This week so far!

So I am continuing to settle in to korean life and my school. I love my classes! All except for one... the children are in a book that is way too advanced for them and it is painful looking at their blank faces and wondering how to help them complete the workbook page when they don't understand a word on it. But that is a worry for another day, I only have that class once per week and it is over.
I have now officially done each class at least once. I have been working for one week and i really love it. I would like to find a really quality masters teaching program and go to it as soon as I rid myself of the debt from the undergrad degree!!!

Ok so cool things

I discovered the roof of our building today! My coworker goes up there to smoke, so i thought it would be just a nasty roof, I never bothered to check it out, but I did today! It is so beautiful! the whole roof is painted white and there are planters and benches and you can see as far as the smog will let you! which today was pretty far! really nice new place to spend breaks!

I went to No-Re- Bang with all the foreign english teachers in town tonight!!! It was SOOO amazing! Think kareoke, but in your own private room for your group, with tambourines and drums and funny hats and boas and dancing lights all over the ceiling and a disco ball! Along with all the drinks and food you wish to pay for!!! How great is that!! I sang two songs, Hello Dolly, and Fly me to the Moon, and I rocked both of them!! It is charged by the hour and you and your friends can all split the cost which is negligible anyway! OOOOH it was SO much fun! All the other teachers were very drunk, and they were Sooo funny to watch! I am definetly hooked on No-Re-Bang! I wish we had this in the states!

Before No-Re-Bang, we all went out for dinner complements of the owner of the other english school in town. We were invited because it was a farewell dinner for the two teachers who are leaving tomorrow and we are friends with them, even though they teach at the other school in town. (It is called Appleseed and they are much bigger than our school, but I think we are better.) I really enjoyed dinner! It was my first korean barbeque, they give you trays of raw meat and you grill them right there on your table. I always wondered what these restaurants were before I went to one tonight, because there are shiny metal hoses hanging down from the ceiling over every table! I could not figure out what they were... They are vacuum chimneys, they suck the smoke up from the barbeque so it doesn't bother the patrons. It was absolutely delicious! I had the korean equivalent of a hamburger, you take a lettuce leaf and put it in your hand, then you put on a few pieces of grilled garlic and a few grilled onions, then comes the meat, you just place it on top of everything. You wrap the lettuce leaf around the whole pile in a bundle and take a bite. It was delicious! Then they kept coming with more and more food, side dishes and noodles and rice! I was so full by the time I left!

I got skype!! My name is koreadventurer so email me your names and we can actually talk!! It would be so awesome if you all could get skype cause I miss you so much!! My email is LSK04@ymail.com, if you email me your names we can set up a time to talk and I can video show you my apt.

I am going to seoul again this weekend. I have many things planned! I wil be headed up there on Friday night, and staying the night with a friend. Then on Saturday morning we will go visit an awesome marketplace. At 1:30 I have to be at a Taekwondo demonstration at a royal palace. Then there follows a tour of the palace and a taekwondo lesson. That lasts til 4 then at 6 I will be going to my co-directors and fellow teachers wedding!!! Kris and Heather are getting Married and I've been invited! I am excited to see a korean wedding, although it will prolly be just the same as a US wedding. After that, if there is time, some friends of mine are doing a language exchange with some koreans and then doing norebang!! Well I've found out I love norebang, so I m excited! Ten on sunday I plan to go to Kumnan UMC which is the largest Methodist church in the world with over 120000 members. It is 12 stories and so huge! the english language service is at 9 I think and I plan to go to it. Then I might possibly meet some friends to hang for the rest of the day. or I might go home and collapse!

Also, tomorrow is the staff dinner for our school! It is sort of in honor of my arrival... so that will prolly be fun! they are having at a seafood buffet restaurant in Cheonan. I love seafood but not squid, I tried it today, not a fan! But the tofu soup I can handle!

OK so best and coolest news for last! My director has invited me and Christine to go on her weekend family vacation with them!!!!! They will be going to an island south of the peninsula ad chillin on the beach all weekend on the 19th. She invited us!!! I AM SO EXCITED!! and it was so funy how she asked me to come. She started describing how here family went there last year and how beautiful it was and how not crowded! (for korean's whose 50 million people live on a peninsula 3/4 the size of florida, no crowds is the ULTIMATE escape) she tried to tell me why it was not crowded, and apparently it is because this island is the migration place for about a million giant blue crabs this time of year. So no one goes there. But for Koreans it is very difficult to differentiate between the B sound and the P sound, so she ended up telling me that the island was "covered in crap, many crap, ooh sorry, must have s.... craps, it has many craps, many blue craps." I thought it was hilarious but I knew what she was trying to say so it was ok! But anyway, I am very flattered to be invited and really looking forward to it!

Anyway thats all the updates!!! Hope you all have great days!! I look forward to receiving your emails with your skype names.... Tracy ,I know you gave it to me already, but I forget.... email me again...

Lots of love!
Lauren the adventurer!!!