메리 크리스마스!!

I hope that all of you at home had a WONDERFUL Christmas. I really appreciated the cards, phonecalls and emails-- so sweet to know that you were thinking of me, even though I am so far away :) I had an absolutely FANTASTIC Christmas. It was very low key, but full to the brim with warmth, friends and love.



Top 5 Highlights

5. Nertz
I hope I got the spelling right. This is a card game that a couple friends in my bible study introduced to me for the first time at our Christmas Eve sleepover. They explained it as group Solitaire + Speed. Google it if you aren't familiar. I was absolutely terrible-- we were playing to a hundred (first person to get to 100 points wins) and at the end of the game, my score was -5. I had a lot of fun, though, and next time if I end up on the positive side, I'm calling it a victory.

4. The Grinch and Elf
Two Christmas classics. It was fun to guage our Korean friends' reaction to Dr. Seuss and Will Ferrell.


3. Christmas Eve music at Dongsan Church
The night featured, among many other things, a Korean rendition of Avalon's "Testify to Love," an uptempo version of "Joyful, joyful" performed by our English service praise team, a group of ajumas in pink angel outfits doing a choreographed dance, a boy playing the saxophone while zipping through the crowd on roller skates, and a bunch of three year olds singing and stomping around in bedazzled green and pink dutch looking costumes (one of them even got so excited bopping up and down to the music that she tumbled off the stage mid-performace... she popped right back up unphased and kept doing her thing, though). It is times like these that I really wish I had my camera to share the wonderfulness that is Korea with you all.

2. Skype, Sleepovers, and Singing
The best part about my first Christmas away from home is that I didn't feel sad or lonely at any point. Not only was I able to skype my entire family (multiple times) and hear all of their sweet voices praying and singing together on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I also got to have back-to-back sleepovers with two great groups of people here in Ansan. It was wonderful to get to wake up surrounded by my bible study group on Christmas morning and to all head to church together. And my Christmas Day sleepover at the Dow's that evening was especially precious, because AP and I stayed up until nearly 4 a.m. singing and listening to Christmas carols (the guys joined us for about two songs, before moving on to video games). It was a sweet blessing, and a great way to end my first Christmas experience in Korea, because singing Christmas songs together is probably the one single part of celebrating with my family that I have always treasured most.

1. Spending quality time with the birthday boy
I know it's cheesy, but I love Christmas and I love Jesus. And I had a really great time thanking Him for being born :)

FaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLa

Christmas is only 3 short days away!!

I am so excited to celebrate the birth of Jesus for the first time ever in South Korea!

For those interested, here are a few random tidbits about Christmas in Korea...

Christmas here is an opportunity for Chrisitians to go to church and for dating couples to have (yet another) Valentine's day-type celebration.

Families don't get together for Christmas.

The main gift given on Christmas is cash.

Sometimes, Santa wears blue instead of red.





PS. This Christmas season my thoughts are with my family and all of the other people in North Korea who are struggling day in and day out to survive this winter, and who either don't know that it is Christmas, or who are forced to celebrate in hiding. Check out my other blog, and join my family and me in remembering and praying for the people of North Korea this Christmas.

If you've ever wondered what people think Americans sound like...

The video below-- made by an Italian singer to sound like English-- gives you a picture of what my students are probably hearing 90% of the time when I try to speak to them. Unfortunately for them, though, it's generally without the added fun of a song and dance performance.

After watching this vid, I can now understand my "parrot" students (ie, the kids who think it is absolutely hilarious to repeat back EVERY WORD that I say) just a little bit better.

And apparently the song's "lyrics" sound pretty accurate. Even my co-teacher was trying to figure out what the singer was saying, until I was able to explain to her that it was in fact all gibberish (that's a fun word to teach, by the way).

**
This second video is only slightly related to the first, but I'm posting it anyway because I think it is one of the absolute cutest things EVER. This video makes me want to switch jobs and become an elementary or preschool school teacher ASAP.



I'm pretty tempted to try speaking gibberish to my kids now, just to see if they notice any difference. Hmm... can you tell I've got a bit of extra time on my hands lately? :)

Dear Santa...

Can you please bring me my Linus blanket and one of these for Christmas?


I promise I've been good this year.

Crossing

I don't have much to say in this post, but I couldn't not blog about this movie.

Watching it was one of the most moving things that I have done since being in Korea.



I saw the film last weekend at a mission trip fundraiser put on by Jubilee Church in Seoul. After the movie, one man had the unfortunate job of standing up and praying before dismissing us. He had no idea what to say. I don't think any one of us did.

