I like cheap dates

I mean, dates that are inexpensive. Or anything inexpensive for that reason. Because of my love of free and/or cheap things, I love Groupon. You haven't heard of it, you say? You're missing out! Groupon (and sites like it, like Eversave and Living Social) offers a daily deal-anything from a restaurant to a vacation. On top of the daily deals, Groupon has "Groupon Now" deals, a Groupon you can buy and have to use in the same day. We have done some of both kinds and loved it all!

If Ben and I go on an actual date, like go out in public and everything, it's usually because we have a Groupon (or gift cards from wonderful friends and family that we got for Christmas!!! Yay thank you everyone!). A night in watching Dexter (we're almost through the current season...what are we going to do when it's over?!?!?!) and making some yummy food is fun too and is our usual! But sometimes we like to go try some fun ethnic food or watch a movie. And that's where Groupon comes in handy! Here are some Groupon deals we have snatched up:

Half off at Dingo's Mexican Grill in SE Portland. The food was good, although nothing spectacular. And the margaritas were a little bland. But the cheesy bean dip was worth it all, sooooo good! We got a good amount of food and if I remember correctly all we had to pay for was a tip after our Groupon.

We also got a great deal on dinner at Peemkaew Thai restaurant in the Pearl. Amaaaaazing Thai food. I've never been to a Thai restaurant and not ordered Pad Thai, but we skipped that this time and got some other delicious things instead. And I (almost) didn't even miss the Pad Thai, everything was that good! This was an extra good deal, since I somehow was given a $10 Groupon credit from the magical Groupon fairies. It just showed up! So we actually only paid $5 for $20 worth of food (although we did order a little more than $20 of food!).

We also got half off at PBJ's Grilled, a food cart in the Pearl. Where we ordered amazing grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and then had to immediately try to replicate them ourselves!

I also got a great deal at Honest-1 Auto Care. I was getting terrible gas mileage and needed to get my car checked out (turns out I'm just doing way too much downtown driving!), so this Groupon popped up just in time. I paid $60 and get 3 oil changes, a tire rotation, a discount on any service and a diagnostic check. The guys at the Stark St. location were great and really knew what they were talking about. They got things done really quickly and didn't try to convince me I needed to get a bunch more things done. They also had a nice comfy waiting area with Wifi!

We've also purchased movie tickets online for half off a couple times. And I got two haircuts for the price of one recently. I also got a nearly free subscription to a cooking magazine. And a good deal on wine tasting. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of things we've purchased, but those are a few of them! You should all sign up for Groupon by going here, I guarantee that you will find a deal in the near future that you will want!

It's beginning to look a lot like......!

I should be doing homework. But I don't want to. I still have two terms left of school after this one, and am already soooo ready to be done. And I only have one final this term, and had no midterms, but still can't motivate myself to do anything!

Anyway, last night I was craving a little Christmas spirit. So Ben and I watched Elf (I don't know why I love that movie so much, but I've watched it a million times and could watch it a million more!) and drank some hot chocolate with marshmallows (left over from Halloween rice crispy treat ingredients!). And now I'm so ready for Christmas!



I don't know why I love Christmas so much, but it is just my absolute favorite time of the year. Even though the weather sucks (come on, why can't it just snow if its going to be cold and wet?!), and I have no money to buy good gifts for everyone, I just love it. The decorations, the food, the shopping, the food, the family get-togethers, the planning, the fun events, the food, etc. I've always been single during the holidays (or...always...) and so I'm even more excited to have a special someone to share the holidays with this year! Makes it even better! Although coordinating family holiday events is not exactly easy...

To kick off the Christmas shopping season this year I may even do some Black Friday shopping. Why, you ask? I have no idea. I hate Black Friday shopping. But I don't have to work Friday (at least I don't think I do....schedules are subject to change at any given time at my work) and figure maybe I can snag some good deals. Although I may end up murdering people because I don't really like malls at normal times of the year, much less when they are FULL of PSYCHOS. But, I'm all about the budget shopping, and what better time to do it? Plus, I need some socks.



P.S. Google image search "Elf." There are some interesting things out there. Especially this.

Recent events

I've been back from Korea for about two and a half months now. And what a busy two months it has been! It seems more like about six months than two. Here are some things that have happened in the past two months:

-My friend Kayla had a beautiful baby girl, but she had to have open heart surgery at Doernbecher Children's Hospital at two weeks old. Fortunately I live right next door to the hospital so was able to visit quite a bit! Ila Rae is happy and healthy now and recovered very quickly, praise the Lord!
-Ben's friend Jon got married, and he was in the wedding. It was a really beautiful wedding and was lots of fun!
-I started work again after a week of being back and school again after a month.
-We found out my sissy is having a baby boy in February! So excited for a nephew!
-Ben and I celebrated 7 months of being in loooove! :)
-I turned 27. In the words of a 4-year-old girl at work the other day: "SOOOOOO old." Thanks.
-I spent almost a week in Sunriver with Ben for my birthday, so nice! We mostly ate a lot of good food, watched a lot of Dexter, and played a lot of Star Fluxx (our favorite of the Fluxx games so far...we still have a few more versions to try though!).

A lot has happened since I last blogged! But mostly I want to talk about something that's really annoying me. I am not a political person. I hate politics in fact. I avoid talking about them and learning about them at all costs. But when they are forced upon you, you can't really help but form an opinion or take a side.

Take the Occupy Portland movement, for example. It started out annoying enough. Honestly, I didn't even know what it was all about at first. I was just annoyed. This is what I found today while researching it a little (I still don't really know what they are trying to accomplish. I don't think most of the protesters know either): Occupy Wall Street is "fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations. The movement is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future."

Okay. Yes, there are rich people in the world. Yes they are in power. No there aren't as many jobs available right now as there have been in the past. And yes people are losing their homes. Okay, maybe some of those things suck. But really, people? Is camping out in parks and protesting outside of banks going to do anything? First of all, what do you actually want to do? Make the rich people give all the poor people money? Tell people that they don't need to make their mortgage payments and they can keep their homes? Tell everyone that they don't need a job because the rich people should just take care of everyone? Second of all, this is not the way to accomplish anything. Except for piss people off. Well, if that's your intent, you've succeeded.

