...but here is my phone number (landline) here in Seoul:
When dialing from the US, you have to dial "011" first (its called an "international access code or something)
011-82-2-804-4086
011 is the international access code
82 is South Korea's country code
2 is Seoul's area code
804-4086 is my actual phone number
REMEMBER - Seoul is 14 hours ahead of Indiana time. I will answer the phone at 4AM but I may not be coherent or pleasant to talk to :)
If you want my cell #, shoot me an email and we'll negotiate.
2 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
A beautiful mess...
About a month or so ago I was able to take a trip with my co-teacher to Mallipo Beach in Taean County on the West coast of the peninsula. We visited a beautiful island that's part of a National Nature preserve called Anmyeon Island. It was one of the most pristine, untouched beaches I had ever seen. I took this video while I was there:
"At about 7:30 am local time on December 7, 2007, a crane barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries being towed by a tug collided with the anchored Hong Kong registered crude carrier Hebei Spirit, carrying 260,000 tonnes (290,000 ST) of crude oil. The incident occurred near the Port of Daesan on the Yellow Sea coast of Taean county. The barge was floating free after the cable linking it to the tug snapped in the rough seas. Although no casualties were reported, the collision punctured three of the five containers aboard the Hebei Spirit and resulted in the leaking of some 10,800 tonnes (11,900 ST) of oil." (Wikipedia, 2007)
This is the same beach today:
It's a total loss.
"At about 7:30 am local time on December 7, 2007, a crane barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries being towed by a tug collided with the anchored Hong Kong registered crude carrier Hebei Spirit, carrying 260,000 tonnes (290,000 ST) of crude oil. The incident occurred near the Port of Daesan on the Yellow Sea coast of Taean county. The barge was floating free after the cable linking it to the tug snapped in the rough seas. Although no casualties were reported, the collision punctured three of the five containers aboard the Hebei Spirit and resulted in the leaking of some 10,800 tonnes (11,900 ST) of oil." (Wikipedia, 2007)
This is the same beach today:
It's a total loss.
"Mallipo, an important stopover for migrating birds including snipe, mallards and great crested grebes, also has an abundant fishing industry.
Choi Kyung-hwan, a 58-year-old fisherman, came to the beach Sunday to help, but despaired for the area where he has lived for 30 years.
"Mallipo is finished," he said.
Choi, wearing a thick winter coat, said the strong odor of oil had sickened his wife.
"But I came here because I have to do something," he said. "I don't know when we can finish. But we have to continue." (USA Today, 2007)
Monday, December 17, 2007
Lunch
Many of you may have never encountered Korean food before. Its not too popular at least in Indiana...I was fortunate enough to get addicted to kimchee at a tiny Korean restaurant near my Grandma's house before I left for Korea. I thought I'd show you what a typical school lunch looks like for me:
From top left, continuing clockwise around the tray:
1) Kimchee. I listed this first because it is, without a doubt, the most important item on this tray. What is kimchee, you ask? Well, its basically fermented spicy cabbage. Koreans eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Every day. Sometimes they even wake up in the middle of the night and sneak some out of the kimchee refrigerator. Yes - Koreans eat so much of it that they have to buy a separate refrigerator exclusively to store it. I LOVE it.
2) Tiny fried shrimp with a mysterious red sauce. First of all, they eat the shrimp whole (tail and all) and I don't really know what the red sauce was all about. It tasted suspiciously like the red sauce I had on the chicken I ate with Eddy, Ruda, Trev, Cathy and Rachel last night...
3) Namul. There are many kinds of namul in the world, basically it just means "seasoned vegetable". The dark green namul you see on the tray is spinach (shigeumchi) namul with sesame seeds. Its my favorite kind of namul (Hilary is partial to kongnamul, or soybean sprouts). This is by FAR my favorite Korean food. Just call me Popeye.
4) Tofu and egg guk. Guk refers to any broth-based soup, and today's had tofu and egg, as well as some green onions. My favorite soup is turnip greens in fermented bean paste broth. That actually sounds like a joke but its not.
5) Rice. All day, every day, rice rice rice. The Korean word for rice is "bap", or "bop", or "pop", or "bab", or "bob". I've seen it written like all of those. There is no standard English in Korea, just whatever you happen to prefer at the moment. This is why my co-teacher spells "SpongeBob" like "SpongePop".
