On midnight Runners

So this week my school had 2 midnight runners (not separate events-they planned it together)

What is a midnight runner? SOmebody who pretty much packs up, and leaves with no notice. They don't tell anybody, and nobody knows they're gone until they don't show up at work the next day. This causes extreme chaos in the school, some excitement and a heap load of gossip.

Is it worth it? You burn bridges, get blacklisted from Korea (you will not find a job) and put a lot of stress on your coworkers.
However, in some schools, if you put in a notice, they won't pay you, and probably be incredibly shady.
So in all honesty, its probably easier to just complete your contract; but if your that miserable, I'd just midnight run too. I like to think I'd have more integrety than that, but sometimes you do what you got to.
I personally don't think my job is so bad where I would have to midnight run; especially if you read REAL hagwon horror stories, makes me thankful that I'm not in a sketchy situation. Our hours are long, but really, its a good gig.
But enough of that. Midnight running is really not cool for anybody involved except for the runners, making it a semi-selfish thing to do.
Until next time,
Patience and Faith,
EP

War Memorial and Museum

I think this is the actual War Memorial.
Hellllo!
So today Angela, Spidey and I went to the War Memorial and Museum.
It was very big and very cool. You start on this big outdoor park, with large statues. One was of the Korean War (Can this be classified as a civil war? I'm really not sure). The first picture was supposed to represent a strenght and unity. It was actually a very well done memorial. Surrounding the outside were tanks, planes and airplanes. It was really neat, being able to go inside some of the Korean war era planes and the like.

2 Brothers

We then went inside where there was a big drum that the government made for an anniversary of something, I really don't remember. We walked around for a while, looking at old old old battle scenes (Circa 600 and so on). There was a hall with a few replica 'turtle boats,' which were really neat! Its hard to believe that people sailed these!!
Me and turtle boats!

The museum was honestly a fairly run of the mill war museum until the Korean war stuff. I honestly didn't realize how little I knew of the Korean war until I was reading about it-its insane, and something I defintly want to do some reading up on. I was actually really sad reading about it, and didn't realize how bad it was, but they have almost 2 floors dedicated to all things Korean war, DMZ, North Korea relations and the like. We watched some videos on it, and it really shed some light on the situation. Walking through their mock (although not very well done) refugee camp made me realie how terrible this war was. It made me really sad.

Dogtags of fallen soldiers in the shape of a tear drop.

I wish this museum was a little more interactive, but all in all, this museum was awesome. It shed some light on North Korea/South Korea relations, Japan/Korea relations and the like. Defintly worth the look.

On the next episode of EP in korea: Midnight runners, spidermen and life in Asia.

Patience and Faith,
ErinJ

Pepero Day

Happy Pepero day!!!
Happy verterns day!!

So today is Pepero day in merry Koreaworld.
What is Pepero day you may ask?
Its pocky day.
Thats right, those little cookies with the chocolate on the top? Koreas got a version called Pepero. and since it looks like a 1, they decided that 11/11 is Pepero day. Pepero day is awesome until about noon, wehn you never ever ever want to see a cookie ever again because all of your kids had given you heaps of them. I gave my kids a cookie, they gave me boxes of them (except for a few kids that gave me other candy).
Its a giant marketing ploy, but its turned into a valentines day like thing. Its not anything else, just Pepero. And there are heaps of types of them (including Nude which cracks me up, only the Koreans). Its probably one of Lotte's biggest days, and I guess is a nice way to say hey to people.
Its a couple thing I guess, and kids bring them for their friends.
They even have stuffed pocky sticks, but I think I'mg going to wait until tomorrow when those bad boys are on sale (or not).

I think its sort of silly, but the Korean Kids work so hard, I think they deserve a few cookies.

North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Well, mo Marilyn Monroe on yesterday's trip into the DMZ, but there was North Korea and South Korea
Mike, Me and Kimberly at the DMZ


Heres a few fast facts: The DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) is the most heavily militarized border in the world. What does that mean? That for every 100 meters, theres a very heavily armed guard. Almost every precaution is taken. North koreans could not march, swim. climb, or drive into ROK without a fight. It runs along the 38th parallel and splits the 2 Koreas. NOw, since nobody could live there, its one of most natural wildlife preserves in the world.

OKAY. So we had to get up at 530, to get to USO Camp Kim by 7am. This meant leaving our friends who didn't wake up :( but we got there The tour starts immediatly, as when you leave you notice that theres barbed wire surrounding the highway,from when the North Koreans snuck in and tried to kill the president.
Our first stop was the JSA (Joint Security Area) where we picked up a jaded, but beautiful army boy to protect us. There, we saw a 1-hole golf course dubbed the most dangerous golfing in the world, as it is surrounded on 3 sides by life land mines. Oh dear! We saw some bunkers, but all in all the place was sad. We drove around the area, which was abandoned and sad. No civilians, just army. The army life here seemed weird. They are so well trained in case something happens, but it seems like a lot of puttering if you ask me.
We then went to go chill on the line. At the friendship park (which is not friendly despite the name) there are 2 empty buildings looking at eachother, with a few smaller buildings that lie exactly on the line. Its pretty intense. NOrth Koreas staring at us (we're not allowed to make any jestures to them. There were 5-6 korean soldiers hanging out to make sure we did not get into trouble. This area was very tense, and they have had incidents here (few and far between mind you
Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom The Panmunjom, and the border (the concrete line)

We then made our way into the tunnels, which were close to the DMZ. The North Koreans dug tunnels (4 have been found) to try to get into Seoul. They covered it in black, so they could say that they were 'coal mining' even though the area is obviously granite. After a very steel slope 350 meters down, we walked through this small tunnel for half a km or so until we got to one of 3 blockades. It was neat, being able to see the dynomite marks. If the NK had been successful, they would have been able to get thousands of soldiers into Seoul within an hour. It was crazy.

