Pennsylvania

Well... at long last we are back in PA. This morning Preston went fishing with his Dad. I slept in late and then started doing some laundry and putting things away. I think maybe I shouldn't have left so many clothes back in Korea. Might have to go shopping!

Pee

Reallly...?

Although our flight does not leave until Tuesday morning. We now have to move out of our apartment on Sunday. The movers are coming early Monday morning to move all the appliances to the new apartments. So two nights in a motel in Changnyeong. Really... you couldn't wait one day and have the movers come on Tuesday morning? We are leaving at 7:30 am.

I just want to leave. Now.

Untitled

Two days of teaching. Six full days left. Cannot. wait.

Oh yeah, it has been 12 months and 1 day since we arrived in Korea.

Strange

My last link to my pictures at Picasa went to my sister's wedding registry instead? Don't know about that... Anyway, here's the real link. I added some more from our trip to Hae In Sa Temple on Saturday.

New Photos

check 'em out at my picasa

This is what it looks like at the start of a pigu game. A girls middle school pigu game anyway...

Right at the end of this video, Preston gets out. And the girls all cheer.

The girls are not happy that I am leaving Korea soon.

I'll definitely call them if we get married...

From an e-mail I wrote to Trevor...

One girl in my class this week has pretty good English and we were talking about school today. I was telling her about how school is in the US which is a lot different than Korea. The kids are on their summer break right now, but they still have to come to English Camp. And after English Camp, they go straight to hagwons or private academys for more studying. It sucks. They have math and science homework for over summer break, the girls were doing their math homework today at English Camp. Anyway, I told this girl (she is a 7th grader) that she should try to be an exchange student for a year in high school. I told her that you(Trevor) did it and loved it. She said it is her dream to do that. I also told her that you had bibimbap and she thought that was pretty cool. Some of the kids here are pretty cool. I would host her if she came to the US as an exchange student.

So, I was writing this to Trev, but figured I'd put it here too. There have been a few students we had this year who, I think, would love a year at an American high school. It would be incredibly different for them, but I think it would be a fantastic experience, plus they would definitely improve their English. Preston knows two girls who he really likes and would like to see in the US. One of the girls saw us at the kimbap shop last week. All the English Camp staff were there for a last Korean dinner with Megan and Jeremy. The girl went home, then came back to buy some kimbap. A little while later, the phone in the restaurant rang. One of the ajummas (Korean for 'aunt', a polite term to call a middle-aged woman) answered and then said "Seon-sang-nim Puh-res-ton!" The girl had called the restaurant to talk to Preston! It was pretty cute. She and her older sister talked to him and later called back to talk to Jeremy as well.

Anyway, some day I definitely want to host an exchange student. It seems like a great experience for both the kid and the host family. And it would be pretty cool to have one of the kids we taught here. I told my student (she goes by G-Dragon, a Korean popstar) that in 4 or 5 years when she is a senior in high school, she could come live with me and go to high school in the US.

Days

This week took a long time. Megan and Jeremy are (happily, I'm sure) back in PA. We have 9 days of teaching and 18 days total left. Cool.

Things I am looking forward to- a running list...

1. riding a bicycle and not being afraid of being run over by a speeding vehicle
2. riding in a vehicle in which the driver actually knows how to drive and does not use the gas.brake.gas.brake. method the Koreans are so fond of
3. driving a car
4. brownies
5. cake
6. cookies
7. an almost limitless supply of cereal
8. normal and delicious bread
9. bagels
10. cheese!
11. Middleswarth BBQ chips
12. OIP's grilled chicken delux
13. pizza without corn
14. pizza without a side of pickles, though I do like the pickles
15. dill pickles
16. a comfortable bed
17. a comfortable pillow
18. a comfortable couch
19. Tide
20. a dryer
21. a clothesline
22. an oven
23. being surrounded by people who speak the same language as me
24. family
25. friends
26. not being 13 hours ahead of family and friends
27. hot wings
28. Cuban sandwich
29. Lewisburg Farmer's Market
30. Ithaca Farmer's Market and the vendor food it offers

When we get home, I need to remember to not eat all of this stuff at one time and to not over do it. I was just talking with my co-worker, Megan, and we both decided we could probably eat half a pound of pepper jack cheese- me with Tiscuts and her with Wheat Thins- but that it would no doubt be a horrible idea to do so.