I met Ben for lunch today at his work. (He works for a BANK, people! The devil himself as far as these protesters are concerned.) I got there to find cops all over in riot gear. Every bank I passed today had security guards stationed outside. After we had lunch, I headed back to campus. I tried to get on the Max, and after pushing the "door open" button repeatedly, some guy finally told me that the Max wasn't running. Everyone had just been kicked off. The protesters were "on the move" and so the Max couldn't run. Okay, whatever. I just started walking. But then I stumbled upon the protesters. They were standing outside of the Wells Fargo tower and Bank of America building. I was already annoyed that I had to walk because of them (I'm not lazy at all!). Then I couldnt even walk down that street because they were EVERYWHERE. I'm sure if anyone saw me, they would think I was sick. I was so disgusted. I kept rolling my eyes and sighing loudly. And actually I think someone maybe did see me. I was walking along, texting Ben about how annoyed I was (actually, my exact words were "I want to murder them all.") and someone kind of grabbed my elbow. I didn't even look, just kept walking. So if that was you, I'm terribly sorry. I wasn't trying to be rude. I was just afraid that if someone else tried to hand my a flyer, or talk to me, or if I had to see another stupid protester, I would become violent. So I chose to just keep my head down and keep walking.

This is what I found on the Occupy Portland website about the events today: "Two specific demands uniting the N17 organizing groups are that banks stop foreclosing on people’s homes and that the city of Portland and Multnomah County immediately cease enforcing foreclosures. These demands embody the larger goal of reclaiming democracy by putting people and the environment before profit and greed." Really? So if someone doesn't make their mortgage payments, they banks and the government should just go ahead and turn a blind eye? I understand that some of these foreclosures are due to people losing jobs because of the bad economy. And home prices sinking. If you can't pay rent, should your landlord just go ahead and keep letting you live there too? If you can't make your payments, you find something you can afford. That's all there is to it. It sucks. Horribly. But you can't get something for nothing in this world. Unless you find one of the 1% to pay for everything with you. Come on Occupiers, when are you going to make that happen for us???

The long road home

So after saying our goodbyes at camp, and having a lunch of fried eggs and french fries, and pissing the bus driver off because we took foreeeever to get loaded on the bus, we headed to our next destination. My understanding was that we were headed to Woman Plaza, where we had first started this adventure a month ago. It was kind of our home base away from camp. So I got on the bus ready to wind up in a familiar place. Only, two hours or so later, we were somewhere else entirely. Welcome to Korea. This kind of thing happened all the time.

So, turns out we were to stay that night at Daebul University. We chose roommates and found rooms. Trista and I walked into our room (well, Trista limped in because she broke her foot about a week before this) and it seemed pretty similar to our camp dorm rooms. Except I had left my sheets at camp because I thought we were going to stay somewhere decent. Bad move. But that's not the worst of it. We timidly peeked in the bathroom to find, what else? A toilet full of poop. I mean full of it. I quickly backed away and tried not to throw up. And gallant Jonathan tried to flush it. Which just resulted in the water filling up the toilet bowl and almost overflowing. Which resulted in Trista and I grabbing our bags to search for another room. We found our rooms, begged for blankets and pillows to lay on the nasty mattresses (the blankets not being much better as they were covered in hair and smelled like cat pee. But better than nothing. I think), and then got dressed for our farewell dinner with the governor. After another lovely speech from the governor and an award for Tank for being the best teacher in the program (I'm sure this had nothing to do with the fact that he was male and the oldest teacher in the program...thanks Korean cheauvinism!), we got dinner. A buffet. But not the kind of Korea buffets we had grown accustomed to. This one was amazing. We left so very full and happy! And then were given gifts and were even more happy! And then had to sleep on the nasty mattresses. With one tiny blanket used sleeping-bag style to avoid actually touching the mattress. Which meant being very cold. And not sleeping much. And then it was morning!

The next day we were set to go to a "traditional folk village." Again, we had no idea what to expect. We got there and things seemed better than expected. There was electricity, our room had a bathroom (granted, 17 of us were sharing said room, but still. A bathroom!) and there was a cute puppy. We set up our "beds" (blankets on the ground. Really? Another night without a real bed?!) and then went to mingle. Although my "group" of campers isn't really good at mingling. We kind of stuck to each other. But I did go on a walk with Alice, who I had hung out with quite a bit during our first week of orientation here. Little did we know what that walk would turn into. We were walking in the dark, minding our own business, when this young Korean guy comes up to us asking if we know where such-and-such a thing is. We looked at each other and said, "Uhhh, sorry." Then he said, "Do you know where Shayna is?" This we did know. So he asked us to tell her that Jackie was there for her. Uh...guess our walk was over? So we headed back to the rooms and began a quest for Shayna. We only knew who she was because Jackie had called earlier looking for her. And she said "Oh my gosh, what if he is HERE?" Well, we went to find Shayna. Which took forever. There were a lot of rooms (of course mine was the only one with a billion girls in it.) and no one knew where she was. We finally just started calling her name to the closed doors and found her. And told her to follow us. And we led her to Jackie. And left her there. And were worried that she might be murdered, but thought we could probably hear the screams if he tried anything since they weren't too far away. Anyway, he didn't propose marriage like she was worried he was going to, but hung out at our camp for the night.

I wish I could say that night was over at that point. I hung out with some people for a bit before deciding to go to bed. I'm not sure what made me think that I would be able to sleep in a camp with 100 teachers drinking themselves crazy, or in a room with 17ish other girls being loud and drunk and annoying. I think I fell asleep about two hours before I was supposed to wake up. And then we headed to the bus to make our way to another city. I didn't have great hopes for the hotel. But turns out it was pretty nice!

In the days since camp ended, we have seen museums, burial mounds, bus seats, lots of bus seats (especially because no one else sits on our bus....apparently they don't like the Damyang camp teachers...), roads, rest stops, restaurants, we said goodbye multiple times to our Korean co-teachers as they met us in Gwangju and then a couple more met us in the next city, and now we are in Seoul. Where we have had free time for the firs time in five weeks. Kind of crazy! The hotel here is amazing and kind of makes me just want to sleep and take bubble baths all day instead of exploring the city. But I only have two days here so am making the most of it!

Then home sweet home! See you all soon!

Also, my lovely friend Kayla had her baby girl today at about 4:30pm: 8 lb 10 oz. Congratulations Kayla and Cody and welcome to the world, Ila Rae!

FINISHY!

The camp is done! I have never been so exhausted in my life. But it was pretty amazing at the same time! The last few days of camp were crazy. I don't know how I made it, every day I was more and more tired. Time went by quicker this camp since I was always so busy teaching. I taught six classes a day, plus had my homeroom class for about 3 hours a day. Then there were all the activities on top of that.