Actually, its quite funny to hear my kids pronounce "SpongeBob SquarePants" - it sounds like "spongee pop scare panch". I had no idea what they were talking about for WEEKS. A lot of my 6th grade girls have SpongeBob nicknames - Doongie (Squidward), JingJingI (Patrick Star) - its kind of weird. So I asked if I could be "Gary" and they obliged. Which means, I'm officially as cool as the 6th grade cool girls. YES!
Now I must retire...to bed. Enjoy your 3 feet of snow :)
Jess
From top left, continuing clockwise around the tray:
1) Kimchee. I listed this first because it is, without a doubt, the most important item on this tray. What is kimchee, you ask? Well, its basically fermented spicy cabbage. Koreans eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Every day. Sometimes they even wake up in the middle of the night and sneak some out of the kimchee refrigerator. Yes - Koreans eat so much of it that they have to buy a separate refrigerator exclusively to store it. I LOVE it.
2) Tiny fried shrimp with a mysterious red sauce. First of all, they eat the shrimp whole (tail and all) and I don't really know what the red sauce was all about. It tasted suspiciously like the red sauce I had on the chicken I ate with Eddy, Ruda, Trev, Cathy and Rachel last night...
3) Namul. There are many kinds of namul in the world, basically it just means "seasoned vegetable". The dark green namul you see on the tray is spinach (shigeumchi) namul with sesame seeds. Its my favorite kind of namul (Hilary is partial to kongnamul, or soybean sprouts). This is by FAR my favorite Korean food. Just call me Popeye.
4) Tofu and egg guk. Guk refers to any broth-based soup, and today's had tofu and egg, as well as some green onions. My favorite soup is turnip greens in fermented bean paste broth. That actually sounds like a joke but its not.
5) Rice. All day, every day, rice rice rice. The Korean word for rice is "bap", or "bop", or "pop", or "bab", or "bob". I've seen it written like all of those. There is no standard English in Korea, just whatever you happen to prefer at the moment. This is why my co-teacher spells "SpongeBob" like "SpongePop".
Actually, its quite funny to hear my kids pronounce "SpongeBob SquarePants" - it sounds like "spongee pop scare panch". I had no idea what they were talking about for WEEKS. A lot of my 6th grade girls have SpongeBob nicknames - Doongie (Squidward), JingJingI (Patrick Star) - its kind of weird. So I asked if I could be "Gary" and they obliged. Which means, I'm officially as cool as the 6th grade cool girls. YES!
Now I must retire...to bed. Enjoy your 3 feet of snow :)
Jess
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Christmas in Seoul
Here are some fun pictures of random occurrences of late:
Susan, Randi and Hil, cold but ready to see some Christmas lights!
Christmas lights display near City Hall - there was an ice rink in the middle!
Randi getting ready to "ruin" Hil's picture...
Randi "ruining" Hil's picture :)
Amazing lights!!!
Light forest near City Hall - they even had fake wildlife covered in lights.
The gang - Susan, me, Randi, Hil, Ruda and Eddy...it looks as though we're standing in front of a blazing inferno...
Best cab ride...EVER. 4 people in the backseat of a Kia. I think that's a Guinness Record...
Susan, Randi and Hil, cold but ready to see some Christmas lights!
Christmas lights display near City Hall - there was an ice rink in the middle!
Randi getting ready to "ruin" Hil's picture...
Randi "ruining" Hil's picture :)
Amazing lights!!!
Light forest near City Hall - they even had fake wildlife covered in lights.
The gang - Susan, me, Randi, Hil, Ruda and Eddy...it looks as though we're standing in front of a blazing inferno...
Best cab ride...EVER. 4 people in the backseat of a Kia. I think that's a Guinness Record...
Friday, December 14, 2007
God is Good
I spent the morning in tears. But before I tell you why, let me give you a bit of background information:
This week was not fun. On top of my usual tasks (teaching and lesson-planning for 22 classes) I was responsible for coming up with 39 lesson plans for my school's winter camp English class, plus I was responsible for coming up with 12 more lesson plans for the other camp that I'm teaching at over Christmas. Yikes.
