Christmas time is here!

This has been a very busy past couple of weeks. Since the beginning of November, we have been practicing Christmas plays with our preschool and kindergarten students. All plays are teacher written and directed. Matt wrote a version of the Christmas Carol, and I (Eileen) rewrote "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to be about Santa coming to our school. We have rushed academic subjects to get in play practice time everyday for 2 months. This past week we had a Christmas festival where parents came for 3 different days to watch their children preform their Christmas plays and songs/dances taught by the Korean teachers. Blaise teacher's (Matt's) class preformed on Wednesday. They did a great job and pulled off a challenging play. They also preformed handbells (which will probably be posted soon). On Friday, my class preformed, and it was...well...if you met my class it was Pluto class showing off their true colors. Since many of these kids are so advanced, most plays are really spectacular for kindergarteners and preschoolers. However, mine was what you would label a typical preschool play. I was blessed to have a group of students who have great difficulty focusing and are not always with the program. They did a really great job on their play, but it was pretty funny (unintentionally). One student hit his head on the standing mic and was so embarrassed he just stood there frozen for a minute or so. When students hesitated to stand up to talk, other students would yell their name or start to recite their line for them. Many students, frozen by the parents in the crowd, forgot to stand up or sit down at appropriate times. They really were cute though. We were also the only class, as told to me by my supervisor (who was in tears laughing), to heckle Santa. She said there were no other words to describe it. Most classes sat quietly while they got to go up and see Santa and get gifts while their parents watched. They had to stop to get my class to be quiet. Many students where yelling, "Where are your reindeer??" "Why can't we see them?" One girl got up, and on the microphone (see picture) while talking to Santa, told him that Santa is only Korean (a white American was playing Santa). People were cracking up, which is a great thing because many times Korean parents are stone faced and won't crack a smile at some of these school events.
After all the Christmas fun was over, we had a school end of the year party on Friday. They took us on buses to this really nice cafe. We got a steak dinner (of course still served with a side of kimchi) and then exchanged secret Santa gifts. We then had a school wide Norea-bong competition (karaoke) with both Koreans and foreigners. It was really funny watching some of the Korean staff, because it is a whole side that we felt like we had never seen. The directors both got up and sang solos and the president of our school (like the CEO, in the pic above) got up and sang. Here the cleaning and cooking ajimas (what you call a woman who is older than you or of this age) sang a song together.Everything was hysterical. I won first or second prize (I can't remember now) for group singing while preforming Hurts so Good with a bunch of the girls. It was a fun time.
We are very excited and looking forward to our winter break that starts on Wed! We have gotten in the holiday spirit and I even baked "gingerbread" cookies this past weekend. Due to the absence of molasses in Korea (even in foreign food marts), I made an alternative recipe using corn syrup and dark brown sugar. They turned out pretty well and tasted like "light" gingerbread. We miss everyone at home and hope that everyone is having a great holiday season!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

All I Want For Christmas is You

This is a video of Eileen's preschoolers dancing to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You". They did it for me during class, but it will be preformed in front of their parents next week at the Christmas Festival. Keep your eye on the girl near the middle in the black dress. She gets into it the most and you can sometimes hear her singing over the CD. The boys are pretty hysterical and the girl in white close to the end can really shake it. Enjoy! The more you watch it, the funnier it gets.

Winter has begun

So we haven't posted in a while. Life has been moving very fast. In November we were able to go to the DMZ, or demilitarized zone. This is the strip of land between North and South Korea where no military forces are allowed to build up. I don't think we realized how tense things still are. There was no real treaty, just a cease-fire. It was an interesting experience. We got to set foot inside North Korea while inside a room with guard Republic of Korea, South Korea soldiers. We got to go to different points along the DMZ where they have stations to look out into North Korea. The other side seemed pretty, there were lots of nice mountains. However, they pointed out things like jamming towers that jam all signals from any part of the world into North Korea. They also have a town known as Propaganda village. It is a ghost town and is maintained to show how "well" North Korea is doing. It also has an enormous flag pole with a flag that was just as big as some of the four story houses. When we were in a joint area run by the UN, we got to see North Korean buildings and soldiers. In some of our pictures we can see how some windows are open and they had cameras taking pictures of us. We were not allowed to point or make gestures as that could be used as North Korean propaganda. We also got to see a tunnel that North Korea made in the 70's in an attempt to reach Seoul. When discovered, they painted the granite ceiling black and said it was a tunnel for coal mining.