All the other teachers said they liked the middle school camp better and the middle school kids better. I didn't really get to know the kids at that camp that well, so I don't have as much to compare with. They said the elementary school kids were too hard to control. I didn't think that at all, but it could be that I'm used to dealing with American kids of that age, who are insane. Or it could be that the kids were too busy cooking in my class to cause trouble. Either way, I absolutely adored the elementary school kids. My homeroom class was the best, a fact which all the other teachers agree to. They were fun and smart and goofy but still paid attention and did what they were told. The girls in my class put together a little message poster for me on the last day which was so sweet I almost cried. Almost. We'll get back to that. And my precious little Roger kept pretending to march and would say "this is how I arriving in Oregon." He is going to walk and swim to visit me. I'll expect to see him in about ten years, tired from swimming across the Pacific Ocean.

After teaching 144 kids how to make first ham sandwiches (running out of bread the first day, so we had to switch to banana pancakes early for some classes), then banana pancakes, then chocolate cookies, it was time for the classes to be over and other events to begin. I was shocked when asking some classes what their favorite thing to cook was, and they answered ham and cheese sandwiches. What kid in their right mind would choose a sandwich over chocolate cookes?!

The lesson plans were pretty straight forward-introduce vocabulary, do some worksheets and then make the food. But my co-teacher and I tried to make it a little more fun. So we would come up with ways to turn the vocabulary into a game. Like matching pictures to words, or charades, or putting the recipe in the right order, etc. It wasn't usually until the second day of classes (we taught each recipe for two days-6 classes each day until we taught all 12 classes) that we really had things figured out, but all the kids learned what they needed to! We played a game at the end called "Golden Bell" (apparently a game show on TV here) and we all had to submit questions. I was so proud when almost all the kids answered the cooking questions right! Made me feel like they actually understood what I was teaching them!

The last full day of camp was filled with some games: relay races (I stayed out of it this time to avoid getting injured again!), hula hooping, dodge ball, water balloon toss (where I got soaked), etc. It also included "Camp Idol." Each class had to pick a song to sing and individual kids also performed. And hour and a half each day was allotted to Song Practice. So they should have had 7 days to practice their song before performing. Except my kids couldn't agree on a song. First it was Lemon Tree by Fool's Garden (which I had never heard before but they knew it already), then it was Sk8er Boi. Then back to Lemon Tree. Then it was a medly of songs which kids would perform short parts of. Then it was back to "I don't know!!!" So I made them sing Summer Nights from Grease. Never mind that it is about a summer love affair...they didn't understand the words anyway. They decided to switch parts, and the girls would sing the boys parts and vice versa.

After a fun day of playing games (in first the hot gym and then the hot outdoors), the kids were tired. But ready for their performance! There were a lot of fun songs and performances (including some brave kids imitating the Discipline Teacher (did I fail to mention there are four people at camp with that title?), which was hilaaaarious!), and after some slight technical difficulties my kids did their song perfectly. I have a video but it will take ten years to load, so that will just have to wait to be seen!

At the end of Camp Idol, there were some speeches. I was exhausted and one little girl (who has an amazing accent and speaks English nearly perfectly) gave a short little speech which was really cute. I was willing myself not to cry. But a tear or two squeaked out. Then some teachers saw and made a fuss. Then some kids saw....and started chanting "AMY! AMY! AMY!" Which then turned into "AMY! DON'T CRY! AMY! DON'T CRY!" Which did not help matters. And then I got it under control. And then one of the Discipline Teachers, Sun Flower, showed a video of camp. And then the STUDENTS started crying. One of my girls, Anne, who never really participated much although she was always sweet, started sobbing. Literally sobbing. Shoulders heaving and noises and snot and tears and everything. And she would not stop. So I went to hold her hand. (They love hand-holding here. We all (males included) got used to having kids (or fellow teachers) come grab our hand to walk around). And willed myself not to cry. And only a few tears leaked out.

After Camp Idol, the teary-eyed kids went to bed. And the teachers had a goodbye party. Where the principal kept filling everyone's glasses with Soju. He would not give up. Then the next morning, we had a closing ceremony and the kids headed out. After giving out my email to a few kids (I already got one email, sooooo cute!) and signing my name a zillion times on their camp tshirts, it was time to go. AND I DIDN'T EVEN CRY! Until we had to say goodbye to our co-teachers. They were in the trench with us the whole time and were so amazing! I didn't bond as much with all of them as some of the other teachers did, since I wasn't working one-on-one with anyone the first camp and didn't go get wasted with them every night, but it was still sad to know I won't see them again!

I was so glad camp was over. And am so ready to come home, even though I have a few days left here in Korea. And am ready to get back to my normal life. But seeing the kids reactions to camp and how attached they were and what an impact we made on them was so touching. Teaching really is a beautiful thing. Even if it exhausts you and makes you think you are crazy, at the end of the day, someone will learn something or say something or do something that lets you know that what you are doing is important. And that's what its all about!

They asked us all if we would want to come back and teach in a real school for a year. They pay about $30,000 a year and also give you free housing. Pretty dang good deal. No master's degree or teaching certificate required. If I was five years younger, I probably would do it. But at this point there are things more important to me than adventuring around for a year. I never thought I would say that, but its true! I can still make an impact on kids at home just as much.

In the two days since camp has ended, there have been many adventures. More to come on those soon!

T minus one day

Field trip...where there was nothing to do but look at this pond.


Oh my gosh I love this kid. He was hot and didn't have an umbrella
so he picked a leaf to shade himself with!


One of the most adorable boys ever


They love their stickers! They count as part of their "grade" so they
get really excited when they get some.


My co-teacher and our student Kate


The boys: practicing their song


And the girls!


Waiting in line! Probably getting in trouble...



Teaching the kids how to make cookies

Playing a game that Diana came up with


Teaching them how to "crack" eggs and "stir." New vocabulary!


Fighting over the last banana pancake! Rock-paper-scissors style.



Golden Bell. This symbol means "true."

Jason was one of the finalists in Golden Bell.
So proud of him! (this is the "false" symbol)


Roger and Transformer :)

Me and my lovely roommates! Me, Diana (also my co-teacher) and Moony.

Love this kid! (Roger)

Bumblebee thinking hard!

Me and Anne

Bumblebee...he did not want a picture taken!
He looks like a trouble maker, but is one of the
smartest kids in our class and so much fun.

Jason on the right is my student, I don't remember the other's name...

