushed it.

Overall, I enjoy teaching and still want to have children someday.

NOTE

I added a picture page of our students so check it out!

One of the hardest parts about coming to Korea when we did, was the fact that we were going to be away from home on Christmas. It was especially hard at first because if you know anything about me you know I do love me some Christmas (so much so, that some have even jokingly dubbed me “the Christmas Nazi”). I’ve accepted the reality that I will be away for Christmas (and have dried my tears). I’m not going to lie, the fact that we just booked an eleven day trip to Thailand for Christmas made it a little easier. I’m not saying I won’t miss my family, hot cocoa, Zoo Lights, or a white Christmas but I am just going to have to settle for an ice cold bottled beverage, an elephant ride, and a white sand Christmas instead. It’s going to be rough, I know!

Since we will be in Thailand for Christmas, I’ve been trying to soak up the holiday spirit that is surprisingly all over Korea. We did have our first snowfall the other day, which was wonderful! If it is going to be this cold, I say bring on the snow. Snow always makes Christmas time that much better. For being a Buddhist country I have been thoroughly impressed with Korean’s Christmas decorating abilities. As you can see in the top picture on the left they don’t mess around here. When they decorate they go all out. Okay, I have to admit that is a Christmas Decorations store in Namdaemun Market in Seoul. There were several of these stores around the market, selling everything thing from life size reindeer to saxophone playing Santas.

Many of the buildings in Korea put up huge light displays that spread over 30 stories. All the shopping malls and retail stores put up decorations and play English Christmas Carols (I’ve heard way too much of Mariah Carey’s Christmas album!).

In school we are teaching our kids Christmas carols, which they are going to perform at the Christmas party. We each have to choose a song, teach it to our students, and have them ready to perform it by December 21st. This may sound easy, but let me tell you it is “bery” hard. My little four year olds have been given the task of learning “Jingle Bells”. They have the tune down so far but  I still can’t make out any of the words they are saying. Maybe I will have to shock the parents and just have my kids sing “U Can’t Touch This”.

P.S. Please send Fij for Christmas.

P.P.S. Justin, remember my list of things to do for Christmas and I will remember to get you those “happy pills” you wanted from Thailand.

This post is to give everyone a little idea of what is “cool” in Korea. As we continue to venture out around Korea we have found some interesting things that seem to be very common around Korea. For example, Koreans have taken the term “TV dinner” to a whole new level. Almost every restaurant in Korea has several TV’s for patrons to watch while eating. I guess this shouldn’t surprise me since Koreans watch TV while driving, while riding in the subway and pretty much everywhere else you can imagine. Many Koreans carry around wireless, handheld TV’s or have TV on their cell phones.

More than TV Koreans seem to love their cars! Car enthusiasts like Brother Clunz would find this funny when you look around the streets of Korea and the “coolest” car you see is a Tiberon!

Another aspect of Korea that I just do not understand is their concept of advertising. You cannot walk down the street or an isle in the grocery store without having someone barking at you to buy something. I have never seen so many grocery store employees in a store at one time. It seems like there is an employee around every corner trying to lure you down the isle to buy some random product. On Sunday, we saw this yellow fellow to the right in our local grocery store. It’s funny though because I looked all around him and could not figure out what he was trying to promote! Nevertheless, we got a good laugh (and picture) out of it.

These are just a few more of the random things we have found here in Korea. One of our coworkers says the slogan for Korea is “If it doesn’t make sense, that’s how it’s done in Korea!” We have found this to be quite true and quite entertaining.

NOTE

I added a lot of new pictures to our food page so check it out!

We know you all want more pictures everyday. So, we hope you enjoy our new photo gallery! Click here to go right to it. Click on a photo in an album and you can comment on it!

Browse them, subscribe to them, download them and, most of all, comment!

We had a huge day in downtown Seoul yesterday, and while we are working on a big blog post for all of you, I'll leave you with a nerdy video, demonstrating the efficiency of South Korea.