Foolin' around at the tunnel site!

After lunch we went the Dora observatory where we could see the DMZ, the largest flag pole in the World (in a propeganda villiage in NK) and the area, even though it was foggy. It was pretty cool, but pictures were not permitted (if they saw you take them, which they do, they see everything, they have you delete them). But theres nothing in NK. Just land, mountains and more nothing.

After that, we went to the last train station in South korea, or the first station in NK, depending on how you look at it, to stamp our passports, and hang around.

After a long morning in the DMZ, I feel like I have more of a grasp of the severity of the situation, what is going on, and how terrible it actually is. The south beg for reunification, or at least civility, where as nobody actually knows what NK's problem is. Its scary knowing that they have missiles that could hit me right now, and to know how close we are. Its one of those things.
Barbed wire and grey skies.....
Until next time,
Patience and faith,
ErinJ

Who Turned off the Heat?

Mary is Precious

Hey Ho!
I'd like to say that I've been too lazy doing awesome things to post, but I don't want to lie to you. I've just been lazy!

So heres life in Korea:
October 30th-the weather is AWESOME
October 31st-Rain
Novmeber 1st-30 degrees. (this is not an underestimate)


When korea wants to do winter, THEY DO WINTER. I'm personally a fan, as the cold reminds me of the crisp autumn nights in NE. But it was weird. IN CT, you see the temps start to drop. Here it was sudden! Thanks Korea! Leaves went from green to yellow (no cool oranges or anything :(. I guess you have to go to the mountains for that?)

Me and my kids on Halloween at school

We also had Halloweenday in Korea. DOn't ask me WHY They call it Halloweenday, but everybody does. EVVVERYBODY. Signs say halloween day. ITs hilarious. But my kids dressed up in an ultra adorable fashion, and I gave them heaps of candy and lovin'.
Speaking of which, I got 3 new kids and almost have a full class. I love love love those kids. They're a lot of work, and very trying, but heaps of fun.

So I promise I'm totally going to start doing interesting things and not sleeping all day. Its only been a few weeks. But I need to get out more.
We adventure, but since we live here its more of doing things and less of exploring. Like we went to Dongdemun looking for halloween costumes. It was an adventure, but nothing that interesting.

So thats life in EPers land. I'll start blogging, cause I have a lot to say about living in Korea.

I did put up heaps of pictures from halloween, so enjoy them!!

Patience and Faith,
ErinJ

Samantha Teacher and I in Itewon

On Teaching

My grandmother (Hi Oma!) asked a lot of questions about teaching in Korea, and I realized that I haven't addressed a subject that takes up 58 hours a week (you read that right, I teach that much. Its not healthy). So heres teaching in Korea: Preschool Edition!

Minho's excited about the blogpost!

As my cousin (Hi Elena!) said to me; getting a degree in teaching is almost pointless, cause nobody can prepare you for actually doing it. And shes right. But Teaching is kind of like skiing; you have to try a lot of different ways to stay up, but once you figure it out, you got it. This is my 3rd week with my kids, so the last few weeks have been more of a how can I get through to these kids kinda game. And it works. They know when I think its okay for them to you know, act their age, and when its time to actually get work done (Phonics class succccks. Everybody hates it, them and me). There hasn't been any complaints so intense that my bosses have had to talk to me about it (I don't actually hear complaints, somebody else deals with them and they only get to me if they are valid, or often enough). I don't really like to punish kids but we have a happy/sad star system. So If you do something that makes me happy, you get a happy star. When you speak Korean or do something thats really frusturating me, you get a sad star. I don't like to give sad stars. If somebody sees that their friend is getting heaps of happy stars, they generally behave better. So I make sure to encourage really good behavior, and I don't want to say ignore, since they know what makes me grumpy, but I don't pay as much attention to it. They're also really well behaved, so theres little in the ways of punishment

They're too much fun. I like doing art and music and gym and stuff like that with them. I feel bad having them do workbook pages and phonics and stuff, since I feel like they're too young. But I have no say in it, so I try to make it tolerable for them.

You do the best that you can, but I greatly enjoy my kids!
Who doesn't love their friendly local neighborhood expat teacher and her adorable students. I mean, look at Mary in the middle. TOO CUTE. And I also have my KT, whos my go-to gal, and too good at her job.

On Being Discriminated Against

So I promise I'm going to start posting more, but for now, heres something I've been thinking about.

In America, I'm just like everybody else. Well, obviously not; but I can speak the language, go into stores, and know whats going on.
Here, that is not the case, and although there are heaps of expats around, in a metropolitan area of 21 million people, we are still the extreme minority. And it shows. A lot of the time, Koreans are really nice, and chill, and will help you out.
Sometimes that is not the case. Yesterday, we were thrown out of a hat store. Not to long ago, we were overcharged for a taxi, and had an arguement with the guy. We get followed around in museums. There are somethings that happen, that you know they wouldn't dare pull with Koreans.

Its weird, and eye-opening. I've never been straight out discriminated against just for being white. I think its healthy, but its not right. People shouldn't be mean, or try to rip people off just for being white, just cause they can't understand you.

It puts a new perspective on things.