Cute :)

"Survival Games"

Chaos in the gym

Teachers goofing around

Today was the last day of actual teaching! Tomorrow we will have some games and testing and other activities for the kids, then the following day we all pack up and head out. It seems like this camp took forever to pass. But now that its the end, it seems like it flew by! I am so in love with my students and had a lot of fun teaching, although I'm as tired as I have ever been. It might be a little sad to say goodbye to these kids that I've bonded with and been inspired by, but I still am looking forward to coming home :)

Here are the Korean words/phrases I've learned so far during my stay (if you speak Korean, please ignore the phonetic spelling and horrific pronunciation):
Annyong haseyo (hello) (or just 'Annyong' if you're talking to a child)
Kamsahamnida (thank you)
Bali Bali! (Hurry!)
Ne (yes-pronounced like 'nay')
Anyi (no)
Man gi gi ma (don't touch me)
Piyante (pervert)
Hua jang shil (bathroom)
Opa (brother-used by females to refer to any male older than themselves)
Oma (mom-used by my students in reference to me cooking in an apron)
Annyong hikaseyo (goodbye-if you are leaving the other person)
Annyong hikayseyo (goodbye-if you are the one staying)
Hapyang (put your hands together in front of your chest-prayer position at the temple)
Pambay (bow)
Otokay (I have no idea what it means, but hear it all the time)
Assa! (awesome!)
Nakshi! ("Just kidding!" Actually, more like "psych!")
Hull ("wow" or any other equivalent utterance of amazement/shock/surprise/excitement)
Aish (kind of like "oh my gosh")

Amy teacher!

I have a pretty amazing class of 12 year olds here at the Jeollanamdo English Camp in Damyang, South Korea. Here is who I have:

Jason-super smart and adorable
Roger-cutest kid ever. So tiny and fiesty and funny.
Transformer-trouble maker
Bumblebee-partner in crime to the above....
Soap-pretty quiet guy but so cute!
Sarah-sweet and smart and good sense of humor.
Kate-very smart girl!
Anne-suuuuper quiet and shy and scared at first, but now she's having more fun!
Nero-is disabled in some way (has a back brace) and the kids are mean to her :(
Hot Dog-ATTITUDE!
Sophia-tiiiiny little adorable girl
Jane-quiet, but apparently quite a complainer in Korean

My homeroom class enjoying their ham and cheese sandwiches!

My co-teacher, Yunhee (Diana is her English name), is amazing. She speaks English nearly perfectly, is so sweet and works hard. Some co-teachers don't want to do anything so don't really help teach at all. But Yunhee is always coming up with ideas and helping lead the class and steps in whenever she needs to. We work quite well together! And we make some dang good banana pancakes.

So we teach six 40-minute classes per day. There are 12 classes total, and they rotate through our room. We have three lessons, so every two days we teach a new lesson. My class is cooking, so the first lesson was ham and cheese sandwiches. Next up was banana pancakes, and tomorrow the cookies begin. The lessons are technically already planned for us, but we try to make it a little more interactive and interesting. So we came up with some games for the sandwich lesson (a race to put the recipe in the correct order-nine different steps). The banana pancakes take a little longer, so there isn't much time for games. But we did introduce some new vocabulary that the book didn't mention. Things like eggshell, banana peel, pour, crack (asking a class of twelve year olds to repeat the word "crack" over and over just seemed wrong....but they just know it in reference to eggs!). The cookie lesson tomorrow will have to be modified as well I'm sure, but we kind of just do it as we go and figure it out. The first few classes don't get as fun of lessons for that reason, but they still get yummy food!

The kids here are so great. They love our cooking class, which makes me happy! And they just have so much fun. I fell in love with a little girl from another class named Lolly. She sat next to me during the soccer game we watched the other night, and talked nonstop. Most kids avoid speaking in English whenever they can. So when I find a kid who actually wants to practice their English and who isn't afraid to make mistakes, I get so excited! She told her homeroom teacher after the game all about her conversation with me and now makes sure to talk to me whenever she sees me.

There is another girl named U-jin who I'm pretty sure speaks better English than I do. I don't know where she learned it or how she speaks so perfectly, but its quite impressive. She doesn't even have an accent! English is quite different from Korean, if you weren't aware. The kids have a really hard time distinguishing between "L" and "R" and also between "P" and "F." So the word "pour" might come out "four" and the word "stir" might sound like "still." My co-teacher is really good about catching that and making them say it right. But they only have one symbol for those letters, and it gets pronounced differently depending on where it falls in a word. They don't have words that end in an "r" sound, it would always be pronounced "l." So they have a hard time with that!

Besides the six classes we teach each day, there are multiple meetings with our homeroom class to just hang out, to write journals, to practice for their skit at the end of camp (my kids are singing "Summer Nights" from Grease. That's what they get for not picking a song on their own. I am SO EXCITED! They might not share that feeling...), or to give instructions for the day. We have our meal times where we eat with the kids. Then there are the evening activities. My class won the scavenger hunt last night, which I was super excited about. And I may have questioned another team's score and double checked it (resulting in two less points for them) in order to win.....but the kids were so happy!

The kids call me "teacher" or "Amy teacher" or "Amy." They live for stickers. Will choose a sticker over candy EVERY time if given the choice. I love it when they forget I am a silly American teacher and they bow to me in greeting. This is something they would have to do to a normal teacher, but sometimes out of habit they just do it to us. They have crazy long days and must be even more exhausted than me, but still have such good attitudes for the most part and just power through no matter what. They are fascinated with my height. Even more fascinated than American kids. They looove rock-paper-scissors (kai-bai-bo or something in Korean), but their version is quite violent and sometimes causes tears to be shed. And they are just adorable and so smart and goofy!

I think I'm more tired than I ever have been in my life! And talking to Ben makes me miss him a whole lot. And videos from my amazing roommate Megan make me miss my apartment and my roommates. And pictures of Sierra and the family make me miss everyone else! I am preeetttty ready to be back home. There are four more days of camp. Then 5 days of traveling. Then home sweet home! Nine days never seemed so long...

I am having a good time and am glad I had this opportunity! But five weeks is a long time to be working 13 hour days and be away from a boyfriend and missing things back home! I will come away from this trip with lots of memories and having learned a lot. But I will also come away with it ready to stay home for a while :) But can I bring home a dozen or so 12 year old Koren kids with me?

Monk-photos

Our lovely outfits waiting for us in our room.

And our lovely room!


