2 MONTH'S ALREADY

It was Peach's 6th Birthday so I made her a card and decorated a watering can for her! She's too cute! :)




Suwan Stadium, SOCCER GAME!: South Korea





Soccer Hooligans! There is a barrier between them and the field so that they cant start a brawl after/during the game. They are pretty intense with their chants and flags







Suwan Stadium, South Korea






My morning class from 9:20am-1:40pm, Vicky, Alice, Jinny,Peach,Faith,Mickael,Jennifer! They are holding their flower pots for spring!!





We're learning about 'Family'. I had each student bring in photos of their family. I went 1st and brought a pic of me kristin and eric at kristins graduation. They loved it and thought we were so pretty and they thought it was sooooo funny that I had a little brother. They kept saying, 'Little brother USA?' :)






haha he was listening to 'No Diggity' and thought it was soooo funny! He kept dancing, he's my little rockstar! :) Mickael loves listening to my Ipod w/ me during playroom!




April in Korea:

The Bad News Is .. Time Flies .. The Good News Is .. YOU'RE THE PILOT!

April 15th 2010 ~

This past week has flown by and it's probably the 1st time I've started to get a little home sick. I'm glad I'm here but I do miss some familiar faces! It just makes me realize how much I will grow and learn from the experience. Being over here makes me want to be more worldly, I love the quote 'I am a changed person from seeing the moon rise on the other side of the world' and I will definitely change for the better. (I keep telling myself that at least)

On March 26th a South Korean Navy ship sank in the Yellow Sea, close to North Korea. An unidentified explosion from under water hit the rear of the ship causing a massive hole. South Korean government officials aren't certain whether North Korea was involved in the incident. They have been discussing that its quite possible that an old N. Korean sea mine could have drifted to the area. Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said that North Korea had brought in about 4,000 sea mines during the Korean War and placed about 3,000 of them in the Yellow and East Sea's. "Though many sea mines were removed, it must have been impossible to retrieve them 100 percent," Kim said.


I remember walking in one of the subway stations and the news was playing the details of the shipwreck and a group of Koreans were watching. As I walked by I wished I could understand what the news was saying. It's weird because I'm use to watching the news in the US but since everything is in Korean here its hard to know everything that's going on around us ... I try to keep up online but its hard with being so busy. Being over here makes me realize how much is really going on in the world ... not just the local news that I usually keep up on. The Korean teachers told us they hope that they can't prove anything with N. Korea because if they do we will be deported home. Kind of scary!


We went to a Korean soccer game in Suwan last Friday, which was an absolute blast! I really enjoyed seeing the stadium it was so colorful! I found it interesting that they had barriers at the bottom of some of the stands to make sure that the rowdy 'hooligans' don't raid the field. It was interesting to watch them chant and wave their huge flags! I guess soccer is pretty big here; I'll definitely be going to more games! After the soccer game was over we walked around Suwan for our friend John's birthday. We went to some batting cages and got some street food, chicken on a stick!!! It's so good, I'm pretty sure Tia ate 5 sticks haha.

This week has been a lot less stressful at work, I'm finally getting the hang of things!! Here's a day in the life of my schedule:

8:30 am: I walk to work with Tia and Brianna ... it's about a 25min walk sooo we can't wait to have bikes and for the sun to be out daily! We usually arrive to school around 9am sometimes earlier depending if we stop and get a bagel or not!
9am-9: 20am: I prepare for my morning 6 year olds. (Remember in Korea sometimes you're a year older depending on when you were born, so some of my 6's are really 5yrs old in the US)

9:20 am-9: 30ish am: I do my 'greeting'. I have a powerpoint that I made which asks the day, month, year it is. I then pick a helper and have them come to the calendar and show the class what day it is. Then we go to my weatherboard and decided the forecast of the day. Next we listen to an alphabet and color song.

9:30-9:50 am: We either do song, which we sing songs like incy wincy spider, Barney's 'I love you', wheels on the bus etc. OR we have Reading and every month there's a new book ... Right now we're reading a book with different animals called, 'Jolly Jumping Jelly Beans!'