On my Mac computer, I use Safari to surf the web, as it is the fastest web browser there is for Macs or PCs. Then, I clear my browsers memory so every webpage has to be reloaded. Watch as CNN.com loads up in about 5 seconds. Then, see as ESPN.com, a very plug-in intensive website, loads in about 2-3 seconds. (No sound is required for this video.)

That's nerdtastic!

My little kids love to say “bery good”...all the time! As hard as I try to get those “b’s” to become “v’s” it just isn’t happening. So for now all day I hear “bery goood”. Jay and I find ourselves talking like our little Korean kids after school. It is quite funny how English sounds with their little accents.

Before coming to Korea we read in one of our “Living in Korea” books that as Americans we would be gawked at a lot. Surprisingly, this has not been the case. We do get a random person here and there that says “HELLO!”, just so they can speak English but no gawking. It’s not that we don’t stand out here though. We rarely see other Americans or Canadians while we are out and about. Our boss Richard informed us that there are several other Americans living in our building but we have yet to see them. One of the other teachers lives in a high rise building a couple blocks from the bus stop and each morning he looks for my hair to know when he should head down to the bus. I guess I stick out that much.

Jay sticks out a lot here too, more for his height than anything else. Every time we get on the bus Jay has to duck so not to hit his head on the ceiling. The Korean teachers at our school (and I think many of the little girls too) find Jay very attractive. They told the other teachers they think he looks like Ashton Kutcher. I think there is more gawking going on at school than anywhere else.

If my blonde hair and Jay being tall doesn’t make us stick our behavior probably does. We are constantly taking pictures, talking, laughing, and having a good time. While most of the people here are very quiet and to themselves. That is until they get a little Soju in them. Soju is a distilled potato beverage native to Korea and Koreans love it!

Today Jay and I are off to explore Seoul. Check back later for pictures and a post about our adventure. We have to take the subway so you know it will be an adventure! Bery Gooood!

Expect a bigger blog post tomorrow (and remember that it’s the next day here), as we plan on having a little fun relaxing and getting to know Seoul this weekend. We had dinner and drinks with friends tonight. Enjoy some pictures of walking around our part of the city, and running into very drunk Koreans.

We are thinking of going to Thailand for our holiday break! Write us or iChat us!!

Koreans must feel that the sides of building need some flare because I have yet to see a bare side of a building. Every building around here is covered in signs. Top to bottom, they don’t want to leave an inch uncovered.

At night it looks like the Las Vegas strip because every single one of these signs lights up. I feel like I’m on an episode of Seinfeld because our apartment glows blue (not red but you get the point) at night because of the enormous sign from the Seafood Restaurant downstairs. Even churches here have red glowing crosses on their roofs. The best part (pick up on the sarcasm?) is that most places in Korea stay open 24 hours a day! That’s right! These signs never turn off. It is a bit overwhelming to the eye and I don’t think it is just because I can’t read the majority of them.

Occasionally my eye will catch some English signs here or there but I often wonder who translated the Korean to English for these sign makers. I think my four year old students could do a better job. Yesterday while walking through Home Ever (similar to a Big K or Super Walmart) we spotted the coffee shop pictured to the right. I found this quite funny because image is very important here in Korea. I don’t think many people would even be seen here if they knew what hussy meant, or maybe they do and that’s why it’s so busy!

While getting a pastry yesterday morning we spotted this festive sign outside of Paris Baguette. We were laughed at for taking the picture but I found it funny that this girl in the sign was not only wearing a bear hat but matching paws! I thought maybe it was a Christmas thing, like how people at the malls in the United States wear elf costumes to bring joy to the little tots visiting Santa. That seemed like a logical explanation, so I stuck with it. That is until I got to school yesterday and saw three of my students wearing bear hats and paws. I guess mittens and a beanie are just too boring, like bare buildings. Everything here needs flare!