Morning prayer-4am


No shoes allowed in the temple/dining room!


Inside the temple for morning prayer


Breakfast...


These guys take their breakfast seriously.


Gardening. Not by choice.


This symbol seems familiar for some reason....?


Beautiful hike with some monks.



And SWIMMING with the monks!


Tea meditation. Much better than regular meditation.





Sewing a handkerchief that we had previously dyed.
Please ignore how gross I look.



Some sort of ceremony. That turned into us being photographed
by visiting Korean women there to honor their ancestors.





Sometimes after a hard three days at a Buddhist temple,
you have to start drinking as soon as you get on the bus...

This is me ringing a bell. They let every single one of us come through and ring it. This is not normally something that foreigners do. They kind of doted on us hand and foot the whole time, I think they were super excited to have so many visitors. I think it must have been too loud because the sound cuts out when the bell actually gets hit. Also, what you think is feedback is probably the cicadas in the background. They are everywhere. And they are GIANT. And gross.

Bowing and dish water = Buddhist temple stay

If you are ever given a choice between spending three days at a beach in Korea or spending that time at a Buddhist temple, take my advice. Go to the beach for goodness sake.

Actually, the truth is, I wouldn't have traded the experience. But if you are looking for a relaxing time, a temple stay is anything but that. Here was our typical schedule:

3:30 am (yes, you read that right)-wake up call. You are woken up by a monk outside of your room hitting a bamboo stick.
4:00 am-prayer time in the temple. A monk sings/chants while hitting the bamboo stick some more and you have to bow a few dozen times. First in one direction, then in another.
4:30 ish am-108 prostrations of repentance. I will explain this in further detail a little later. Just know that this involves bowing. 108 times.
6:00 am-breakfast. Involving a very elaborate and structured routine. Also involving drinking the dish water.
7:30ish am-chores. Which meant weeding the pathways. And dealing with Korea's interesting insect life. And HOT SUN.
(this next time period was filled with either a break on the first day or dying fabric to make a handkerchief the next day)
noon-lunch. Monks are vegetarian. I was always hungry during this period because all I ate were vegetables. Although I did get some fruit which was nice!
(this time frame is a little hazy as I had already been up for nine hours. But one day I think we went for a hike/swim (WITH MONKS) during this time. Another day we finished making our handkerchiefs (who knew sewing a square would be so difficult for so many people!). And we also watched a ceremony celebrating ancestors/became an attraction for all visiting Korean elderly women at the temple during this time.)
late afternoonish (I told you things got a little hazy. don't ask for specifics here)-more prayer. more bowing.
eveningish-dinner. (these last two things could have been swapped in order. Or maybe there was prayer before AND after dinner. I have no idea).
9:00 lights out. Literally turned out by the monks. And all 20 of us ladies slept on the ground in one room. Next morning at 3:30 am, repeat.

The monks were amazing. They were so cute and had a great sense of humor and are just really lovely people. They were constantly taking photos of us and I'm pretty sure they'd never had this many whiteys at their temple at once before because they were all so fascinated!

We had to wear these lovely monk-y outfits. Which included some brown genie pants and a matching brown vest. I put on the first one I grabbed, which happened to be an extra large. And the pants were long enough if I sagged em a lot. Our translator, Zoe (her English name), told me after that the lady in charge of us was worried when she saw me that they wouldn't have anything to fit me. Welcome to my life. Anyway, it worked. She should have been more worried about Jose, who is 6'3" and almost 300 pounds (and is the one responsible for dislocating my shoulder, even if it was in no way his fault). I think he and I were wearing the same size outfit....something is not right about that.

Remember those 108 prostrations I mentioned? I'm sure you are dying to hear more about that. The point of this bowing is to clear your mind of all the 108 evils that can be there. Each bow is done in repentance of an evil, in gratitude for something, or as a vow of some sort. To see all 108 of these, go here. Some of them seem kind of silly ("I prostrate in repentance for having thought that only what I smelled/tasted/felt was right."). Others really make you think (especially because I didn't know what "avarice" meant and had to look it up-apparently it means "extreme greed"). Now, before you go and think that all we did was bow from the waist and listen to these words of repentance being spoken to us by a man's voice from a CD, I should explain the bowing process. You start on your feet, with your feet together. You then get down on your knees and sit on your heels. Then your hands go to the ground and your forehead touches the ground. Then you have to stand back up. Without using your hands. So you rest on your toes and your knees, then push yourself up to standing. Now repeat this 108 times. Right now, I dare you. Needless to say, I have sore quads. Then we had to sit and "meditate" for 20-45 minutes (depending on which monk was in charge...), which mostly consisted of me fidgeting like crazy because 1) my legs were tired from 108 bows and 2) I am incapable of sitting still for more than two minutes.

Anyway, the bowing ceremony was actually really cool. For each "repentance" that we bowed for, I turned it into a prayer for whatever it was. Praying for forgiveness for selfishness or lack of compassion, for help in using only kind words and for being aware of the beauty that surrounds me every day, to vow to never regress in practice (although they meant practice of Buddhism, I turned it into practice of my faith in Christ!). So after 108 quick prayers and 108 squats, I was feeling pretty good! Until the meditation time, as mentioned before.

I should mention, Buddhists do not believe in a god, technically. So the bowing in this religion is not done in worship of anything, it is done to clear the mind. They are all about awareness of every moment, so they want their minds to be clear of any thoughts not pertaining to the present moment. So they bow to focus and to remind themselves that they are wanting to attain the status of Buddha, or of complete enlightenment and happiness. An interesting concept, and while I do think that it is good to try to focus on the current moment and to clear your mind of any unnecessary, unhealthy, or impure thoughts, I'm not sure that bowing repeatedly is the only way to do that (although it is hard to think of anything else while you are doing that!)