Home Again

Well, Jeju-Do wasn't as fun as we had hoped it would be. We are home again and it's raining again. For some reason it also smells like garlic bread or something else garlic-y here. I'm pretty sure the only people in the apartment building are me and Preston and the old people on the first floor. They must be cooking the garlic.

We have about 5 weeks left in Korea and we are both ready to come home. We have next week off too for summer vacation so we are going to start packing up our stuff. Sorting out what we don't want to take home and mailing some other stuff home.

There are some pictures from Jeju on the picasa site. We went to a place called Love Land and there are many pictures from there as well. Love Land is a statue park built in the 50's after the war to show newly married couples how to.. do it. It was funny and strange in this country that is typically so consevative.

Well, i'm gonna go try to watch Weeds. It's been loading for the past hour and it's still not done. And it's only a 28 minute show...

Ginseng Chicken Soup

Today is chobak- the day that starts the hottest period of the summer in Korea. Coincidentally, it is 82 degrees in our apartment- the hottest it has been so far this summer...

On this day, it is the Korean custom to eat samgyetang- Ginseng Chicken Soup. It is supposed to build up nutrients lost from sweating too much. The other traditional food to eat today is boshintang- Dog Meat Soup.

Needless to say, we are having sam-gye-tang tonight.

More info...

New Photos at

Picasa

Dragonflies

I have never seen so many...

There are dragonflies everywhere here. Usually you only see them around water, but not here. They fill the air like gnats. It's pretty crazy, hopefully I can get a good picture or video of them because it's something to see.

I have some pictures to post from last weekend. Preston and I went to Masan, but before going there, we went out to Upo for a bit. The old man working as the parking attendant at Upo talked to us for like 20 minutes or so. He is teaching himself English, I guess. It was difficult to understand him sometimes, it was a strange accent and he was speaking very fast. He had whole informational brochures memorized and he was telling us about the Ice House in Changnyeong and about the ecology at Upo. It was pretty impressive that he was able to remember so much in a different language.

Preston bought our tickets home this morning. On September 1st, we will be flying into Pensacola, Florida. Oh man, I can't believe we have tickets already. We still have 54 days, but wow. I'm excited. Preston is telling Richard now. Preston started by telling Richard he is very sad.

Well, it's time for Jeremy and I to take our class to watch a DVD. We are watching The Incredibles, even though it exceedes our time limit.

Videos

It's the Korean Monsoon season.

Little dancers... the kid in the camo falls but keeps playing his maracas!

Musical chairs!

Time and Other Things

Months and holidays really have no meaning here. Today is the first day of July. This weekend is the 4th of July! Last week could have been New Years. It's really hard to believe it's already July. If it weren't for the heat and humidity it would be hard to believe its summer. All of the things we are used to to mark something- the end of a school year, holidays, anything- just aren't here. It's kind of strange. This weekend Preston and I might go see Transformers, but I'm pretty sure there will be nothing to distinguish it as a special weekend, just the same as all the ones before and pretty similiar to the ones to follow. (Except for the weekend before we leave, that one will be special!)

Anyway, last weekend we went to Seoul with Chris. He was taking the LSAT and wanted some company. Seoul is exausting. We had a crappy hotel and hardly slept at all. In Korea, generally the only kind of hotel you can find is a love motel. Some we went into wouldn't even let us check in until 11PM!! We really just wanted to sleep. I mean, I go to bed at 10:30 most nights... We finally found one that would let us check in right then, about 4pm. The rooms were tiny, but had a 50inch flat panel TV and a computer. Unfortunately, there was bass pumping all night and then we heard people having sex above us, so Preston and I slept about 1 hour that night. The next morning we did get some pretty good bagels from Dunkin Donuts, though. And for the first time ever I got mine with cream cheese because I don't think they offer butter. Well, I need to go watch Weeds, but I will leave you with some photos...

