thanksgiving in korea.

happy day of thanks my friends. happy thanksgiving! 

this is my favorite class. they are 6/7/8 year olds. they are brilliant. we wanted to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving back home! 

and this is tom - my genius i'm always talking about. he is a hoot. a pure genius. this is the future of korea, and he calls me "silly kami teacher".

NOW. we all know that thanksgiving is an americanized holiday, so korea doesn't celebrate it. but when i told my director it was thanksgiving and we'd usually be stuffing our faces, she went and bought sara and i some fried chicken (with ketchup for me) and pepsi cola. it was awesome. here is the before and after. 

even ruby got in on the action. do you SEE the smile on my face? i was thrilled. fried chicken. ahhh. no rice! just fried chicken and ketchup! amaaazing! 

what a nice gesture. and a tasty one, at that. this thanksgiving has gone by quickly. these three weeks have gone by extremely fast. and it isn't until the holidays come 'round where time is seemingly slow. i can only wish i were with my family; overindulging on turkey and ketchup and aunt ann's rolls. oh and pumpkin pie and whip cream. whew. but i most definitely enjoyed our fried chicken we received. these people are insanely kind. no where else would that happen. no where else. 

happy thanksgiving to all. i got a little sentimental and made a little podcast for everyone.

click here to listen :)

happy day of thanks to you all! and goodnight from korea. 

much love,

kamiiii

unofficially official.

hello all. how goes it this fine thanksgiving eve? my hope is you are all cozying up by a warm fire and thinking of the following delectable meal to come. envy stems within me simply thinking about it! haha. since i do a lousy job at updating this thing, i thought i'd give it a go 'round and share some humorous stories of today. 

FIRST. the korean 'parking system'... somewhat strange. it would NEVER fly back in the states. i'm afraid guns would fire if we tried to park like they do back home. everyone blocks everyone in here - but ... they live their cards on their dashboards to call for them to come move their cars. this guy in the picture was impatient and tried to move the car he has his hand on. except the car kept rolling backwards. so he had to hold it until the owner came out. i don't think i've laughed that hard in a long time. just picture this man pushing the car and then having to hold it so it won't roll back... good times. 

today we went to the immigration office to fill out paperwork for our immigration registration card - which makes us legal citizens of this great country - south korea. we will hopefully get them back within a week, and then we can open up a bank account. i'm just excited to be considered an actual citizen of south korea. few and far americans can say they've been korean citizens. well that's probably not true. but i am at least officially, and for the time being - unofficially official. wahoo! 

anyhow, on our way back from the immigration office, my director took sara and i to a look out point in tongyeong. it was pretty friggin' awesome. the following are pictures of what i saw...through a camera lense. 

i feel like all these pictures become monotonous after a while, so i just wanted to put up a couple. the right picture is our director pointing out a hiking point for sara and i to take on. i am looking forward to that puppy, let me tell you.. 

sometimes i feel like i should pinch myself. that this reality i'm lving in is a false illusion and i will wake up and hit my head hard on the coffee table after a long restful REM sleep. but the reality of missing thanksgiving makes it real again. bah humbug. 

SECONDLY. funny store of the day.

i got told today by my korean co-teachers that the kids think i am filipino and mexican. haha. the fact that i am not blonde hair blue eyed makes them feel that i am not american. so along with my diet, my heritage has drastically changed since coming to korea. ha. filipino? really? i can't imagine what they will say when i get tan in the summer. hahaha. oh children of korea. how cute you all are... except when you won't shut up and let me talk. haha.

and here is ruby again.. we have a good time. 

this picture is my favorite. two peas in a pod we are! i love her to pieces (wow, i sound like my mom!) :)

don't let that face fool you. she loves me. haha. 