Breakfast is an interesting ritual here at the Seonamsa Temple. First, you get a set of four bowls which are all tied up nicely with napkins and other cloth...things. Then you have to untie them, put the napkin on your right, the utensils on top of that, the towel on top of those, then the ribbon-y thing on top of everything else. Then you unfold the place mat and put the bowls on the bottom left corner. You then remove the smallest bowl from inside the big bowl and place it above the big bowl on the placemat. Then the next bowl goes on the bottom right. The last bowl goes on the top right and the spoon and chopsticks go in that. Sound confusing? Just you wait. And remember that this is happening at 6 am after you've already been awake for a few hours. Okay, now you've got your "table" (you are sitting on a cushion on the ground-no table involved) set. Then someone comes along and ceremoniously pours hot water into the biggest bowl. You have to move your bowl from side to side to tell the pourer when you have enough water. (Note: do this quickly or else you will have a lot of water. You will see later why this is bad). Next comes the food. Someone serves you some rice, then some soup broth. Then a tray comes and you can serve your own kimchi, seaweed sheets, soup and radishes (everyone must take at least one radish and save it until the end to clean with. Just go with me on this.). Then you eat. And you have to eat at a good pace-too quickly and you will look like a pig and too slowly and you will have too much food left over when its cleaning time. Next is cleaning time. After eating every single tiny crumb you can scrape up (with chopsticks...this is no easy task), you are served some rice water in the largest bowl. Again, move the bowl from side to side quickly so you don't have too much water. Then you plop the radish in the water and scrape the bowl with it to clean it. Who knew pickled radish was so handy! After scraping up all the food particles in one bowl, you pour the hot rice water and radish into the next bowl. Rinse and repeat. After all four bowls are cleaned, you will most likely have some food particles floating around. Because this rice is STICKY and leaves residue no matter how much you try to scrape it off. Next up you drink the rice water. With all food particles in it. Then, remember the water you were first served before getting food? That goes in the largest bowl next. More scraping with the radish. At this point, all the food should be gone because you should have drank it down with the rice water. But occasionally it doesn't all get cleaned. Or you don't drink it fast enough and so the particles stick to the side of the bowl after you've drank the rice water. If you have no food left in your bowl, you just get to dump the water into a bucket. If you DO have food particles left (and I mean PARTICLES. Like, little floating specs of....gummy rice residue), you also have to drink THAT water. And if your group has food left in the bucket after pouring your water out, because they didn't drink it like they were supposed to, then the water gets shared among all those in your group. Done? Now wipe down your bowl and put it back on the shelf. No actual dish washing occurs here. Alright, now breakfast is done! Time for chores....!

There were a lot of mosquitoes there. And no air conditioning. And you eat on the floor. And sleep on the floor. And do everything else sitting on the floor. And take communal showers, only one of which has hot water. And WAKE UP AT 3:30 AM. But it was an experience I wouldn't have traded! One thing that I really came away with was realizing how much dedication most religions require of their followers. Getting up super early, bowing, prayer rituals...many religions have these kinds of things as requirements. It just made me realize that as Christians we can easily become lazy followers. Go to church when we feel like it, pray when we need to, maybe wear a cross around our necks or carry a Bible in our cars. All these things are good, don't get me wrong. But why can't we be as dedicated as followers of other religions? Why can't I make it a point to pray and repent daily? To spend as much time reading my Bible as a monk does bowing every day (it only took about 25 minutes to do the 108 prostrations)? The Buddhist people have some great practices and wonderful attitudes. I may not believe what they do or agree with their ideas of heaven/hell/life/God, but I can still come away from this experience inspired and motivated to become a Christian with maybe a bit of a Buddhist attitude. Work at it, spend time devoted to my faith and not just be a lazy follower of Jesus. Also I will make it a goal to repent "to all sentient beings that I have harmed or killed for entertainment or pleasure." (Tell that to the dragonflies in your fans and the mosquitoes and flies on your bug tape, MONKS.).


I will add a "photo blog" post of this trip soon. Once I get the photos on my computer....which may take a while as the new group of kids arrived today (yikes!) and I have a class now (yay!) which means I will be crazy busy wrangling the "Tranformer"s and "Hot Dog"s and "Soap"s of my class!

Konglish

I feel like I have been gone for about three months, but it hasn't even been two weeks yet! The 13+ hour days are certainly getting to me! But it is still such a great experience and I am so in love with the kids here. They are amazing. This age (14) always terrifies me in the US. And it is still a bit tricky here, but the kids are for the most part pretty well-behaved.

They love my height. I mean, American kids are fascinated by it too. But these kids just can't get enough of it! Every time they see me they say something. And they ask how tall I am. And they try to stand on their tippy tip toes to see how close they can get. I think I told a handful of them how tall I am (184ish centimeters), but now every single one of them knows and says it when anyone says something. I get up on stage with Darren, the coordinator here, who is much shorter than I am, and they just get a kick out of it.

"I love you" is another thing we hear a lot here. The students will just come up to us and say "I love you teacher!" Or shout it from across the room. Again, not something you would hear often from an American student. Much less a 14 year old American student. They are exhausted after 13 hours of learning every day, and I'm pretty sure any American student who was forced to spend their summer in a "camp" basically studying 13 hours a day would hate their teachers. Korean students live for studying. Not by choice, but the culture demands it of them. They study all day every day of the year to get good grades. Bad grades are not an option. Dropping out is not an option. For this reason, suicide is sadly all too common among Korean students because its just too much for them. But these kids are working their butts off, still managing to have some fun, and still showing all kinds of love to their crazy American teachers (and the Korean co-teachers as well!). It makes me really respect these kids! Speaking of the kids...

There is a "Ben," (whose chosen American name reminds me of my Ben and makes me miss him and home even more) and about 5 "Amys." There are "Annies" and "Alices" and "Johns." But then there is also a "Lady Gaga." And an "Alkatraz" (misspelled, even!). And let's not leave out the "hot" group. "Hot Dog" started it all. Then his buddies, "Hot Summer" (a popular Korean song), "Hot Chocolate" and "Hot Bar" (what??) decided to join him. See, the first day of camp, the students all chose their "camp names" or English names. The homeroom class teachers either assigned names, gave the students options, or let the students come up with things on their own. Some students already had English names and chose to use those. But many of them came up with some creative ones, as you can see.

I have also noticed alot of other things that are quite different from things in the US.

• First of all, they eat kimchi for breakfast. Not just kimchi, but squid and soup and super spicy things. I don't eat the kimchi. For any meal. And for breakfast, I skip a lot of things. But I am still finding plenty to eat and having dried anchovies, rice and coleslaw for breakfast isn't nearly as weird as it may sound.
  
• The remove-your-shoes thing is pretty different too. On the plane on the way here they gave us slippers. At the restaurant we ate at our first morning at camp, we had to remove our shoes and sit down on the ground barefoot for breakfast. You always have to remove your shoes before entering your room.
  
• You don't yell at the head teacher in front of everyone about giving the foreign teachers cereal every morning (this wasn't me, but the coordinator-he learned a hard lesson that we were all humiliated to watch).
  