9:50-10:20 am: We do our 'Theme Book'. This months theme is manners!

From 10:20-11am: I have a break .... WHICH I LOVE!! I usually catch up on Facebook (haha) and prepare for my next lesson.

11-11:20 am: We have show and tell or story. For show and tell this month I'm having them bring in family photos. They think it's so funny I have a little brother and always ask, 'Katie teachers brother USA?' Too cute!

11:20-11:40 am: I have Writing or Math.

11:40-12:00 pm: I have Thinking Skills

12:00-12:20 pm: I have, Playroom, Lego or Library ... depending on the day!

12:20-1:00 pm: LUNCH! Which is the same every day ... rice rice rice ... but it's free!

1:1:40: I have, Crafts, PE, Science or Orda, depending on the day

2pm-2: 40 I have my 7 yr old special classes which I dread ... they are so wild and I have 12 of them running around and speaking Korean non-stop! Right now we're working on emotions ...

2:40-3:20 pm I have more 7 yr olds and we do the same as above!

3:40-5pm I have my 9-year-old class of 12. They are pretty good and I enjoy the fact that they have studied English longer so I feel like I can actually have a conversation with them!

What I've learned: They all love stickers! And you better believe I bribe them with tons and tons of stickers! Haha

5pm-6pm: I prepare for the next day

6pm: I'M DONE!!! We usually go to the gym or go grab food ...


Tomorrow we have a going away dinner for Ta-leah. It's going to be odd not having her around. She's such a great teacher! On Saturday we plan to go to a Cherry Blossom festival then Boys II Men will be here and we are getting tickets so I'm really excited about that! They came out with a bunch of covers like, 'Iris' etc., Which are pretty good. I'll let you know how that goes.

I miss you all .. xoxoxoxo

<3Katie Teacher!!!

Work..Snow..& St. Patty's Day!

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page!





Peach! Shes in my morning Kinder class. Isnt her name absolutely fitting? She's SO smart :) I love when she say's 'Katie Teacher' because she kind of has a lisp that melts your heart!







My AM class that I have from 9:20am-1:40pm LONG day and I still have 3 more classes after this!!! There names are, Faith, Mickael, Peach, Jinny, Vicky and Jennifer! I love them...the 1st day they had no idea what I was saying and I've been with them since the beg of March and it's only been 3 weeks and they have learned SO SO SO much! Faiths mom told me that he has all the songs we do in class memorized and that because of me he speaks a lot of English at home! It makes me feel like I'm really making a difference! Arent they cute?! ;)





Me with MY little kinder kiddies! Mickael, Vicky and Peach :)




Playing in the play room...my FAVORITE 20 minutes..and theirs too!!! :)




Our snowy walk to school! It takes us about 25minutes to walk there both ways...up hill! haha.






SNOW! In March! I love this picture though, I took it right outside our apartment when we got home St. Patty's day night!





<3 Loved this!




In Seoul for the St. Patty's celebration! We loved her costume! It was so windy out though!




St. Patty's day crew! :)




Korean band playing Irish songs for St. Patty's Day! They were actually really good!






March 19th 2010:

It’s currently 5:17pm on FRIDAY and all I can say is TGIF!! My kiddies just left and I have an hour until I’m off work so I thought I’d catch up on some blogging while ‘youtubing’ random music. 2 weeks ago Bri, Tia and I joined a gym at one of our Korean friends apartment for 60,000 won for 3 months…pretty good deal considering I was paying about $60 a month at my gym back home in Sammamish! This gym is nothing special but it does the job. I think I got spoiled with the gym at WSU…nothing compares! (Except maybe that new gym in Bellevue, but I havent been in there). At this gym in Korea theres this machine where you stand with a belt around you and when you turn it on it vibrates your muscles so intensly! I call it, ‘The Wiggle Machine’, it’s supposed to wiggle and jiggle your fat off haha, I’ll let you know how it works! I’ve been running and doing the ‘wiggle’ machine plus some arms…I really want to get my arms into rockin shape, and according to ‘Shape’ magazine your arms are the easiest musicle to mold…we’ll see! I have about 3 months before we take our summer vacation to Guam, sooo I need to get serious about my swimsuit bod haha!