And then there's the co-teacher situation. She didn't show up to class on Monday morning. I was seriously concerned - no call, no text - plus its actually illegal for me to teach in a classroom with no supervising teacher (they want to keep an eye on what these foreigners are teaching their youth). And 6-2 is a difficult class anyway to handle by myself when I can't discipline effectively because I DON'T SPEAK KOREAN. Ugh.
So I wandered down to the teacher's room to ask the Vice Principal if he'd heard from her when lo and behold she's just relaxing and drinking coffee in there. She told me she has a cold sore and was "too embarassed" to come to class.
...
Yeah. Moving on.
She's nearly always late to first period and she broke down yesterday during the sixth grade lesson because one of my upper level students asked her a question and she didn't know the answer. This woman is dissolving before my eyes. I don't know what to do anymore. I try to give her as much grace as I can but these thoughts creep in that say:
"You have every right to hate her. She makes your life miserable. You would be a much better teacher if it weren't for her. She ruins everything."
I want sooooo badly to own these thoughts, because that makes me the one in the right. The good one. The one that doesn't screw up. But these thoughts are poison. And I can feel my soul becoming sicker and sicker the more those words run through my mind. And I wonder how can God love so much. Is it hard for Him?
So this has been a monumental struggle - I've never felt this kind of war against my flesh before. Most days I want to scream and pull my hair out. And I want to tell the hateful thoughts to go away but part of me wants to believe them. Every day has been a battle.
So Rach asked if I wanted to do a spa trip this weekend, and I was all up for going until last night, when I got this strange feeling that maybe I shouldn't go. Hil decided to go, and I decided to stay home, because there was nothing I wanted more than to go to sleep and not set my alarm.
My doorbell rings at 9:00 AM. My thoughts: "Uggggggggh...its probably the Jehovah's Witnesses again...I'm not getting it." Doorbell rings again. I roll over. Then a knocking and a man's voice. So I wander over to the door just in case the building's burning down. I open the door. Its the mail dude. And he has a package. For me.
And that's why I spent the morning in tears.
God gives me everything I need. He gave me you. I love you more than you know, more than I could ever say in a blog, or an email, or even in person. I have amazing friends :)
Okay, I'm going back to bed now. Haha.
Love -
Jess
This week was not fun. On top of my usual tasks (teaching and lesson-planning for 22 classes) I was responsible for coming up with 39 lesson plans for my school's winter camp English class, plus I was responsible for coming up with 12 more lesson plans for the other camp that I'm teaching at over Christmas. Yikes.
And then there's the co-teacher situation. She didn't show up to class on Monday morning. I was seriously concerned - no call, no text - plus its actually illegal for me to teach in a classroom with no supervising teacher (they want to keep an eye on what these foreigners are teaching their youth). And 6-2 is a difficult class anyway to handle by myself when I can't discipline effectively because I DON'T SPEAK KOREAN. Ugh.
So I wandered down to the teacher's room to ask the Vice Principal if he'd heard from her when lo and behold she's just relaxing and drinking coffee in there. She told me she has a cold sore and was "too embarassed" to come to class.
...
Yeah. Moving on.
She's nearly always late to first period and she broke down yesterday during the sixth grade lesson because one of my upper level students asked her a question and she didn't know the answer. This woman is dissolving before my eyes. I don't know what to do anymore. I try to give her as much grace as I can but these thoughts creep in that say:
"You have every right to hate her. She makes your life miserable. You would be a much better teacher if it weren't for her. She ruins everything."
I want sooooo badly to own these thoughts, because that makes me the one in the right. The good one. The one that doesn't screw up. But these thoughts are poison. And I can feel my soul becoming sicker and sicker the more those words run through my mind. And I wonder how can God love so much. Is it hard for Him?
So this has been a monumental struggle - I've never felt this kind of war against my flesh before. Most days I want to scream and pull my hair out. And I want to tell the hateful thoughts to go away but part of me wants to believe them. Every day has been a battle.
So Rach asked if I wanted to do a spa trip this weekend, and I was all up for going until last night, when I got this strange feeling that maybe I shouldn't go. Hil decided to go, and I decided to stay home, because there was nothing I wanted more than to go to sleep and not set my alarm.