• Koreans don't sweat. The rest of us, on the other hand......
• Koreans eat more sweets than anyone I know (counting myself in there). The kids are constantly being given snacks of cookies or sweet crackers (same thing? probably). Every time I go in the Korean staff room (that's right, we're segregated-Korean Staff Room and Foreign Teacher's Room), the Korean staff are eating candy or cookies or sweet drinks or chips....and offering them to me.
• The power difference/age relations in this culture are difficult. An adult can say "annyong" to a child as a greeting. But the child must say "annyong haseyo" in response and bow. You can't tell someone older than you or in a higher position what to do. I am constantly having to ask the head teacher (Mrs. Na) for things for our classes and I want to cry a little every time because its intimidating. She's super friendly, just kind of scary too...
• You bow when you greet others. You can't hand someone something with one hand-your other hand has to be touching your wrist or arm somewhere. Boys hold hands and it doesn't mean anything. You beckon with your palm down. You wave with an open hand (often with both hands). They love their drinking games.
• I haven't brushed my hair since coming here two weeks ago. Straightening it is pointless because of all the humidity. So i just wash it and scrunch it up and let it dry. Into a frizzy wavy-ish mess. Hence no photos of me....
• Koreans are very concerned with image (bad news for me, see above). This is obvious by the mirrors in every building on every wall. Go into a school hallway? There are mirrors. Into a convenience store? Mirrors. Every Korean girl has an ornate handheld mirror. So when you walk around with frizzy hair and no makeup and are always all sweaty and tired......this is kind of unpleasant!
  

• I really, really, really want to learn Korean. I've got about 6 words down and some of the letters. Halfway there, right...?

Happy campers

Camp has begun! It started a couple days ago actually. Yesterday? I don't know, I'm always confused about the date/time here.

Our daily schedule starts with breakfast at 7:40 (with morning exercises at 7:10 for those who want to join/watch the kids sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, windmill windmill windmill) and we are constantly going until 9pm. My main role is to organize and MC the evening activities with the head teacher, Darren. He has been teaching in Korea for four years now so he knows a little more about teaching/organizing/Korean education. So I spend the day running around trying to figure out where we are going to do the activities, making sure we have all the materials required, setting things up, making sure all the teachers have what they need, doing whatever the Korean head teacher and principal tell me to (often contradictory things), etc.

Yesterday we welcomed the kids to the camp. They are all about 14 years old and some are super shy and some are trouble makers (what else would you expect from 14 year olds?). Each teacher has a homeroom class of about 12 students, and the homeroom classes rotate through all 12 classrooms learning those specific lessons-cooking, fashion, directions, nature, etc. Then Darren and I take care of the big whole-group activities. Yesterday we had a little assembly where each team got on stage to introduce their team name, a cheer they had come up with and a poster they made. Because we had to fill up two hours with this, and none of the students wanted to talk, we had to come up with some other ways to pass the time. This included things like trivia questions (thought up on the spot), team rock-paper-scissors, Simon says, cheering competitions, etc. We somehow timed things perfectly so we were done right on time. The kids had some fun and got more comfortable with us and with each other, so I think it was quite successful!

Today's activity was a bit more structured. It was a trivia game called KaBoom! The kids pick a square, we find out how many points its worth (or if they lose their points), then they have to answer a question. The university that we are at does not have a gym, so this makes large group activities quite difficult. We decided to split the teams in half, so 7 teams were in the auditorium with me and the other 5 teams were in a classroom with Darren. So I would call a student on stage, they would pick the square then answer a question. We keep hearing how Korean students looove competition. So true! They had a blast, especially when they had a chance to steal another team's points. Again, this somehow worked out perfectly and we got done right in time for dinner. Every evening the kids have to journal about their day. And some of the teachers told us that their students had journaled enthusiastically about KaBoom! (especially the winning team!). That made me pretty happy knowing that they had enjoyed it!

We have lots more activities to come (ones that will be even more difficult without a gym) including relay races, etc. These ones will require even more planning! The principal (Mr. Chang, or "Simon") is really friendly although kind of intimidating (even though he is tiny and old) and the Korean head teacher (Mrs. Na) is very organized and demanding, always wanting me to tell her whats going on and create charts and schedules for her.

So far, this has been a really good experience! I really like South Korea, the people are wonderful, the food is good....mostly (although I thanked Jesus that they had bread and peanut butter for us for breakfast this morning....in addition to the whole fish, spicy pork, kimchi, anchovies, salad, etc. that is the usual), and I am learning a lot and pushing myself, which I always like to do! I of course miss everyone back home, but I know I will be back in four weeks, which will go by in no time!

Tomorrow we have been invited by the principal to go on a walk. "Invited" means, you really need to be there. Its at 6:20 am. Soooo another long day tomorrow! Which is why I'm going to bed right now :) I promise I will put up some photos soon, as soon as I have a second! One of my Korean roommates has an iphone and she can somehow share her wireless internet. She's not even here right now, but apparently its turned on so I am stealing her internet. Iphones are great!

Annyong haseyo!

Our first day here in Korea was an interesting one. We arrived at the Woman Plaza (I'm still not quite sure what it is....part dormitory, part hotel, part conference area...) in a town near Mokp'o at about 2am and quickly found our rooms. I got the internet to work and then fell asleep the instant my head hit the pillow. But then we had to get up for breakfast at 7:30. So after maybe 4 hours of sleep, it was time to get up. Fortunately, after breakfast there wasn't much planned. It was mostly a free day for us to get situated. Jonathan, who I know from Spanish classes at PSU, and a girl from UofO, Alice, and I decided to wander around a bit after breakfast. We just walked around the Woman Plaza property and found the main road. We then headed back inside to get ready for our welcome lunch with the governor of Jeollanamdo province.

We were told to bring some "dressy" clothes for this meal as we wanted to impress and show our respect for the governor. So we all got a little dressed up and headed to lunch. We heard a nice speech from the governor and ate a delicious lunch. The program that we are involved in was started in 2007 by the governor. This province is one of the most rural and poorest of all South Korea. The children don't have access to great education and just don't have the opportunities that children in other provinces do. The Korean government sends funds to this province in order for them to improve their education. So the governor wanted to bring in English teachers so that the children of this area would have greater opportunity to learn for free and would therefore have greater opportunities for a brighter future. Its really a beautiful program and you can tell that the governor really is passionate about helping his community and improving the future of the young people. While we did later find out that the children involved in this program are chosen specifically for their high marks in English (which means their parents most likely have money to send them to private schools for education), it is still a nice program and I am proud to be involved.