ruby is awesome. her english is outstanding for a 6/7 year old. i am having mom send me some books for her and i to read together and some pencils with her name on it. she will have a cow... or a pig, since that is the main animal here. haha. she is just a doll. she went out last night and bought me a pen and marker just because she thought i needed one. she spent her own money she saved. how do you thank a 6 year old for spending their own money on you? she is adorable. i cannot think of how sad i will be to leave her. so i'll just think about how stellar of a time we will have this year. 

seems odd i've been here three weeks. man they have flown by. they really have. the weeks seem to go incredibly fast when you work the evenings. this weekend we will celebrate our own thanksgiving feast with the american foreigners. i'm pretty pumped up about that. it won't remotely compare to the normal webb/smith holiday feast... but dang...it's all i have to cling to. i am also bummed that this is the first time in 5 years i will be missing out on the 'black friday' shopping day. what an adrenaline rush that is! most definitely! 

on another note, here is a picture of my knees. if you know me at all, you are then aware that i am incredibly clumsy. i frequently hit my head, trip and fall, bump into things, and wake up with extravagant bruises of which i enjoy boasting about of their regular occurrence on my body. but this past week...holy moly people. i busted soo friggin' hard. we regularly meet at the wabar - it is a foreign hot spot. on my behalf, though, i was unfamiliar with the flooring and it was very dark so i couldn't see the step that i would undoubtedly miss. but let me just say... i entered with a bang. a loud loud bang. and it hurt. very badly. so these are my knees now.

they don't look nearly as bad as they did. whew. bless their lil' ole' heart.

okay. ha. this post was of nothing of importance, i just thought i'd update to appease the mass. or at least, my mom. she likes it when i update. it is officially thanksgiving for me. oh how thankful i am for the souls who've crossed my own. oh how thankful i am. 

i love and miss you all deeply. (but not enough to come back...so eat some ketchup 'n turkey for me!) :)

-kami :)

our first visitor!

always a child's dream to ride front row seat on the vespa. 

WE HAD A VISITOR! WAHOOOOOOOO!!! 

this is amy. amy rice. 

this weekend we had a visitor - amy rice. she went to college with sara at wayland, and is teaching in asan. she speaks practically fluent (so i think) korean and how splendid it was to have a translator! we could order what we wanted, buy what we wanted, get to where we wanted. it was almost surreal. needless to say, we had a ball this weekend. so i won't say much else but answer with pictures. 

the fish in the left wasn't so lucky. and the fish on the right... has a thumb?? really?? WEIRD!!!! who knew??

i recently have a new obsession - jumpin off of things. this time, i drug amy with me! 

we decided we'd show amy our market. what a treat. this place smells of... well... nothing like you can imagine. like i've said before... it makes me ache for the smell of the feedlot back home. not kidding. some moments throughout it my knees go weak and i get an image in my head of what it could possibly be like to be like dorthy and have the power to click my ruby red heals and be somewhere else. whew. anyhow. here is the market today. 

these ladies don't mess around. they are awesome. they do this on a daily basis. rubber boots, rubber gloves, big ole' knife in hand ready to gut, scale, or beat any fish you decide you want in your belly. 

and this is the dollah store. or you know, the 1,000 won store. right dab in the center of the market. i try to go there as minimal as possibly. i'd rather spend a little more money and have quality lungs and miss out on the beating of the live fish. :(

1. 22.

1. amy showin' sara all the goods the market has to offer.

2. this fish committed suicide. i would too if i knew that my future held scaling and being beaten by a wooden bat. rip you little fishy. rip! 

1. 2. 

3.

1. i loooooved this lady. i named her ethel. she did NOT want her picture taken....i didn't really think she could chase me, though, so i thought i'd take my chances. what a ca-yutie! 