My doorbell rings at 9:00 AM. My thoughts: "Uggggggggh...its probably the Jehovah's Witnesses again...I'm not getting it." Doorbell rings again. I roll over. Then a knocking and a man's voice. So I wander over to the door just in case the building's burning down. I open the door. Its the mail dude. And he has a package. For me.
And that's why I spent the morning in tears.
God gives me everything I need. He gave me you. I love you more than you know, more than I could ever say in a blog, or an email, or even in person. I have amazing friends :)
Okay, I'm going back to bed now. Haha.
Love -
Jess
Thursday, December 13, 2007
2 things, quickly
I'm really tired...it's been an interesting week or so on many fronts...but before I go to bed ridiculously early, there are two things that I've been thinking about lately that I need to blog about.
1. Pineapple.
First of all, pineapple in amazing. And I'm not talking about that travesty-to-tropical-fruit canned variety in "syrup" or whatever the heck high fructose insulin shock they're marinating in. I'm talking about freshly hacked up delicious, slightly coconutty, buttery, sweet and sour amazingness. But I've got a bone to pick with pineapple. There's something I don't like about it. In fact, it makes me angry to even think about it for any length of time. What's that, you ask?
The name "pineapple".
First of all, I can see where the "pine" came from, I guess. It kind of looks like a pinecone. Except for the small insignificant fact that it's delicious. And besides, it comes from a tropical tree, not a pine tree. They don't even look alike. Come on.
And second - "apple" - I just don't get that. There is nothing further from an apple. That's like calling a hamster a squirrel. Or vice versa. Apples do grow on trees, yes, but so does money (right, Dad?). And lots of other un-apple-y things.
As it turns out, the word "pineapple" comes from European explorers as they searched the vast new world for adventure and the fountain of youth. They mistook the fruit we know as "pineapple" for the pine cones they had found in the region that we now call Canadia (it figures that the white man screwed this one up). The original native word for "pineapple" was "anana", which is "banana" without the "b". For the life of me, why people have for centuries called this fruit by other fruits names is just something I can't understand.
So you've got this amazing fruit, and its name sucks. Pineapple deserves an awesome name. Something like Passion Fruit. Or Awesome Fruit. I'll think about it this week and let you know what I come up with.
2. My random encounters with strangers
Example A: An old lady walks up to me about once a week on my walk to school, gets right in my way and just stares at me until I smile, and then she smiles back. I don't get this.
Example B: While wearing contacts, I accidentally freak out possibly hundreds of people who nearly swallow their gum at the sight of my freakishly blue eyes. Some people here have never seen a blue-eyed person in person. Sometimes they even yelp a little when you walk around a corner and accidentally surprise them.
Example C: On my way home today, I saw a cute baby, so I smiled at her. She couldn't have been more than 18 months old. She shot back the meanest look I've ever seen on anyone since I got here. I had no idea a baby could scowl like that. I was actually terrified. I'm actually still terrified. Creepy baby.
Okay, that's enough ranting for one day. Tomorrow is Friday!! Yay!! For those of you enduring finals week, hang in there - you're in my prayers. But you should probably stop wasting time reading this blog and get back to studying. To the rest of you - 12 days til Christmas!! Love!!
Jess
1. Pineapple.
First of all, pineapple in amazing. And I'm not talking about that travesty-to-tropical-fruit canned variety in "syrup" or whatever the heck high fructose insulin shock they're marinating in. I'm talking about freshly hacked up delicious, slightly coconutty, buttery, sweet and sour amazingness. But I've got a bone to pick with pineapple. There's something I don't like about it. In fact, it makes me angry to even think about it for any length of time. What's that, you ask?
The name "pineapple".
First of all, I can see where the "pine" came from, I guess. It kind of looks like a pinecone. Except for the small insignificant fact that it's delicious. And besides, it comes from a tropical tree, not a pine tree. They don't even look alike. Come on.
And second - "apple" - I just don't get that. There is nothing further from an apple. That's like calling a hamster a squirrel. Or vice versa. Apples do grow on trees, yes, but so does money (right, Dad?). And lots of other un-apple-y things.
As it turns out, the word "pineapple" comes from European explorers as they searched the vast new world for adventure and the fountain of youth. They mistook the fruit we know as "pineapple" for the pine cones they had found in the region that we now call Canadia (it figures that the white man screwed this one up). The original native word for "pineapple" was "anana", which is "banana" without the "b". For the life of me, why people have for centuries called this fruit by other fruits names is just something I can't understand.