Seriously. You've got to watch it.

http://www.crossingnk.com/

My First Open Class

One of the unique experiences of working in a Korean public school is the fulfilment of the bi-annual "open class" requirement.

The open class is just that-- a class that is advertised and open to any and all visitors, both from within the school, and from other schools in the surrounding area. These visitors observe your "demo lesson" and stick around afterwards to offer crtiques and feedback on what they saw.

To be quite honest, I was dreading having to do this. I really enjoy teaching, but I hate anything that feels remotely like a presentation or a show. As the day of my open class neared, more experienced native teacher friends laughed at my anxiety, telling me not to worry and that it is not such a big deal, while my co-teachers were completely freaking out about it. I was more inclined to trust my Korean co-teachers-- after all, they are more familiar with the importance of the open class for our school and its purpose within the public education system here-- which probably helped me in the preparation stages, but, of course, did nothing for my nerves.

However, my first ever open class was this morning, and I survived.

The topic of my open class was "Let's Talk About Movies." Now that final exams are over for the students, I am free to choose any topic and to use any materials I can get my hands on when creating my lessons for the next month-- which is great because it allows me a level of freedom and flexibility that I ususally don't have. The not-so-great part, however, is that, since exams are over, students are not accountable for anything that they do in class and are therefore completely unmotivated to learn. So, I chose the movie topic in hopes that students would want to be engaged, since movies are something fun that they care about, and because movies would make a great topic of conversation for those who want to make English speaking friends their own age. It is a subject that actually matters to them, and luckily, it was a topic that they turned out to be relatively interested in. The class was far from smooth, but the kids stayed invested, which was huge.

After class, we had a roundtable discussion to elicit feedback from the visiting teachers from surrounding schools. The head of our English department opened the discussion by, I think, trying to discretely apologize for my co-teacher and I-- or perhaps, he was just qualifying our performace-- in saying that he had been worried about me as a "newborn teacher," and emphasizing that both my co-teacher and I had never done an open class before. He added that he was aware that open classes were for demonstration purposes, but that my co-teacher and I had wanted to demonstrate something closer to a real class. Luckily, the other teachers seemed to respond positively to the idea that what they had seen was unrehearsed, and that the lesson was therefore delivered and recieved in a natural way.

The experience overall was a good one. We were critiqued for trying to fit too much into a single class period, being too "academic," having an unbalanced division of speaking time between co-teachers, and for not being thorough enough when checking student comprehension of instructional steps. On the other hand we were commended on our choice of topic, the way that we gave immediate and positive feedback, the high participation and activity level of our students, and our good control of the class (whaattt?? that one shocked me). The visiting teachers gave us very helpful feedback on the lesson that I know is going to make me a better teacher and that I hope to be able to use to open up some avenues of discussion with my co-teachers on just how the logistics of "co-teaching" should play out.

So, after today, while I can't say that I look forward to holding another open class next semester, I now know what a valuable process it can be. I am confident that the information gleaned from the open class experience will be of great benefit to both my students and to me, and that is definitely something to embrace.

(A little side note: I really feel for my friends who are teachers in hagwons-- private language institutes-- who have to do thier open classes for their students' parents, rather than for other teachers. I have a feeling that parents would be a little less constructive in their criticisim, and are bound to view the class through a very different lens [$$] than the teacher...eek. )

5 things...

... that I don't have the desire (or guts) to try while in Korea.


5. Going to JimJilBang-- the traditional Korean public bathhouse. It may not sound so bad to many of you, but I just can't get past the idea of walking around completely nude in front of a bunch of strangers, especially knowing how my simply being a foreigner invites so much gawking, even when I'm fully clothed.


4. Getting a pedicure by Dr. Fish... aka, having my feet mauled by flesh eating carp.




3. Eating dog... completely self-explanatory, I think.


2. Eating octopus ALIVE. While I do think this National Geographic video is a bit dramatic, it should give you a pretty adequate picture of why I don't intend to partake in this particular delicacy. Just in case you needed it.




1. Actually, I can only come up with four things... but those are more than enough, I think.

Let's Free Hugs!

Here in Korea, it is quite common to see women walking around holding hands and men with their arms around one another's waists. Even friends who have met for the first time may be spotted walking arm in arm down the street. (Having always been a kind of touchy-feely person, this is one of the aspects of Korean culture that I loved right away.)

However, in spite of the widespread display of intimate physical affection among friends here, hugs are not especially common. In fact, even within tight-knit Korean families, hugs have generally always been reserved for life's most special and emotionally charged moments.