2. these were the street ladies. they would blow their whistles like nobody's business anytime someone fouled up in the streets. i had amy beg them to take a picture with me! they were so cute. pretty sure they felt extremely awkward. haha. 

and then....

we went to the coast. again. and witnessed how crazy cool Jesus' imagination is.

amy and i found an abandoned boat. we jumped off this one, too. haha.

and last but not least. the left - korean socks are ca-razy here. they have people who sell them in trucks just like the ice cream man. it's insane. so sara bought me a pair of santa socks. since amy had hers on we all decided we'd sport them in a pic. woop! good times connecting. 

eating our last meal with amy - until CHRISTMAS! 

so. i thought i'd spare your eyes from my usual writing tactics and post pictures instead. this weekend was spectacular. new connections, new friendships. we are actually planning to meat amy in seoul for christmas and hang out for a week or so. what trouble we will most undoubtedly cause! hoo-rah! 

also. BOOMER SOONER. atta' boys. 

much love from my little apartment. i'm starting to get a bit sad i won't be there for thanksgiving. it only hits me when i think about it, so i do the best i can to not think about it. but dang... eat some turkey and ketchup for me, please! 

much love friends. much love.

-kam-dogg. 

we don't make plans here. nope.

and this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship... with myself... and korea. 

korea does things big time. (this is for show... i do not even like coffee....however, if this puppy was actually filled with sonic diet dr. pepper.. i think it'd faint and drink the entire thing)

the elderly do not retire. instead, they find it in their right mind to walk with 100's of pounds of trash or whatever they can find and wheel it on the streets. it's quite amazing, actually. kudos cute korean lady. kudos!

the second picture is right outside of the hansan hotel - where sara and i stayed the first few days we were here. it kind of looks like an old film camera picture quality. guess that's what i get for drinking that huge cup of coffee. wait, what? 

INSERT STORY HERE---->

so this sunday sara and i had planned to visit hansan island. we'd heard it was beautiful, so we were awfully excited to get to visit. we invited one of our directors (sara1) to come with us. however, sunday at 1 she showed up saying that we were all invited to eat dinner at a cabin of one of our students on another island. so... how could we resist?  now. direct eyes downward for pictures to follow event. 

we don't have these sights in texas. nope, not like this. (no worries my texan loves, they don't beat our sunsets here, either)

this picture instilled in me a heavy desire to scream out 'WADE IN THE WATER CHILDREN..." LA LA

lalalala 

everyone now... .

waaade in the water. waaade in the water children. waaaade in the water. lala

the dogs hang out on rooftops here. most likely escaping becoming dinner. no worries, we had pork and beef. ha. i did name this dog sally jessie. and said a few prayers for it's livelihood. 

this was our deluxe meal! the koreans go ALL out. spent like $150 one ONE meal. ONE meal. a ton of pork (galbi ---which i looooove), beef (which is super expensive since it's hard to find), shrimp, clams, fish...etc. all for us. pretty neat that people we don't know would go out of their way for us like that. they asked us what our favorite meals were back home, so i said grilled chicken and mashed potatoes with ketchup - and they are going to make that for us next time we visit. WHO DOES THAT?!?!?! friggin' saweeet! 

and this is henrietta. i looooved henrietta. 

we found an abandoned boat. i had to convince the children to be courageous  and fearless (big vocab words for them) and to take the journey with me and be my crew mates. then we decided to jump victoriously. actually, i wanted to jump and they were easily convinced. haha. i love these kids. we have a great time together. they have my heart. it belongs to them solely. i look forward each day to go to work and to see their faces. i think that is why i want to do be so much fun for them - b/c most of them go to school every night until 10 or 11 then wake up and repeat the routine, so when we get them, they are so sleepy and agitated... i just know i'd want to have someone who had some fun with me, so i do the best i can. they are pieces of work, though. an odd feeling i have when i realize i hold the future of korea in my hands... they are smarter than me most of them. ha. one of my favorite students is TOM. now. tom told me this the other day: 

"kami teacher. when you speak korean to us, although it is superb in dialect and tonality, you aren't really supposed to are you? (then makes an 'X' with his arms - which signals the NO statement) but if we promise not to tell anyone, can you keep doing it anyhow? i love your korean accent." 