The university Chris took the LSAT at was one of the first colleges established in Korea in 1885. It looked like we were in England instead of Korea-

That is a huge TV screen. Oh yeah, there was also a PlayStation and a DVD player. They had DVDs and games at the front desk. Preston and I watched Blood Diamond.

Krazy Korea

Several weeks ago, Megan had a student who was so sick she actually pooped her pants. Instead of sending this child home, her mother was called to bring a new dress and underwear. Today, one of Megan's students fell outside during lunch. While there was no cut, scrape, brushburn or blood, she was crying hysterically for 10 minutes. This child's mother was called and she was sent home. For falling. And not having even a slight scrape. While the girl who shit in her dress! stayed at English Camp.

Why?

In other news, I added a few more photos over at Picasa. These are mostly rice photos because that is all that is here right now.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Early on Monday or Tuesday morning it was raining really, really hard. There was the occasional thumder and lightning as well. At point around 5am or so there was a crash of thunder louder than any I have ever heard. It shook the apartment building. It almost sounded metallic- like a dump truck gate slamming shut x20 or so. I was instantly awakend and terrified. I thought for sure it was a bomb from North Korea. Of course it wasn't, but I later found out that Preston and Jeremy thought the same thing.

Oh the threat of nuclear war.... haha, gets ya everytime!!

New Photos

I put some new pictures over on picasa. Mostly some random classroom stuff and a few pictures of Daegu last weekend. It's Friday afternoon. Just hanging out at work waiting for the boys in my bonus class to arrive. Preston, Megan and Jeremy left at 3 to go to the bank. So I am listening to Hanson and the Jonas Brothers and ... doing nothing else.

Chris is coming to hang out this weekend. Maybe I will have some exciting new photos to share.

The Weekend

This weekend, Jeremy went to Seoul to visit his brother, so Megan hung out the Preston and I so that she wouldn't have a Super Alone Weekend. Friday night I cooked and Megan joined us for dinner and wine. And Preston played Knights Of Honor.

Saturday after thoroughly cleaning the apartment, we decided to go to Daegu. Megan wanted to see Drag Me To Hell, so we went along. It got a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and we were seeing ads for it everywhere. It was ok. Lots of gross body fluids though. But it was mostly funny. It took us a long time to actually find the theater, which is on the 9th floor of the Lotte Department Store. In the basement of that store they were selling bags of fun size Snickers for 17,000 won!!! That is about $13.50. Crazy.

After that, Megan and I went shopping and Preston hooked up with Chris and they shopped a little too. Preston bought some new shorts and a shirt. I got a couple of shirts for super cheap. We ate Subway, which was pretty exciting for all of us. There were some Korean salsa dancers on a stage in the downtown. It was kind of funny and they didn't look totally comfortable up there- but they weren't too bad.

We ate dinner with Chris at a tiny Mexican restaurant. They sort of messed up Megan's order- but fixed it before it came out. Sadly, they totally forgot mine. I did get a free can of Sprite out of the deal, though. And then the waitress wanted us to pick more soda but we said we didn't want it. She brought out four more cans 'service' which meant for free because they screwed up. It wasn't a big deal, but we did get 3 free 12 ounce cans of soda, including a cherry Coke! We had to take the 11PM bus home and it was packed. Preston had to stand because he gave up his seat for an older gentleman. There were two guys standing next to me and I could smell the one guy's armpits which was pretty gross.

All in all, it was a nice Saturday. Next weekend Chris might come to Changnyeong to experience some Korean country living!


Suzi just said "One Time Lover" referring to Crisitano Ronaldo and Paris Hilton. Hilarious.

A Countdown Begins...

7 weeks
35 teaching days
47 days
until our Jeju-Do vacation

11 weeks
55 teaching days
94 days
until the end of our contract

7 weeks of cyber school teaching
23 weeks of in-classroom teaching

Students taught: approx. 290
Patience remaing for Korea, Koreaness, and Korea kids: minimal and rapidly depleating

9 Months and 1 Day

Since we arrived in S. Korea.  Everything is as it always is.  Except for the former presidents possible suicide/possible murder.  And the fact that North Korea preformed at least 2 nuclear tests today.  At least the won is holding steady.  

