5 Weeks Later...

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I have been super busy the past month for various reasons!


A little sea of yellow - it is their school color at Lila.

I'm in full swing now at both Lila Elementary School and the Hagwon. My schedule is extremely busy. Monday and Friday I leave my house at 8:15am and don't get home until about 6pm (poor Brodey, I know!) I wasn't suppose to have this schedule, but things changed for some bizarre reasons. On Monday I teach the 3rd grade Math in English in their homerooms, so I teach four classes of thirty kids the same thing. It's very routine and I have a lot of fun with them. They are attentive and the Korean children that are good at English love to volunteer to read, so it makes my life easy. Then I have an hour and a half break before teaching 2nd grade afterschool. The classes are small but their English is extremely limited, so it's a tough group. For some reason they have also put all of the problem children in my classes, so I have one girl that is incapable of being social or speaking in any way. I'm not sure if she is scared or has some sort of disorder, but she is quite a handful. In the second group I have a little boy who is out of control, he was switched to my class the second week and as the Korean teacher dragged him into the classroom she told me "he is the worst 2nd grader, so feel to bring him to me at any point during the lesson"; warning taken. He is a pill, but I try my best to make a connection with him, and some days it works and the other days he sits in my class and makes up songs, riddles and whatnot in Korean to distract the other children. His English is probably better than any of the other 2nd graders though, and he likes to sit in my lap, so although he can create some chaos I find him endearing. Needless to say, even with my high tolerance for obnoxious children, some days I leave with a monsterous headache rushing to get to the hagwon in fourty minutes because I have two more hours of teaching there. My Tuesdays are amazingly short, I only have an hour and a half where I assist Peter in teaching 3rd grade Science in English. Then I work at the Hagwon for 3 hours in the late afternoon. So no planning for Tuesdays! Wednesdays I teach 3 block periods, they are 1 hour and 20 minutes with a 10 minute break in the middle. I teach math to 4th, 5th and 6th graders Math in English. My 6th and 4th grade classes are small, only 3-4 kids, but my 5th grade class has 9 kids in it, so it's a bit trickier because the kids are all at different levels of English learning. The bonus is that they always understand the math! This day is my longest planning day, it takes me about an hour or more to prepare for the three classes, but no complaining - I love teaching these groups! I only teach an hour at the Hagwon and I'm done at 5pm, which is great! Thursday I teach 1st grade Math in English, the same style as the 3rd grade math, in the four homerooms with 30 kids in each class. They are a little harder to control and I usually have a hoarse voice by noon, luckily the Korean homeroom teachers are in there to help me otherwise I don't know what I would do since they don't really listen to English as well as Korean, for good reason. Friday I teach 6th grade English class in the morning, I have the 2nd grade afterschool and I teach 2 hours at the Hagwon. When 6pm rolls around on Friday I am exhausted! I usually need a nap if I am planning on hanging out with friends, or I just wait to see people until Saturday.

The Lila Art High School Mascot - this school is right next to Lila Elementary School, so I get to see him Monday-Friday. 

His name is Kobe and he a huge golden retriever.

Teaching the children is tiring, but nothing beats having them scream your name across the playground, so excited that you think they might wet themselves. Some of them bring me candy, welcome me with hugs, grab my hand when I walk onto the bus in the morning - they are endearing in every meaning of the word. They carry adorable pencil cases, have cute phone trinkets and some of the girls wear large bows in their hair. One of my 6th grade boys, he is in both my Math in English class and my English class on Friday, has come up with a few cutsy nick names for me, they include: Lala, Lolly, Lolly Pop, and Lolo. He will use any of the various names repeatedly until he gets my attention.

The children in Korea work very hard at their education in various areas and talents. They go from school, to a Hagwon, to Math Academy, to Science Academy, to Art Academy, to violin lessons, piano lessons, flute lessons, taekwondo, figure skating, speed skating, etc. They start school anywhere between
8 or 9am and go until 2 or 3pm, they they are whisked off to multiple afterschools sessions including many I have listed above. They return home anywhere between 7-10pm, eat dinner, study for hours and then go to bed between midnight and 2am, yes this includes the 8 year olds. I have come to the conclusion that this is why I see Koreans young and old passed out on the Subway at all hours of the day. Children in Korea, despite their busy schedules, are happy, funny, creative and dramatic, just like American children, it's incredible!

Enough about teaching, onto the adventures of Seoul, my friends and my puppy!

I moved apartments. Megan left and so I took her apartment because it is slightly bigger and with a puppy I could use all the extra space I can get! It is only upgrades by moving to this place. The bathroom is better, in my opinion, I don't have bars on my windows and I am on the 2nd floor so I can open them and actually get sunlight. Oh, and I inherited a fish from Megan, so now I am up to two pets!

I finally visited Noryangjin Fish Market, as I had been wanting to do since I arrived after watching a Bizarre Foods episode on Seoul. Christoph (a german couchsurfer), Chris and I got a fresh sashimi platter that was amazing! Lots of different types of fish that we weren't quite sure of, but one thing was for sure the salmon was delicious!

Our Sashimi platter!