HE IS 7 people. SEVEN YEARS OLD. 

that boy would do circles around the other 2nd graders in the states. all these kids would. the are incredible. 

in other news. i think i received a concussion yesterday by bonking my head on the friggin' car door. i decided throughout that experience that my clumsiness and clutziness is a direct result of my overwhelming sarcastic nature. it's punishment. but the ache is gone in my head, and now my shoulders and neck will heal eventually, so i think it's worth it to be sarcastic. i work with probably the only sarcastic korean i will ever meet. her name is sharon and she is a hoot. did i mention how great my co-workers are? 

AND THANKSGIVING. THANKSGIVINg. THANKS-GIVING. is next thursday. so we are all coming together (all the foreigners) and  going to create an american thanksgiving in korea, welcoming the feast of food that will most undoubtedly be there. i might even try to cook something. operative word - try. :) 

that's all i know. i gotta get ready to run some errands before work. sara is officially in her apartamento so we are both finally feeling what it's like to have our own space and really become a local. life is good. i am lucky. 

miss all my texans, 

kamiiiii

survival of the fittest.

***WARNING. PREPARE YE EYES. PREPARE..'tis a long one, folks!!***

so. 

this is arney. he and i got well acquainted on one of my morning runs. arney likes long walks on the beach and loves fleetwood mac. 

 

this food was left for the birdies. i asked about this method. the people of korea feel like since nature gave them these products, that they should give back to nature. so they leave food for the animals. quite nice. once i discovered this method, i tried to make arney aware of the provided meal for him and his posse... but they split on me. 

and there... they go. thanks guys! 'ppreciate cha! 

hey. wanna know somethin'..... 

i live here. 

cool 'eh? yes, i know.

what a week. that is all i really know to say. what a week! 

what a week. 

i survived my first week of teaching in tongyeong...with flying colors, mind you. it was somethin' else. i'm already head-over-heels in love with my kiddos, and i've been here a mere week. they had me from, "hello kami teacher." (saying 'teacher' after the name is a form of respect. even my boss calls me kami teacher. "oh kami teacher. you are very clever and your hair is pretty kami teacher." it's so cute. ha. 

moving forward, though.... 

this week absolutely flew by. we only had about 4 classes a day, but now we have our new schedule.... and i will be busy for sure. i am excited, though. it gives me new faces to see and new souls to love. i'll be teaching around 35 classes a week. some of the classes meet every day, some m,t,w,th, some of them t,t,f, and so on and so on. so each class we have has a certain criteria of curriculum that needs to be used - a LOT of lesson planning. but i am looking forward to it. i just love these kids. and i love my korean co-workers. they are the most helpful by far. they teach me korean, too. my little girl ruby quizzes me almost every day. if i give her class homework, she turns around and makes up a korean quiz for me. so far i can say the following: 

nae irrum kami immida (my name is kami)

young o hajul a seyo (do you speak english)

nae manhakuk moth ay yo (i do not speak korean)

hajimal (don't do that---something i love to say to the kids!)

nae/annio (yes, no)

kamsamidah (thanks)

an young ha sey yo (hello)

an young ka sey yo (bye)

earl mah ye yo (how much is it)

mianhamida (sorry)

satang (candy)

babu (silly) 

just the basics, but i am trying! since we are obvious foreigners the kids here go crazy with excitement when they scream out HI at us. so i start answering them in korean and telling them they should speak english in korean. they go nuts. it's hilarious. this is an awfully tough language to learn, but i am hopeful i can find a class to learn through maybe at the beginning of the year. we'll see! if not, i've already learned my survival korean so i am good.

