Home Visit

With my family at the airport

Some of the Korean snacks I brought home didn't go over well...like dried squid and squid-flavored chips

Alyssa's Bridal Shower

Baby Kevin!

My Dad tries Bulgogi

Catching up with my college roomies in Uptown

My parents' new cabin



I saw Jason Mraz at Excel with my sisters. Great Concert!

Overheard at LeAnne's Daycare, 8-10-09

Charlotte, one of my mom's daycare kids, has always been a favorite of mine. She's 6 years old, completely blunt and brutally honest, which makes conversations with her highly entertaining.

Last summer she and Sofia, another outspoken daycare kid, were giving me a lot of grief because my YOUNGER sister had gotten engaged. Why wasn't I getting married? I told them that boys were overrated and I wanted to travel the world.

This week I was showing them where I live now and the places I visited this year in a World Atlas. I also showed them some pictures and videos from my year abroad, expecting them to be impressed. Not so much. Our conversation afterwards went something like this:

Charlotte: But, are you married yet?
Me: Ha ha, no.
Sofia: How old are you?
Me: 26.
Sofia: What?! Why aren't you married?
Me: I don't want to get married right now. Maybe when I'm like 30 I'll start looking for a husband.
Sofia: (Aghast) You should have been looking for a husband when you turned 21!!!
Me: If I was married, I couldn't travel.
Charlotte: You could travel with your husband.
Me: That's true.
Charlotte: Or you could just tell him you're going to school or work and go on a trip.

Guess they have it all figured out for me :)

미국에 와요! I'm coming home!!

In T-minus 19 hours, I will be back in the Land of 10,000 Lakes! Like I said in an earlier post, I have mixed emotions about this. I finally get to see the people I've been missing like crazy all year, but last night I had to say goodbye to the people who won't be coming back for another year. I hate saying goodbye to people and knowing that I may never see them again, mais 'C'est la Vie'

I want to wish everyone the best of luck and safe travels. It's been a great year.

Reason #678,945 I pushed for a 6 month contract

(Written August 6th)

Right now I'm sitting in a nearly empty school building, wondering if any of my 6 summer camp students will show up for class today. The last day of summer classes for the rest of the teachers was yesterday, but I still have to come and teach for 2 more days because "it's in my contract" that I have to teach a 3 week summer camp.

Nevermind that some of the other SMOE teachers got to condense or shorten camps to spend an extra week at home with their families during vacation. No, it is more important that I sit and Facebook in an empty building instead of being with my family and friends that I haven't seen in a year.

Nevermind that when it works in my school's favor, it's perfectly okay to break the rules. Example: SMOE recently issued a new rule that any teacher returning from a foreign country should stay home for a week so that they don't spread any potential swine flu or "new flu" germs. (it's called "new flu" here, because if they called it pig flu, Koreans would be too terrified to eat pig meat and the industry would crumble)

My VP wants me to come to school that week because there's a group of Japenese exchange students visiting and they want to show me off. My coteacher and I have already had to do several demo lessons this year showing off our "groundbreaking" ESL teaching methods. In Korea, whenever someone comes to observe your class, you are supposed to blow them away with a meticulously prepared, previously rehearsed lesson to make yourself look like a super teacher, and therefore make the school look good. It doesn't matter what you do on a regular basis, for this one demo lesson where people are watching, you are supposed to be a model of teaching perfection. Hence, most Korean teachers dread these "demo lessons" and avoid them like the plague.

I think this is ridiculous, and one of many, many complaints I have about the education system here, and the reason I was almost dreading the thought of another whole year. Back home, teacher observations were used as an opportunity to give constructive criticism and help you improve as a teacher, not hurl insults at you if your lesson is short of perfect.

Don't get me wrong, I like Korea. I like my life here, my friends, the country itself. But I think the school system is completely backwards. They think that by sticking a bunch of Native Speakers in the classrooms that they are being progressive and improving English education. But it's not working because there is very little we can do within the system itself. I feel like more of a figurehead and walking grammar book most of the time.


I'm staying with SMOE for 6 more months, because the pay and hours and vacation are very good compared to other jobs. Also because I like my students and my coworkers. I live and teach in an enviable area. However I cannot handle the chaos and illogic that is the school system here much longer. Fellow (foreign) teachers tell me to relax and stop taking it so seriously, but I can't. Teaching for me is a vocation and I have to believe in what I'm doing. I keep hoping that the situation will get better, but I keep having to put up with the same BS over and over. I'm ready to try something different.


Note: My students did show up for class today, 15 minutes late. They apologized and worked diligently on their projects for the rest of the period. They don't really get any credit for my class, they signed up voluntarily to improve their English. Kids like that are the reason I'm in this 'biz.

My busy little worker bees in Summer Camp:

"So Emo" right now

(I wrote this post July 13th, the Minnesota countdown is actually at 1 week today!!!)

To quote Will Ferrell in Anchorman, I’m in a glass case of emotion right now.

In 26 days I will be on a plane headed to Minnesota, and I am so excited to see my family and friends back home I can hardly stand it. However, in 26 days, I also have to say goodbye to some of the people I've spent the last year exploring and enduring Korea with. Some folks are sticking around another year, but most are leaving the Land of the Morning Calm for good. My fellow S.M.O.E.'ers are heading off to graduate school, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China and Ireland, or back home to the U.S., Canada or the U.K.