If you are thinking about going to the movies: Terminator isn't worth it.  Star Trek is.  And if you are feeling like renting, I would recommend Son of Rambow.  

Korea is wearing me out on the cooking front.  I can't wait to get to be able to buy any ingredient I want.   That said, I've made my own torillas, french fries, perogies, eggplant patties, and chicken nuggets since being here, so it's not all bad.

Here is where we live and work:

View Larger Map

Some photos from our hike up Hwawangsan (화왕산) on Sunday:

I Liked These Kids Better Than Last Week

I like that the boys are making hearts together.

My camera was on the motion stablization setting, so the photos look a little fuzzy.

Today at Upo

Well, the kids were monsters, but I took these photos: 

Preston took this one last weekend at the bus stop in Namji.  There are two turkeys, some very dirty geese and a goat or two.  

Poem

This is a poem written by one of my best students so far. She is ten years old and doesn't go to a hagwon or other academy to learn English- her father teaches her. I was really impressed with her English. She could ask questions in full sentences and would translate for the rest of the class. Anyway, she would finish her assignments much quicker than the rest of the class, so I showed her a poem in the workbook and had her write a similar one. The rough outline was already there, but she filled in all the words. It's pretty cute.

I Like Animals
By Sarah

I like animals

White tigers
Pink rabbits
Green snakes
Brown mouses
Any kind of animals

An animal in a mountain
An animal in the house
An animal on the big rock
An animal in a water

I like animals

Big animals
Small animals
Fat animals
Dirty animals
Largh (Large?) animals
Sleepy animals
I like animals.

Another boy wrote one about birds, but he didn't get a chance to finish it, so I don't have a copy.

Happy Children's Day

Today we didn't have work because Children's Day is a natoinal holiday in Korea.  So Preston and I went on a little picnic hike this morning.  It was a nice day.  Too bad we have to go back to school to sit and do nothing for the next three days.  

New Camera

Little Buddha

Lanterns for B's b-day

My class. They are way too loud.

Temple, Lanterns, Mountain

Bell and Drum

Dinner Tonight

Tonight I made a barbecue sauce with ketchup, vinegar, water, sugar, salt and nutmeg. Of course it didn't really taste like I had hoped it would but it wasn't bad. I made some barbecue chicken sandwiches with cheese and (for me) tomatoes. To accompany the sandwiches was a fresh (looking) salad of corn (from a can), cucumbers and tomatoes with olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Preston had a stomach ache before dinner but ate anyway. He said it was good so, I count it a success. We rarely have sandwiches here- there is no lunch meat, or cheese, for that matter- so I like to figure out how I can make something into a sandwich for us. I love sandwiches!

April 22

Happy Earth Day/ 8 Months!

Weekend in Photos

Not from the weekend.

A park in Changwon.

Us in a park in Changwon.

Same as above but this time, with more color!

Some flowers that I think are very pretty.

Here we are in the woods on Hwawangsan.

The backside of Hwawangsan is cooler than the front.

Preston on a rock.

Lots of trees.

Roosters

There is an old, miserable looking woman who apparently owns the gong-go and the apartments we live in. She is wheelchair bound and has a permanent scowl on her face. She used to live in a building halfway up the hill between the apartments and the school. But it was too hard for everyone to push her wheelchair up to that building, so she and her husband just combined two apartments into one and moved into the first floor of our building.

So, that's obviously no big deal for us. They have a pretty sweet looking apartment. New vinyl windows and doors, new really nice looking cabinets. Lucky them. Then, this Saturday, some guy built a chicken coop right outside our apartment. And then he put 6 roosters and a hen in the coop. And then, all Saturday night, the roosters were crowing. And then all day Sunday. And then... well, I think you get the idea. Preston talked to the building manager about it. He lives right above us. He can't sleep either. Bad news is, she is his boss. And, as it turns out, his grandmother.