since the weeks seem to fly by, the 'thing to do' here is to go.... BOWLING. yes. you read correctly. bowling. and i think i had one of the most fun times i've had in a very long time. when you go in, you take off your shoe and hand it to the 'shoe lady' and she looks at it and gets an idea of what size shoe she thinks you wear, then hands it to you. it is quite humorous. i wear a 65.  anyhow, something i've also forgot to mention. there are around 15 foreigners or so in tongyeong  -  at least teachers, i mean. so when new ones come off the boat, we get excited to meet them. so last night we met two more from boston and minnesota. i am pretty pumped up about the people i've met here and will continue to meet. there is nothing like meeting new english speaking people. it's pretty much like this : oh hi. you speak english. you understand me. i understand you. let's be friends, shall we? then the rest is history. these are people i will most undoubtedly cherish for years to come. some stellar souls for sure. unfortunately, one of them departed entirely too soon to go back to canada, EH'...but penpalry is in the works. anyhow, after bowling, of where i was deemed 'the train' b/c i have a knack for just chunking the ball as hard as i can down the isle, we went to what i like to call 'the soup kitchen'... where we had chicken soup. now, you americans... this was no normal chicken soup. i can't even think of words to describe how they enjoy spicing things up... it's insane. but they serve you around 20 bowls of side dishes (which i'm sure i'd love if i actually liked their contents), and then a bowl of soup with chicken still on the bone - and you pick off the chicken with your chop sticks and place the bone in the big bowl at the center of the table. seeing that many bones... made me wish i could have the strength to become vegetarian. holy toledo. lotta' bones. i just ate the spicy chicken and doused it in the sticky rice hoping it'd take away the spice. it did clear up my lungs, though. whew! 

i will say, though, i like the idea of taking your shoes off when you enter into restaurants, and apartments. i do that with my apartment, and i think it keeps it quite clean. the rest of the mess.... is my fault. ha. i am still not quite used to sitting on the floor. my back doesn't like that. it debates with my head the idea of the usefulness of chairs. ha. taking shoes off, though - i dig that. but, that's not why i am writing. i wanted to tell you what kind of day we had today. a day of failure, but of a happy ending. 

start NOW. 

so today. i woke up around 10, not having gotten in from bowling and soup until around 3am. and i decided that i wanted to try domino's pizza. i know, i know. but i've had my share of porridge and soup and rice and spicy foods... so i wanted something reminiscent of home. something. and i'd heard domino's was out of this world here. so we hail a taxi. (taxi's are super cheap. SUPER cheap. like 2 bucks across town, so we take them a lot. ha) anyhow, we explain to him .. DO-MI-NO'S... DO-MI-NO'S. three syllables. he says he can take us. we feel...victorious! hoo-rah! my stomach lies in eager anticipation for what it will partake on.

and then. we end up at the bus terminal across the hill. DO-MI-NO'S? TER-MI-NAL. three syllables. that's ALL they have in common. not particularly sure how that happened, but first failure was laughable. a bit perturbing, but a happy attitude we had nonetheless because we were at e-mart (the wal-mart of tongyeong). so we go with it. and let me tell you, saturday's are my FAVORITE 'round these ropes. it is FREE SAMPLE DAY EvERYWHERE!!! and kami loooooves free food. i could have stayed in there for an hour going from plate to plate, but they were eyeing me suspisciously.. as they should have. i was sucking them dry. what can i say? i don't get paid until next month - a girl's gotta eat. haha. i will say, though, that i cannot wait until i can really go shopping there. they have everything! everrryyyything! so exciting! they have a ton of hats. i am excited about that. i love hats. the upstairs had around 10 pianos that i tried out. apparently the lady who was in charge didn't like them to be touched (b/c people don't need to try out pianos before they buy them... i guess you just stare at them and hope they are in tune to perfection?? these koreans... i tell ya) anyhow..she came over and mumbled something in korean at me the first time i started playing, but she didn't accomplish much because i just kept on going. and THEN. OF ALL THE THINGS... seriously...