When I come back from my home visit, only a handful of the people that have become a part of my life here will still be around, and it’s hard to imagine what Korea will be like without them.

However I'm trying not to be too much of a sap and just enjoy the time we have left together. All of us came here because we love to travel, so I'm sure we will visit each other in the coming years.

In spite of a few bumps in the road, it’s been a really good year. For some of us this year was a break between undergrad and graduate school, for others it was a break from the corportate life, for others, a chance to get teaching experience due to a lack of jobs back home.

For me, this year was about taking risks and being able to look back on my life without regrets. I knew back in college that I wanted to teach or volunteer abroad someday, it was just a matter of when. In January of 2008, in the midst of a particularly frustrating trimester (probably in the middle of teaching "The Great Gatsby" to an un-enthused group of juniors and seniors) I wondered if now was as good a time as any.

After talking to the staff at North, including my principal, I pretty much received a unanimous "get out of here!" I’m really glad that I took their advice, because coming here set things into motion that I never could have anticipated. There are so many ESL teaching jobs out there, and at this point, I could teach anywhere. I’ve thought about Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, and South America for the next leg of my ‘travel the world’ journey.

Here is the tentative plan for now: I signed a contract with S.M.O.E. for another 6 months. (Not really something they like to allow but I fought for it) After that, I want to do a stint teaching at a University in Japan, in or near Tokyo. I know of a recruiting agency that hooks you up with 3-5 month university jobs and I’m really hoping that works out.

After that, my friend Ashley and I want to move to South America, Brazil specifically. When I was dating the Brazilian guy, I started studying Portuguese for fun and I think it’s THE most beautiful language. It’s also pretty easy to pick up having studied French for 7 years and knowing a little Spanish. Also, pretty much everyone who has lived or traveled there has nothing but good things to say about it. It sounds like a magical place, aside from the poverty, crime and corruption, of course.

Lately I’ve been reading Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, and he believes that things aren’t coincidental; that everything that happens in life is part of “the mysterious chain that links one thing to another.” I wasn’t a believer in signs before or the idea that my destiny is prewritten, but I never imagined that Korea would lead me to Brazil. Maybe things do happen for a reason.

…or maybe I’m just overly emo right now. In any case, I have time to figure it out. I’m really obsessed with Paulo Coelho though, so if you’re looking for a good read, I’d recommend picking up a copy of “The Alchemist,” or any of his books really. He’s a beautiful writer.

Nuclear War?

(Written July 2nd)

Lately I've been getting questions from people back home (well, mostly my mom) about N. Korea and the possibility of nuclear war. I don't blame people for being worried because the American news media seem to be blowing things out of proportion.

The truth is, the South Koreans haven't really lifted an eyebrow over any of the threats the North has made since my arrival 10 months ago. In fact, there is more buzz surrounding the swine flu and Michael Jackson's recent passing than there is about North Korea.

Here is my take on things: In the 10 months that I've been here, I've learned that Koreans tend to say things that they don't mean. They communicate in an indirect, beat-around-the-bush manner that you sort of have to be Korean to fully understand. They also have a flair for the dramatic. If you've ever seen the movie 'Lost in Translation,' there is a scene where Bill Murray is filming a Suntory whisky commercial, and the Japanese director is practically screaming at him in Japanese for like 5 minutes. Murray asks what he is saying, only to find out that it was "please turn your head and look into the camera." This happens all the time to me in Korea. My coworkers will be in seemingly heated, lengthy debates about something, and when I ask what the problem is, it's like, "oh, we were discussing the weather."

Also, in Korea, it's all about the presentation of something and how it looks from the outside. The image you project of yourself is far more important than what you actually are. (I learned this the hard way during a recent teaching evaluation)

So I think that Kim Jong Il and Co. just want people to pay attention to them and are full of empty threats. They have been doing this for years now, and the South Koreans are used to it. It's business as usual here in Seoul.

I could be wrong; no one can really know what is going on up there, but I do feel somewhat comforted that the beefy American soldiers who hang around Gecko's (a 'Western' bar in Itaewon) are here if anything were to go down.

K-Pop Update

(Written June 30th)

Tme for another update from the world of K-pop. I’m excited to report that Korea’s very own Wonder Girls are currently touring in the U.S. They are opening for the Jonas Brothers, which is sure to give them a lot of exposure, at least to 12-13 year old girls.


They recorded an English version of their hit “Nobody,” but I doubt that it will be anywhere near as big of a hit in the States as it is here in Asia. It’s still a catchy song, but only one of the girls can sing in English without a thick Korean accent. I also read the Pioneer Press review of the Twin Cities’ concert, and the Wonder Girls weren’t even mentioned. My coteacher was disappointed to hear that, but that’s the reality of the entertainment ‘biz. American pop groups/movie starts frequently make it big abroad, but the reverse isn’t true.

Lately in my classes, since the year is winding down, if we have a few minutes left at the end of the period, I’ll play the K-pop music video of the students' choice. These are the 3 most requested videos right now in the girls' classes, and I happen to be a fan as well. (In the boys' classes they always request Eminem's 'Stan,' which is declined) I especially love Son Dam Bi. Like most K-pop songs, I only know what one or two words mean, but that’s probably for the best.


2 PM "Again and Again"



2NE1 "Fire"



Son Dam Bi's "Saturday Night"



Enjoy!