• Like I said in the first post, there are more Hyundais, Daewoos, and Samsung cars than anything else. Also, the Hyundai we have been driving around in for the past few days, a Grandeur, is very nice. Doesn’t feel anything like the Hyundais in the States.



• Many parking garages have those automated parking machines that file your car for you like it is in a card catalog.
• Koreans watch TV while they drive.
• The lines in the road are merely suggestions.
• Walk/Don’t Walk signals in the crosswalk only hint at the possibility. It is not unusual to have a bus pull all the way through the crosswalk when the pedestrian cross signal is lit.



• Koreans run red lights if they want to.
• We have been around the city quite a bit and haven’t seen one cop, police car or official of any kind. Korea is a very safe country with no guns. You can walk around pretty much anywhere at any time, and major traffic accidents are relatively rare.

We ate out the first day at a restaurant near our house. We couldn’t communicate with them as they didn’t speak English, so we just pointed to pictures of food on the wall. The pictures you see on this page are of our first lunch in Seoul.

Yesterday, the director of our school gave us an orientation and also took us out to lunch. It was very good and a lot of food! We didn’t even need dinner! We ate stir fried chicken, cabbage, rice noodles, seaweed and chili sauce. You take the pieces of chicken out with your chop sticks and place them into a large leaf of lettuce. Then, add a bit of bean sauce, a garlic clove or green pepper and stuff the whole thing into your mouth! We had sides of kim chee, of course, and seaweed soup. It was delicious!

You can see all the food pictures in our food picture page. Click!!

We landed in Incheon, South Korea after a 12-hour flight from San Francisco. A driver was waiting to pick us up and I couldn’t resist taking a picture of a sign with our names on it! He drove us to the city of Seoul, which only took about an hour. It was very dark on the highway. but the first thing we noticed was lots of Hyundai and Daewoo cars.

When we arrived at our apartment building, the program director, Richard, was waiting to show us to our room. Our apartment is very nice. It comes with a view from the fourth floor (or F floor, as 4 is an unlucky number), a washer with drying rack, a microwave, a television, VCR (which we’ll probably never use), snappy internet, a heated floor and a small bathroom. It is very modern and compact. We are located very close to a subway line, a large grocery store, Papa Johns pizza and lots of outlet shopping stores.

So far we have been trying to get over jetlag, and done a little shopping to furnish the place. Thankfully we located a Starbucks about two miles away (a “very walkable” distance). We are told that is the distance we will have to walk to school each morning. We will find out more about that this morning, as Richard is taking us into the school for some orientation.

We miss you all very much and enjoy talking and video conferencing with you on iChat! It helps keep the phone bill down!

...But here are some things that have really been helping:

1. an electronic picture frame from Tess. We have put many pictures of family and friends on it to remind us of them. However, we try to limit the Hawai‘ian scenic landscapes; we don’t want to make it worse! Thanks a lot, Tess!!
2. Papa John’s pizza is located on the bottom floor of our building! We ordered it for dinner last night. But we can’t order delivery as we can’t say our address!
3. Megan’s new camera, a Canon SD750, a Festivus present from her parents. It’s really great to be able to take pictures of the new strange food and us flashing peace signs.
4. iChat, iChat Theater and Video Chats! We enjoy talking to you guys online; we haven’t really found a reason to need to pay for Skype minutes yet! And, if need be, I can troubleshoot my Mom’s computer from afar! So, be online early and often! And don’t forget to check NoPeanutButter.com!!

Though it doesn't look like much now, this site will soon be inundated with updates about Megan Glunz and Jay Robinson's journey to the heart of South Korea to teach English. Please bookmark this site and check back in a few weeks.

We leave for Los Angeles on November 27th, then fly out to Seoul, South Korea on the 29th!

UPDATE

We have landed and have our apartment in Seoul! Thank you for all your kind words of support! We love using iChat to communicate! That's jayrobinson83 and smidge372 on AIM.