This is perhaps changing among younger generations of Koreans, though. Interestingly, I have noticed that giving free hugs seems to be a fairly popular phenomenon around Seoul. I've gotten free hugs twice since being here, and both times brightened my day and put a big smile on my face. I LOVE to hug!

Below is a video made by a Korean in Seoul, who was inspired after watching Juan Mann's free hug video.



And here, some foreigners from Canada, Scotland, and Japan joined in on spreading the love in Korea. I adore the songs on both videos.



The simple honesty of one comment from a viewer of the video above especially touched my heart... "So nice! For Japanese, free hug in korea seems hard but I wish I could do!"

Hugs can change hearts, and changed hearts change the world. Let's free hugs! :)

Expat Christmastime Slump

Anyone who is remotely acquainted with me will know that I am OBSESSED with Christmastime. From November until January, I am most likely to be found wandering the streets with a giant smile on my face and Starbucks seasonal drink in hand, looking for presents and humming, "It's the most wonderful time of the year." Possibly while wearing a sweater with some type of Christmas character on it.

There is not much that can kill my mood around Christmastime. It is a period of anticipation, hope, generosity, and love, and it just makes me feel so inexplicably and uncontainably joyful. And, fortunately, despite being so far from home, the approach of this particular Christmas has been no exception. Just last night, I got to go to my first Korean Christmas play (All in Korean! And I could actually understand a good bit of it!), and it really took my level of excitement for my first Christmas in Korea up a few notches.

This season is not such a joyful time for all expats in Korea, though. In just the past few weeks, a number of foreign friends that I see on a fairly regular basis have informed me that they have put in their job notices early and will be leaving Korea by the new year. For many foreign English teachers in Korea, this time of year, rather than being cause for celebration, is instead the culmination of a long and stressful semester of failed expectations, culture shock, and mistreatment. And many decide that they can't, or simply don't want to, deal with it any longer.

As I myself contemplate the possibility of staying in Korea for another year, I can't help but reflect on the transient nature of life here, and the fact that if I do make the choice to stay-- as my friends who have already been here for a number of years will attest-- I will have to become very good at saying goodbye.

That is definitely not a skill that I look forward to developing.

Happy Holidays: Belated Thanksgiving Cheer

I realize that this is my second Thanksgiving-related post, but I just couldn't help myself. This past Turkey Day surprised me by ranking up there with one of the best that I have ever had.

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I fully anticipated being completely miserable on the day, locking myself in my apartment and crying over Skype. The holiday is always very special because it is a really big deal for my family and me, so I figured I would be feeling quite homesick on my first Thanksgiving away from them-- especially since I'm living in a land where no one really even cares that some pilgrims once sat down to eat with some Native American Indians (I know, weird, right? :P).

However, when I woke up last Thursday, I felt immediately happy and thankful, just like I had on every other Thanksgiving for the past 22 years. At work, one of my coworkers even commented on how excessively smiley and chipper I was. I simply sang back in my very happiest happy-Mary voice, "That's because it's Thanksgiving!"

After school I came home to shower and watch "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" before heading to a potluck dinner some American friends of mine were hosting. I went over to their place early and got to assist with setting up, laying the table and preparing mashed potatoes, salad, and deviled eggs-- which made me much happier than it probably should have, but it just felt like such a wonderfully homey and festive thing to be doing. The group ended up bringing together an amazing spread, which included blackberry merlot and pumpkin pie for desert. We all ate way too much, and I had a lot of fun explaining to my Korean and South African friends what Thanksgiving was like for me at home.

Then, the next morning, I got to wake up knowing that it was still Thanksgiving in the US. So lucky me got to celebrate for 36 hours instead of 24! It was a seriously great feeling :)

And, on top of everything, I still had SUNDAY to look forward to. A church that a friend of mine attends hosted a traditional, good ole' fashioned American Thanksgiving dinner that night at Yongsan Army base in Seoul. Stepping on to the base, I actually felt like I had been transported home to the US for the evening. This second Thanksgiving dinner supplied everything that my first had been missing-- namely turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Plus, it allowed me to celebrate Thanksgiving with yet another great group of people, which was pretty special too.

The Army base was decorated in true American fashion with tons of twinkly lights, Santas, and giant Christmas trees-- so what better place to pose for a holiday card style photo? Below is a picture of our group, contentedly stuffed to the brim with turkey and dressing, putting on our best smiles of holiday cheer for YOU, dear family and friends!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
With Love From South Korea!