We get two 1 week vacations this year. One in the summer and one in the winter. We’re thinking Guam this summer, a little island in-between Asia and Australia. Tia has a friend who works at a resort there and loves (well who wouldn’t?? It’s paradise times a million!!) and hopefully he can help set us up with a good deal! Then we’re thinking about going to Thailand this winter, and I absolutely can’t wait to ride on the elephants!!!! My little Allie is there right now until May and her pictures are so awesome. I have heard such good things about Thailand and I cant wait to experience it for myself!!!

These past few weeks have been really stressful with our new contracts. Switching from ‘Brown’ school to ‘LCI’ has been quite dramatic and draining. Things that were in our original contract have been taken out and new clauses have been added. It’s been frustrating because our director hasn’t been great with the communication so we have all been a little annoyed on top of being extremely tired which isnt the best combo! But I’m meeting with Jade today to go over a revised contract and hopefully it goes smooth, I’m crossing my fingers!!



March 22, 2010:

My meeting went smooth with Jade and I’m going to sign the revised contract today after work.

It’s snowing right now and I can’t believe it. IT’S MARCH! I’m jealous because I hear the weather has been so nice back at home plus it looks like a lot of people went somewhere hot for spring break…luckkkyyy!! I can’t wait for the weather to clear up..it feels like the longest winter ever! It is pretty though. Last Wednesday was St. Patty’s day and I tried to explain it to my kids but they had no idea what I was talking about and I showed them pictures of leprechauns and 4 leaf clovers and they thought I was nuts! After work on Wednesday we all went out to an Irish pub for some dinner and drinks. We met up with our friends who also live in Dongtan and it was a really good time. I found the pub to be highly entertaining because the décor was Halloween items…I was confused! After dinner we headed home in a snow blizzard! Friday morning during my kindergarten class one of my students asked to go to the bathroom and I told him yes, then he came back moment later with a wet lap. He peed his pants!!! He just laughed and laughed like it was no big deal..I couldn’t believe it haha! Also, Friday Tia, Bri and I walked to a hair salon after work so Bri could get her bangs trimmed and I asked them how much it would be for me to touch up my highlights and they said 40,000 won which seems incredibly cheap and worries me that they didn’t understand what I was trying to say. I’ll have to take one of my Korean teachers with me when I get it done to make sure they know what I want…I don’t want to end up with bright pink hair haha. Then we went and looked in some shops for green attire for Saturdays St. Patty’s celebration. After we shopped around a bit we headed back to our apartments to have a chill night in so we would be energized for Saturday. I ended up just watching season 2 of the OC which I’m currently obsessed with…I know I know, Im like 7 yrs late from when that show was popular haha. On Saturday we woke up and headed to Seoul around 12:30pm to watch a St. Patty’s parade and meet up with Katelan and our other Dongtan friends. We unfortunately are still getting use to the timing of the buses and we missed the parade by like 30min!! But a bunch of people met up at an Irish pub and we all celebrated St. Patty’s! I met some really cool Irish men who gave me half of their Subway sandwich because I told them how much I missed it!! I loved their accents and it was interesting how there were so many people from Ireland in South Korea! The Irish group I met said they had been here for 2 years and loved it! It seems like a lot of people end up staying here longer than a year. After the 1st pub we headed to another pub where there was a Korean music group that sang Irish songs, it was a blast! We got unlimited European style food and drinks for 50,000 won plus the live entertainment. We all had a really great time!

I hope this week flies by and the weather gets nicer! This weekend we are celebrating Ta-leah and Chase’s birthdays which should be fun! My kids are getting smarter by the day and I can’t wait to see how much they have learned and improved by the time my year is done. One of my student’s moms told me that because of me her son is speaking a lot of English now at home and he has the songs memorized that we sing everyday! I love it and it makes me feel like I’m really useful over here and making a small difference for these kids!

Until next time!

<3 Katie Teacher!!!

WE'VE BEEN HERE FOR A MONTH!!