She is not interested in moving the stupid animals back where they were. (Behind the school next to 6 dog cages with about 8 dogs- all hers, and a cage with 3 golden pheasants.) Nor is she even interested in compromising. Preston offered to buy her some more hens to look at if she would move the 6 roosters back to where they were. Nothing doing. This afternoon they did cover the pens with a large heavy looking tarp. They have been silent since then. We will see how they are at 2:20am.

Videos Already!

Well, I have nothing else to do right now

Please, enjoy...



Sebyeonggwan Guest House- built in 1605 it is one of the largest wooden buildings of the Joseon Dynasty.


A view from the observation deck at the top of the cable car ride.


Suzi is scared of heights. So she had to sit on the floor and hold onto Jeremy and Preston's pants. Of course.

Tongyeong/ Geoje Workshop

Check out the photos-

Select videos coming soon. Full video highlights movie coming sometime. I took 53 video clips. There is plenty of material, Preston just has to put it all together.

Richard Got Us, etc.

Today when the bell rang for the lunch break, Richard called Megan and I into the office. He said we needed to have a small staff meeting and he sounded dejected. The rest of the staff was already in the room. Richard sat at the table in the middle of the room with his head in his hand. He told us he had bad news. It sounded bad. You can tell a lot by Richard's tone and his appearance. This did not look good and we were all silent. Again he said, "I have some bad news." We all just sort of looked at him waiting for it. It sounded like someone died. He said, "Ahhh... The workshop to Tongyeong was cancelled. We can't go." We just stared at him, then looked at each other, then back to Richard waiting for a reason why. A few of us saw the itinerary (in Hangul) that morning. He had a meeting yesterday to approve it. What could have changed? Richard sat there quietly with his head still in his hand. Then he said, "You know what day today is?" And then I knew it. April Fool's Day. He got us good! He jumped up from his seat and then jumped in the air. He was 2 feet off the ground. I'm pretty sure he even clikced his heels. He was so happy. It was hilarious. Man, he got us good. We were all stunned for a little while afterwards. We thought we could read him so well. That there was no way he could hide an emotion from us. At least today, we were wrong.

In other news, it sounds like the job to have in Korea is of a banker. Summer hours are 9am-4pm. Really? Every bank in the country? Wow.

Parents At English Camp

Check 'em out!

Most of the Photos from Korea

Now Online!

http://picasaweb.google.com/CaleyMincemoyer

Some More GyeongJu Photos

That's not a Nazi sign, it's the symbol for a temple.

Prayer Rocks

More Prayer Rocks

I thought this looked cool.

Tom, Preston, Kenny, Door

Parents + Kenny in Korea

Mom, Tom and Kenny arrived in Korea last Thursday night. They stayed in Daegu in a hotel near where Chris lives. On Friday afternoon, they came to visit English Camp while we were working. Suzi gave them a full tour in her broken English. Tom wrote the numbers for Bingo on the board and drew a Mickey Mouse for the kids. They all enjoyed the absolute craziness of the students, especially on a Friday afternoon, especially with three new adult American faces to look at. The kids were loving it. They had all of us sign their notebooks and they were begging for American money. Richard invited us all into his office for ... well I'm not exactly sure what. But they gave Mom and Tom two sets of wooden chopsticks and spoons and they gave Kenny a bookmark/letter opener. After that, Preston and I had to stay at the school for a little bit but Mom, Tom and Kenny came back to our apartment. When we got home later, Kenny was asleep on the bed. We decided to go for dinner at the Soup Place with Megan and Jeremy around 7, but Mom and Tom needed a little nap before that. We had beef neck soup and seafood soup. It was spicy but good, then we walked down the street for some popsicles, but them on the bus back to Daegu and came home to go to bed.

Saturday the group of three came to Changnyeong again. They wanted to check out our 5 day market which is quite a thing to see. Tom and Mom stopped every few feet to take pictures or video tape something. I can't wait to see the video. Preston and I got the fruits and veggies we wanted and some of the cookies we get sometimes to share with everyone. Mom wanted to try this round confection at the cookie stand, so we got those too. Turns out they are about the best little doughnut you can buy in Korea. Thank goodness Mom wanted some! We had lunch at the Orange Place- pretty typical for us. Then Preston took the groceries back to the apartment and we made our way to the bus station to spend the rest of the day in Daegu.