The market is full of all different types of sea life including live octopus (which I have yet to try but Chris and I promised each other that we would the next time, and yes a video will be taken, I don't think photos would do this event justice!), crabs, all sorts of fish, mussels, clams, and the list goes on.

One thing that they do eat here is blowfish, which as you know contains a highly toxic ink that can be terminal, but not to worry the people who serve this deadly fish are highly trained professionals - I have heard of one restaurant outside of Seoul that comes highly recommended, so some day I will make the journey!

After the fish market we hiked up to Seoul Tower, which has an amazing view of the city, despite all the smog. They had a teddy bear museum, that is much less about teddy bears and more about the history of Seoul through the animation and dioramas of teddy bears. It was quite interesting, and a great way to learn Korean history! From the top you could see extremely far in all directions of the city, but nowhere in sight could you see the border of Seoul. The area of Seoul is 605.25 km² (234 mi²) and has a population of just over 10 million people, 250,000 of those are foreigners. I can't begin to tell you how busy and crowded this city is, and it only ranks 47th in population density throughout the world.

 Chris & I at Seoul Tower 

An installation piece at Seoul Tower

After the trip to Seoul Tower we were starving, so Korean BBQ is the best way to fix a hungry group of people in Soul. Korean BBQ is extremely good. You order whatever kind of meat you want to grill yourself and then there are tons of vegetables and sides that go along with the meat. You don't pay for any of the sides and they are refillable as many times as you like. We like to roast the garlic, onions, and kimchi along with the meat. You wrap it all in a piece of lettuce, pack in the sides that you want and voila you have a delicious pork/beef wrap!




The Han River splits the city North and South, it has bike lanes, walking trails, outdoor gyms, swimming pools, basketball courts, beach volleyball, playgrounds and tennis courts that cover both sides. It will definitely be packed in the summer. Even on nice days in the winter, when Chris and I have ventured out with Brody on the weekend, you see a lot of people out. One thing Koreans are famous for is being highly equipped for whatever activity they are doing. The Hikers/Climbers in Korea are fully decked out in North Face outerwear, hiking shoes that have attachable cramp-ons, hiking poles and the works. Biking, motorcycling, roller blading and running all come with the same standard of excessive equipment. It's amazing (and expensive)!

This is a women's only parking spot along the Han River, there are also going to be women only subway cars so that women don't have to worry about being harassed by drunk Korean men.

Brodey is getting bigger and bigger every day. When I got him, he weighed 1.5kgs (3.3lbs) and now he weighs 4kgs (8.8lbs) and I have only owned him since February 7th... I think he is going to be much bigger than his foster mom and myself thought! Luckily I'm ok with that because I have always been a huge fan of big dogs. He is almost done getting his shots and in a mere 4 weeks he is getting neutered. 

He has a great personality, I don't even know where to start. He loves giving kisses, which is how he wakes me up, but he doesn't just kiss, he gets in my face. Licks all over my mouth, up my nose, on my eyelids - apparently my face isn't clean enough for him! He is great at cuddling at night. He has learned how to sit, stay and fetch so far. He hates baths and when I clean his feet after coming inside, I mean Seoul is covered in filth and the last thing I want is that pollution on my floor or in my bed, so it's a must, but my neighbors probably think that I am killing him by the sounds that he makes. It's horrible. I feel awful, he squirms, whines and squeals throughout the entire process. In the shower he latches onto my arm which is apparently one of his only comforts while getting hosed down. He loves the outdoors, there is a park near my house with a playground and he is all about the bushes and trees that line the park. He runs after leaves, jumps into the bushes and digs in the dirt - I can't wait to see how much he loves Oregon. He also loves the snow - so I guess it's a good thing we have gotten snow through March... but only for Brodey's experience, I could definitely do without snow in March.


I have taken him to a cafe call Bau Haus twice, the owners love him! They have 15 dogs and one cat of their own and they have opened up a cafe where you can bring your dogs to socialize. They serve drinks and you can buy treats to feed the dogs. It is one of Brodey's favorite places and he always finds the big dogs to play with, it has also taught him to bat his paw while playing with me which isn't one of my favorite things, but he is learning how to play with dogs and humans and how it is different. He loves it!

He is definitely an entertainer and apparently loves green tea shakes! Here he only weighed 3kgs.

About two weeks ago some friends and I went to Dr. Fish, which is a typical cafe with food and drinks but you can also order Dr. Fish, which is a tank of fish that you put your feet in. The fish nibble at your feet eating the dead skin. At first it is quite ticklish, and then you get use to it, but there are still some points where my foot would twitch because of where the fish was biting (between the toes!). It was an awesome experience though, and I really want to go again. It is only ￦2,000, which is about $1.75 for a 15-20 minute session. In the US apparently it is about $45 for the same session, so I guess I will have to get my fill here over the next year!

The Dr. Fish baths that you put your feet in, first you rinse, then you stick your feet in for 15-20 minutes and then you rinse them again. I am definitely going back and taking my most ticklish friend with me!

I hope everyone is doing well and I will try to be more consistent with my blogging from now on. I guess I just need to get into a routine and with a puppy routines are a little challenging!

I love and miss you all, but I am having a great time here!  Write me anytime :)