Randy,Charlie, Tyler and Paul on graduation!





Me and my class for Graduation!




Antonio on Graduation, look what they made him wear! My dad would die if that was Eric hahah



The sign outside my classroom!!


My classroom!



Katelan and I tried some wigs on while shopping!..we look good right?? haha ;)


Karaoke on Game Night in Dongtan!



Street waffles!! Honey and whip cream...mmmm!!



The ice-cream cake we got Tanya for her Birthday!! So pretty! xoxo


"Never shall I forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours." **HAPPY 23rd Birthday Tanya!!** I love and miss you forever and always!



Graduation-February 2010

On the day of graduation, the last Wednesday in February, I was so anxious to see the kids recite the speeches that I have been helping them practice. All the speeches, stories and songs were so creative and to hear their little voices describe wishes, superhero powers etc was absolutely darling! The class I have been working with for the past few weeks (Daniel’s old classes) consisted of 4 boys, Charlie, Randy, Tyler and Paul. Charlie’s memorized story was my favorite. He read, ‘I’m going on a bear hunt’ which was one of my favorite books when I was little. It was so cute because he incorporated hand motions and totally acted the whole book out, you couldn’t help but ‘ooo’ and ‘aww’ while completely melting at his little charm! When we first arrived at work we had to go into a room to help the kids get into their graduation attire. The outfits were hilarious, little suits for the older kids and funny bright colored sequin outfits for the younger kids. I couldn’t help but laugh at how adorably funny they looked! When we walked our students out to the stage it was really neat seeing all of the parents there and how excited they were to see their child graduate to the next level of learning English. All of the parents were so proud, and they take schooling VERY seriously here. One of our Korean teachers, Lynn, was telling us that she had to go to a ‘cram’ school where she was literally there from 9am to like midnight and eventually her dad had to call the director to make sure that Lynn got breaks in the day because she was so incredibly stressed out and over worked! I couldn’t even imagine having to do that in the U.S!

After graduation I still had 2 special classes in the afternoon on Thursday and Friday. We had to use our morning breaks to prepare our OWN classrooms! I loved coming up with a theme and buying craft paper to decorate my class. I definitely felt like a real teacher since I got my own classroom (room 205!) My theme is ‘garden’ so I have bumblebees, butterflies and bright colors. On Friday we had to prepare our lesson plans and copy off a ton of worksheets. It was really stressful because we were going to start class on the following Tuesday and we only had Friday and Monday to prepare our Monthly plan…needless to say we pulled some VERY long and unhappy hours. LCI is so new to us so we all were really confused about how to prepare we felt like guinea pigs just being thrown into action. I tried to stay positive but it was hard when we were all so exhausted and stressed about what next week would be like.


We spent the weekend in Peyongtaek where Katelan, Chase and Chris live. They are all friends from WSU (which I have mentioned). It’s really weird that we all are hanging out in KOREA I forget sometimes that we are all the way across the world from WA! We got Monday off of work because it was a holiday, ‘Kids day’ but I went into work anyway with Ta-leah to finish up my lesson plans to make sure I felt more prepared about starting my classes on Tuesday morning.


First Week in March!!!:

Tuesday was really stressful, I felt like a chicken running around with its head cut off!! I have my morning Kindergarten class from 9:20am to 1:40pm with a 40min lunch break at 12:20pm. My Kindergardener’s are so adorable but sometimes I get frustrated because its their first year learning English so half the time they have no idea what I’m saying. I’m basically just focusing the ABC’S, numbers, feelings, weather and days of the week so far with them. I’m actually pleasantly surprised at how much they learned from Tuesday to Friday though which gives me hope that when the year is over I will have really impacted their progress and getting to see them recite speeches at graduation a year from now will be really rewarding to me. Their age is ‘6’ in school but one of them is 4 and I think 2 of them are 5yrs old. They’re names are, Faith (a boy!), Peach, Vicky, Mickael, Jinny and Jennifer! Then at 2:00pm I go across the street to teach 2 classes of 11 7yr olds for 40minutes each. I love these classes and I feel like once it’s 2pm the day flies by! I got to name about 20 kids!! Some of them are: Tanya (for Tanya, Steph (for my mom), Billy (for my dad), Eric (for my brother), Krissy (for my sister), Rose (for my Grandma), Sean and Matt (for my cousins) and then Addy, Britt, Kara, Logan, Evan (for friends back at home!!) It makes it easier to remember their names and its funny seeing their personalities with the names I gave them! Funny story about ‘Addy’: I was given a list of my students with their Korean names so I didn’t see them before I named them and I told my helper teacher to name one Addy so I went to class the next day and had the kids sit in a circle to practice their English names and I hear a little voice go, ‘hello my name is Addy’ annnnnd it was a darling little BOY!!! I couldn’t hold in my laughter, it was too funny and I felt so bad because he had no idea that it was a girls name…so I went back to my helper teacher later that day to have it changed to ‘Eddie’ haha! After my special classes I have a class at 3:40pm til 5:00pm called EC5 which I enjoy because the kids are 8 and 9 and have studied English before so it makes teaching them easier since they can more so understand what I’m saying. LONG DAY RIGHT!? Atleast the kids are cute…

We got paid on Friday and went to Indian food for dinner with our Dongtan girls. I’ve never had Indian food before, and I liked it! But it definitely makes your tummy gurgle :/
After dinner Tia and I did a little shopping with some of the girls and it was really fun going into the boutiques. Things are really cheap. Also, most of the clothes are one size fits all…which is a lie because Asians are so much tinier than me so I got kind of annoyed because some of the really cute things would never fit me, bummer! But I got a few things and they had a lot of really cheap accessories for like 1,000 won which is less than an American dollar! I’M A MILLIONARE…IN WON! Haha!

On Saturday we went to our Friend Alia and Michelle’s apartment for a game night with a bunch of people. We played sherades and other games then headed to a Karaoke bar which was a blast! Us girls sang ‘My heart will go on’ it was pretty funny! I also got to chatting with a whole table of Koreans which was pretty entertaining! Also it was our ONE MONTH anniversary! I cant believe we have been here for a month already, time is flying by! It’s crazy to think that we have 12months to go!

On Sunday, Katelan, Bri, Tia, Chase and I all celebrated Tanya’s 23rd birthday! We went to Baskin Robins and bought the cutest ice cream cake with candles that said, ‘I love you’ and ‘23’. We also bought party hats and wore them around town! We had a chill Sunday and basically just talked about memories of Tanya and honored her life.

Today, Monday March 8, 2010 classes flew by and I’m glad to finally get the hang out it! After school Lynn, one of the Korean teachers, drove us to a gym where we are going to buy a 3 month membership for 60,000 won which is a little less then $60 American dollars, good deal!! I’m excited to work out!!!! :)

Miss everyone/but I love it here!!! <3 Katie Teacher

Out with the Old and in with the NEW!!

At club' TAO' for Michelle's bday




Some new Korean friends!



Ohhh Korean fashion!! I loved his hair haha




'TAO' Club! The lights were insane




'The Dublin' Irish bar in South Korea!





We found someone else who is from WA in South Korea!! Crazy!!






Sarah's Bday!!! :)






Monday February 22, 2010

“If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything.”

“One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure its worth watching.”

These quotes really represent how I want to be in 2010. It’s going on my third week in Korea and I want to see everything and I want to continue to try new things. Every day is so different here and I’m glowing with the positive change Korea has given me. I can’t wait to travel the world…Tia, Bri and I are thinking about going to Guam for our summer week vacation and then Thailand for our winter vacation! I’ve been looking at pictures of both places and I get so excited thinking that I will soon be walking the beaches of those beautiful countries! I’ve also been listening to Bri’s stories about Rome and Tia’s experience’s in Greece and just listening plus being here is giving me the case of the travel bug!!!