After lunch with the governor (and awkward handshakes from him where he tried to like pull us in for a hug or something), Alice, Jonathan and I decided to do some more exploring. It was a pretty hot day, but we figured we could handle it. And we would have been able to, had we known at all where we were going. We just kind of started walking and then by the time we realized there was nothing at all in this town, we were kind of lost. We knew the general direction to head in, so we started that way. We walked by buildings thinking they were ones we had seen before, only to realize later that it was just a different location of the coffee shop, or a similar looking construction site, but not the same one. We were hot. It was a million degrees out. Actually it was probably only like 90, but when you are tired and lost it seems much hotter. We eventually found the right road and saw our building in the distance, although it looked like a million miles away. We arrived back to the Woman Plaza after wandering around for about two hours, and then it was time for dinner.

The town we are in is a developing town. There is construction everywhere and tons of brand new apartment buildings that appear pretty empty. You don't see many people around. There are convenience stores and coffee shops and banks, but that's about it. For that reason, I keep having to remind myself that I'm in Asia, for crying out loud, how cool is that?!?!! It kind of just seems like any other moderately sized city (minus the people......I think they must be vampires and only come out at night?).

We did make our way to Mokp'o the next night, which is more Korean-seeming, in my mind. There are brightly lit signs on the crowded and narrow streets, more people wandering about (though still not a ton of people-we're not in Seoul, which contains about a quarter of the population of the entire country), etc. The first night we went to Mokp'o, we caught a cab (which was about $5, split between 5 people) and just wandered around where they dropped us off. We found a Baskin Robbins which sounded good so we went in for some ice cream. I have heard that Asian people don't que in lines, but never really imagined what that would mean. Well, I'll tell you: it means standing around for forever while Korean people jump in front of you and order. I eventually did push my way through and order some ice cream (and gave them way too much money on accident-good thing the girl was nice!). While I was standing by the counter, this little girl (maybe 12 years old or so) kept staring at me. She finally said, in English, "You are very tall!" hahahah I smiled and said, "Yes I am!" Then I sat down at the table with the others and they notified me that some ladies at a neighboring table had been sneaking photos of me with their cell phones. HAHAHAHAH Seeing white people is exciting enough, but when the white girl is head and shoulders taller than anyone you've ever seen, its necessary to catch that on film. Apparently. I can't wait to see the kid's reactions when they meet all 6'1" of me!

The last couple of days have been filled with training about how to teach, what the curriculum will be like, what Korean students are like, etc. I feel pretty prepared for the most part. Although I did volunteer to be the "Activites Coordinator" for the first camp. Which means I won't actually be teaching but will be making sure all the teachers have what they need, subbing when someone needs a break, being the MC for the evening activities (being up on stage giving instructions for all the activities, etc.).....should be interesting! I'm kind of nervous and am not sure exactly what I got myself in to, but it will be a great experience for me!

Today we are going to meet our Korean co-teachers (well, except for me since I won't have a co-teacher at first!) and learn a little more about what we'll be doing. Gonna be a busy day!


P.s. Thanks to my friend Alice, I can now say "hello," "thank you," and "don't touch me, pervert" in Korean. That's really all you need to know, right?? I'm working on learning the alphabet, so then I will be able to read Korean. I won't know what it means, but I will be able to pronounce it!



Photos to come...

The Koren eagle has landed.

I made it here! After a great weekend of seeing family, hanging out with Ben and packing..., I left bright and early on Monday morning. I hitched a ride to the airport with Kevin who was leaving for AZ for a few days for work. After spending a few hours in the airport, we boarded our first flight to Seattle. I was already tired at this point since I'd only slept for like an hour or two the previous night. But we had two hours to wait in Seattle before boarding our flight to Seoul. I don't really like flying. Its uncomfortable and boring and I can never sleep. Although I love Asiana airlines and would never fly on any other airline if I had a choice, it was still miserable. I slept for like 15 minute periods throughout the flight, but just couldn't get comfortable and sleep. So I ate everything they brought me (the most attentive and adorable flight crew ever!), which was a lot. And I watched some movies (not a very good selection). And wished I was sleeping the whole time.

When we finally landed in Seoul, we were greeted by a representative from the program who ushered us onto a bus. A disco bus. This thing was crazy. I'm pretty sure it was nicer than the plane we had just flown on. By this point I think I had already been up for 24 hours (more like 48 since I hadn't slept much the night before), so I was pretty grumpy and tired. But we had yet another form of transportation to take to our destination. Anyway, the bus had like color-changing lights, disco-type ceiling, fringe and beads on the curtains......pretty amazing. I was kind of delirious though and so didn't take any photos. I had heard that the bus ride would take anywhere from 4 to 7 hours, depending on who I asked, so didn't really know what to expect (something I think I am going to have to get used to on this trip). After about two hours we stopped and we exited the bus. They never said anything to us, we just got off the bus and headed into the building where we stopped. Which turned out to be like a rest-stop type area with a cafeteria and restrooms. Nice restrooms. And weird food. But they ordered food for us (after I got yelled at for not deciding quick enough if I wanted "fish cutlet" or "pork cutlet." Uhhhh...neither?) and we sat down to eat. Port cutlet. Served with kimchee, rice, cole slaw and french fries. So Korean, clearly. Now, at this point, it was about 11pm if my memor serves correctly. We had already been driving for a few hours and I was soooooo ready to be in my bed. And they just were giving us no clue as to how much longer it would be. So I just kept curling up in a ball on my seat and sleeping. I actually did get a good (ish) amount of sleep on that bus. We later pulled over once more, and after being sorely disappointed since I thought we had arrived at our destination, we had yet another potty break. Then one more hour and we finally arrived. We all found our rooms, chose our beds, and I tried to get the internet to work. I was exhausted. And emotional. And had to try realllllly hard to not cry when I could not get the effing internet to connect. Each room has an ethernet cable in it, and you have to type in the ISP address, etc. Anyway, after asking numerous people to help me, which none of them did, it magically started working. So I told my parents I was still alive, sent a message to Ben, and was finally able to sleep peacefully. My roommates and I (there are four of us in this room) have all been sharing my computer since its already connected. Although it isn't the best connection, its good enough and I've been able to keep in touch so far!

There will be many more posts to come, fear not! We had an interesting first day here, and tomorrow starts our training before we head to our camps in a few days. So I will update soon on all that!

Airplane food. "Bibimbap." So good!