So you've got this amazing fruit, and its name sucks. Pineapple deserves an awesome name. Something like Passion Fruit. Or Awesome Fruit. I'll think about it this week and let you know what I come up with.
2. My random encounters with strangers
Example A: An old lady walks up to me about once a week on my walk to school, gets right in my way and just stares at me until I smile, and then she smiles back. I don't get this.
Example B: While wearing contacts, I accidentally freak out possibly hundreds of people who nearly swallow their gum at the sight of my freakishly blue eyes. Some people here have never seen a blue-eyed person in person. Sometimes they even yelp a little when you walk around a corner and accidentally surprise them.
Example C: On my way home today, I saw a cute baby, so I smiled at her. She couldn't have been more than 18 months old. She shot back the meanest look I've ever seen on anyone since I got here. I had no idea a baby could scowl like that. I was actually terrified. I'm actually still terrified. Creepy baby.
Okay, that's enough ranting for one day. Tomorrow is Friday!! Yay!! For those of you enduring finals week, hang in there - you're in my prayers. But you should probably stop wasting time reading this blog and get back to studying. To the rest of you - 12 days til Christmas!! Love!!
Jess
Monday, December 3, 2007
Girls rule
Hey y'all -
Just wanted to announce that I have a new cousin!!! My Uncle Glen and Aunt Jerri now have 4 (!) kids. So now Sarah, Shawn and Erin have a new sister! I haven't gotten verification on the name yet (some speculate as to "Holly Nicole") but she was born on Friday November 30. That makes 2 cousins now that I have that I've never met :( Man, I wanna go home just to see her!! Yeah yeah and the rest of all of you too...but mostly her. Haha. Well, by the time I get home in August, she'll be right around the age that babies get interesting, so I guess I'm not missing much :)
On an unrelated sidenote, if you're in the mood for a good emo Irish musical, you should watch "Once". Actually, its worth renting it just for the first scene. We rewound it and watched it 3 or 4 times. The soundtrack is really good, too...I'm actually listening to it right now :) Also, American Gangster is a fairly good movie though it was a bit violent for my taste. But by far the best chunk of change you could spend would of course be The Office Season 3 Disc Set. Makes a great stocking stuffer.
Speaking of stockings - my Grandma sent me my advent calender!!!! THANKS GRANDMA!!!! I took it to school...the kids have never seen anything like it. It was a good mini-lesson.
Pretty sure I'm going to Thailand in February. One word, two syllables: Awesome.
That's all. Oh wait - this is what we did last night:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nXPbWNyCHho
"Cat Rescue 911" turns into "Hilary gets stuck in window". Hilarious.
Love you!
Jess
Just wanted to announce that I have a new cousin!!! My Uncle Glen and Aunt Jerri now have 4 (!) kids. So now Sarah, Shawn and Erin have a new sister! I haven't gotten verification on the name yet (some speculate as to "Holly Nicole") but she was born on Friday November 30. That makes 2 cousins now that I have that I've never met :( Man, I wanna go home just to see her!! Yeah yeah and the rest of all of you too...but mostly her. Haha. Well, by the time I get home in August, she'll be right around the age that babies get interesting, so I guess I'm not missing much :)
On an unrelated sidenote, if you're in the mood for a good emo Irish musical, you should watch "Once". Actually, its worth renting it just for the first scene. We rewound it and watched it 3 or 4 times. The soundtrack is really good, too...I'm actually listening to it right now :) Also, American Gangster is a fairly good movie though it was a bit violent for my taste. But by far the best chunk of change you could spend would of course be The Office Season 3 Disc Set. Makes a great stocking stuffer.
Speaking of stockings - my Grandma sent me my advent calender!!!! THANKS GRANDMA!!!! I took it to school...the kids have never seen anything like it. It was a good mini-lesson.
Pretty sure I'm going to Thailand in February. One word, two syllables: Awesome.
That's all. Oh wait - this is what we did last night:
http://youtube.com/watch?v
"Cat Rescue 911" turns into "Hilary gets stuck in window". Hilarious.
Love you!
Jess
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