This past week has been more comfortable and I feel less foreign…I could definitely get use to this lifestyle! (minus the language barrier… but I’m learning some new words!) On Thursday Me + all the Dongtan girls went out to Korean BBQ for Ta-leah’s (a girl we work with) 10 month anniversary of being in Korea! We took the bus then the subway to Suwan. The food was delicious and very spicy! We ordered two large bowls that cooked in front of us. By the time we were finished (and incredibly stuffed) we were all very satisfied! We decided to walk around Suwan and look at all of the little boutiques and crazy shops. I enjoyed seeing all of the bold fashion and everything is very affordable here. However, the sizes are a bit wack…asain frames are a lot smaller then us in the U.S. and a lot of their clothes is a ‘one size fits all’ which…is a lie haha. Tia and I also cant fit into any of the shoes we’ve looked at so far!! They think size 9’s are huge…lucky Bri w/ her size 6’s!!! After a couple hours of browsing the racks of clothing we got back onto the bus and headed back to our apartments in Dongtan.

On Friday Tia, Bri and I went over to two girls named Alia and Michelle’s apartment. We had met them the previous weekend through Kevin and Daniel and they are really fun and we love their friends too, Heather, Carly and Ani. We had a girls night for Michelle’s 23rd birthday. We played some getting to know you games then called a taxi and went to a club called ‘TAO’. The lights were insane and all of us girls went up on stage to dance. The Korean boys loved us and we felt like celebrities. At one point of the night Bri and I lost Tia for like 10 minutes and it was funny how fast we could spot her because we totally stand out in Korea!! The only thing I didn’t enjoy was the fact that in Korea you’re allowed to smoke cigarettes indoors, it gives you a headache after awhile! I had a blast with those girls, and with Tia and Bri of course. Like I said, I’m so glad we are experiencing this together!!! We had to go home kind of early because we had to be back at work on Saturday for LCI parent orientation.

On Saturday morning we woke up not reallllly wanting to go to work on our weekend but we would be off by 4pm so it wouldn’t be so bad. Work was a whole lot of down time. We had to get introduced to a bunch of parents 4 times but the introductions only took about a minute and we were there from 10am-4pm and it got kind of boring. After work I took a quick nap then got ready to go out for Sarah’s birthday (Another girl that we teach with). The first place we went to was called, ‘The Dublin’ it was an Irish themed bar. The drinks were way over priced. Tia got one ‘Hoegaarden’ and it was $15. So I wasn’t too enthused but it was Sarah’s birthday and we wanted to go where she wanted to go. After that we went to a place called ‘Gecko’s’ which was okay but not my favorite…at this point of the night I was kind of tired and was thinking about going home but then we left and went to a club called, ‘Cacoon’ and I had the best night ever!!! Tia, Bri and I danced the night away to techno and crazy lights. I love dancing and it was so fun!! We ended up meeting a guy from WA (so random and ironic) and he introduced us to his friend and we all hung out and danced. Getting home was a long and tiring trip and all we wanted to do was sleep!!! We all crashed the second we got to our rooms.

On Saturday night we got a new teacher, Andrew, and he’s the only guy in our group of teachers..lucky odds haha! He’s from Canada and seems really nice, it will be exciting to see who we become good friends with!

Today and tomorrow at work we’re just practicing for the kid’s graduation on Wednesday. They all have to memorize speeches and stories…kind of stressful! I love hearing them say their speeches; they are adorable and so smart!! The parents are really intense here with schooling. Most kids go to school until 5pm then go to a sports practice or music class until 7 or 8 and don’t get home until 9pm! Could you imagine?! No wonder they are so smart! I guess once they're done with high school they have a college placement test that they only get ONE chance at. If they don't pass they can't go to college in Korea. So the parents and teachers place a lot of pressure on the kids...super stressful!!!!! Starting in March Brown English School is turning into LCI so I will have my own class all day long...like a real teacher! Until LCI opens I'm taking Daniel's classes because he returned home.

I’ll let you know how graduation goes!!!

<3 KATIE TEACHER

MY ROOM in KOREA!

Crazy shower!!






My kitchen





My sliding door that leads me from my room to kitchen






My desk and mirror




My big purple bed!...not bad right!?

Antonio's Speech

This is Antonio's speech on his favorite animal, a porcupine! The kids have to memorize speeches in English for their graduation! So smart/cute!