that tiny lady came over to me in her little buttoned vest and slapped my hand and told me HA JI MAL (don't do that!) ra-huuuude. i was not happy. i told her she was mean in korean (a phrase the kids taught me this past week when i gave them extra homework. wah ha). i have to say i've never been hand-swatted before. stupid lady. it's a piano. i was playing it. i suppose it's better to stare at. my apologies lady. however, after finding two little pads of paper for 800 won ('round 75 cents) we decided we'd try and take the bus back to our headquarters. so sara and i prance to the other side of the crazy busy street with fingers crossed no koreans have an inner desire to run over any americans, all to realize that... the map is in pure korean. no way jose do we know what that sucker says. so again, we hail a taxi. DO-MI-NO'S. DO-MI-NO'S! COME ON! DO-MI-NO'S. 

and i am happy again. eagerly awaiting one more time the aroma of a thin crust pepperoni pizza. holy moly i was pu-umped! i kept saying to him DO-MI-NO'S in hopes he really knew where he was going. surely we wouldn't end up at another terminal. as i stare out the window i'm fairly certain we are headed to victory. then he stops at a place called "Mr. Pizza...who loves women". seriously. again? what don't you get about do-mi-no's friggin' pizza. i don't want mr. or mrs. or dr. pizza. i just want domino's. however, after much deliberation sara and i take on mr. pizza. took a while to explain to them how repulsed i'd be if they put anything but just cheese and MEAT pepperoni (last time i ordered pepperoni pizza in prague... it was jalapeno covered peppers... my heart sunk then, and i didn't want dejavu to occur). after about 15 minutes of waiting the final result was here. recognizable pizza. i suppose my stomach had higher expectations knowing i was going to eat at domino's and wasn't that sufficed with mr. pizza who loves women. (not joking about the title, that's the name! ha) after a second failure, i decided i needed to treat myself. what else can i do? let's celebrate the defeat with some baskin robins! and i did just that. baskin robin's and a pepsi. and all of a sudden the frustrations of the misunderstandings were all gone. i was happy again. belly full of semi-decent pizza and ice cream and sipping slowly on a carbonated beverage. we also decided we'd check out the 1000 won store ($1 store). only problem is... it's right dab center in the middle of the fish market. and that is a place that to an extent makes me ache for the smell of cow crap back home. the smell of the market is atrocious. holy crap. atrocious. and some of those little fishies are alive still. it took all of me not to try and convince them that those fish felt the blades of their knives and to just say no and eat peanut butter. but alas, i didn't. there was some neat stuff at the 1000 won store, but i shall wait for that as well. simply observing. i found one store, though, that ohhh man, it will become my favorite. the blankets/comforters here are outrageously comfortable. i found a set for around 38,000 won that will be my first purchase once i get my check. (no worries mom, i'm still sending money home)  the set was bright orange and just absolutely beautiful. they are a 'svelt' type material. and underneath has tiny little dots that keep the covers from coming off'a ya when you sleep. what a terrific invention!! i love mine at my apartment, so i am most definitely sending one home! i also stopped at lotte mart to get some more peanut butter - i was out. so life is back to normal for me again. i have peanut butter. i am okay. life will be good. 

ha. this was probably the longest post EVER. sorry. if you've made it thus far... congratulations. if not, i don't blame you. i'll try and update throughout my weeks, but it's a bit crazy and the weekends are all i have. i took some sweet pictures yesterday morning of which you can see right... now. 

these are outside of my apartment. :)

on my way to the ocean. just my scenic daily view. nuttin' special... :)

the rest are from my morning quiet time . whew-baby. talk to me Jesus! 

i looked for a message in a bottle, and even tried to send one myself, but it was a failed attempt. there's always the next 51 weeks, though.... 

okay folks. that's all she wrote. sara and i are going to go to han-san island tomorrow - that will embark our 2nd out of 120 islands to visit. so i'll be sure to update on that one with multitudes of pics and stories. 

'til then. i love you from korea! 

-kami :)