We met Chris at the bus station then walked to Duryu Park. We got to see the back (and then the front) of WooBang Tower Land- an amusement park in Daegu. We pretty much just walked around a lot. We saw a Temple, took them to the bookstore we go to, showed them where we shop, stopped at a coffee shop, more walking... I can't exactly remember it all. We ate at the Holy Grill that night and one of Tom's former patients recognized him which was pretty crazy. I guess it really is a small world. We took a taxi ride back to their hotel and accidentally left a bag with my camera in it in the taxi. That was a bummer but- hey, now I can get a new one, right? Mom and Tom brought a Weis bag full of Easter candy for us, and I know Preston is excited about that.

Sunday we met them in Daegu to go to GyeongJu- the original capital of Korea. We went to a Temple there- the ground were beautiful but it was freezing! Luckily, the trees were all in bloom, so it could take our minds off the cold temperatures we weren't quite dressed for. After walking through the temple, we took a bus to The National Museum. The museum was really cool. There were tons of artifacts from the 5th-10th centuries. Lots of daggers and armor and ... rock pillows. It was really neat to see. And, as an added bonus, the English translations were really good! So we were actually able to learn something as well. Oh yeah, before the museum and temple, we had lunch at a Pizza Hut. We wanted to find somewhere warm that served food and Pizza Hut fit the bill. It was a first for all of us, neither Preston and I nor Chris had ever had Pizza Hut in Korea before. It was pretty good, of course there was mayo on our BBQ chicken pizza, but that is to be expected. Well, not really, but it's not much of a surprise here. Later, we got on the bus to head back to Daegu. Once we were in Daegu, we thought about going to a restaurant, but couldn't find one (other than Pizza Hut again) that was close enough to the bus station. Preston and I needed to get the 8:30 bus back to Changnyeong and it was already 7:15. So we decided to sit at Dunkin Donuts for our remaining time together in Korea. I said I wasn't going to cry when we had to leave, but of course I did. It was great to see them in Korea. But like Preston keeps telling me, only 5 more months and we will be home again.

Here are some pictures that I have. If you know Tom, you know that he had a solid handle on the picture taking. Once they get home, he will send me some of the photos, so I can add more group shots. I just have pictures of the temple at GyeongJu.

Korea

Ugh. Last week's students were believable. They were disrespectful, rude little monsters. Times like that, thank goodness we only have the students for one week. I couldn't imagine being their teacher for a whole year. They never shut up or sat down. They were constantly singing annoying Korean pop songs. Two of them were doing this stripper-esque chair dance one day. A boy and a girl. These kids are 11. Ick. It was disgusting. They wouldn't stop and I couldn't watch.

Luckily, this week's students are 100% better. I know it is just Monday, but they are quiet, respectful, interested in learning and they just seem like nice kids. I hope to feel this way for the remainder of the week.

And Mom and Tom are coming here on Friday!!!

Students

My students this week.

In other news, they are doing some sort of 'construction' to our apartments this week. Replacing the water pipes so there isn't rust in the water. Well, right now our washing machine isn't attached to anything that will allow it to drain properly. It better be fixed when we get home (in about 10 minutes). Because it's Friday evening and I need to wash some socks.


5.5 months...

What A Day

Today it was 60 degrees and sunny. It was a beautiful day. Preston and I went to the market and bought some fruit and vegetables and then decided we should go for a hike. He took me on a pretty difficult trail and my lungs were burning going up because I am really out of shape. But, we had a lot of fun and the views were great. We brought some kiwis, an apple and some homemade trail mix for the trip. I took the pictures. check 'em out:This is a photo of Preston making a walking stick for me. But instead he kept that one and gave me his since his was a bit smaller and lighter.

Big rock wall.

Just look at all those rice fields. No wonder they eat it with every meal.

Rock towers, I guess.
I thought it was too long since our last photo together.

King of his domain.

That's English Camp right in the middle.

Camp Photos

This will be the cover of the new textbook we made. Lol.

Hanging out at Upo.