On a very different note, we got to host a Thanksgiving dinner for all of our co-workers. We searched the foreign food stores in Seoul and found a turkey to cook in our little oven. We are the only people who have an oven out of the 24 or so employees that have apartments. We were really nervous cooking it in an oven whose temperature we didn't exactly know and not having any kind of meat thermometer. It turned out great and Matt carved his first turkey. We also made stuffing and green bean casserole (yum!!) with the help of some food from care packages. People brought lots of yummy food and we fit 15 people into our studio apartment. Everyone was so happy to be full with good western food. There was no kimchi at this dinner.


The next day we ate leftover turkey sandwiches. Honestly, turkey sandwiches have never ever tasted so good. Didn't think we would miss turkey that much. We put up the few Christmas decorations that were left by past occupants of our apartment and made stove top leftover casserole. It was an absolutely wonderful day.

School is going well for us. We have fallen more into a routine and are excited that we are not leaving before 8:00 almost every night and not taking work home with us. Things are very busy this month with lots of Christmas activities. We are preparing our preschool and kindergarteners for their Christmas plays. In about a week and a half they will preform plays for their parents and those of several other classes. Matt's class is preforming a Christmas Carol and Eileen's class is preforming a new rendition of Twas' the Night Before Christmas with words changed to be about our school. Both of the scripts were written by us. They are also learning a song, dance, and instrument playing from their Korean teacher. Many classes are preforming dances to "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey. It's pretty hysterical. We will try and tape these performances to share.

A funny note to end on...

Even English schools aren't free from mistakes...

Ha-Ha!! Merry Christmas!!!

As the smell of ripe ginko fruit fills the air...

Wonderful smell by the way, if you have not experienced it before...just kidding. Fall is really come to Seoul as the air is now chilly and the leaves in the park are starting to change. It has even been chilly enough at night that we have attempted to turn on our heat. So far our attempts have been unsuccessful as we are just randomly pushing buttons and turning dials. At least we know how to turn on the hot water. We were able to see fall in its colors as we went to the Seoul Tower this past weekend. It is like the Space Needle but on a little mountain so you can see 360 around Seoul. We also got to see a martial arts ceremony which is a fun experience.

Seoul Tower Adventures

We also got a chance to celebrate Halloween last Friday. While they don't celebrate Halloween here in Korea, our hagwon, school, does. We got to dress up on Friday, as a bumble bee and bear. Matt's costume was a Korean pun. He was dressed as a bear and as GomPlayer. That is a popular media player here. All the kids know it too because we use it to show their favorite part of class, DVD class. Gom in Korean means bear. Many of the older kids and Korean staff that got they pun thought it was very funny. We got to play Halloween games with our kids in the morning and then have a costume parade/walk down a catwalk. It was really cute. There were a lot of red Power Rangers and princesses. Our afternoon kids got to go to our school's "haunted house" throughout the week. This was a room that had been converted and was full of Korean staff members trying to scare the kids. While most of the older kids seemed unphased, or pretended not to be scared, by it, Eileen had the one and only class that had to be escorted out early. So many kids were crying, they could not finish. It was probably that one kid got freaked and his poor, hysterical crying got everyone else a little on edge. It was pretty sad, but most other classes seemed to have a lot of fun. We also got to stand in our classrooms while kids knocked on the door and said trick-or-treat.

Halloween at Kangnam Poly

Two things that we have recently started: a photo food diary and photo claw machine diary. Everyday at lunch, and some dinners, so far we are taking pictures of the food. As we thought that Korean food was just like other Asian food at home, we were in for a bit of a surprise. It is a different kind of cuisine and thought it might be interesting to folks back home. There is an album of pictures if you click on picture link to the right or below. The claw machine diary came about from seeing so many of this very popular street corner game. There are two on almost every street corner, and these are not they type of claw machines that you see back home. They are full of the most random and odd stuff, and most are directed towards adults. There are pictures with labels of some of the prizes we have seen and we are going to keep adding to it. There is everything from vacuum cleaners, to security cameras, to MP3 players, to underwear, to tools, and just about anything else you can think of. This also is an album under our pictures or below. Both of these albums will be updated as we get more material.

Korean food

Claw Machines

Slippery Fish

This video is of my (Eileen's) preschool class singing the song slippery fish. It had to be uploaded to youtube so the quality is a little fuzzy. This was just the end of a speaking lesson. Even though they probably have other songs down better, I thought a snapshot of what they are like would be cute. Just a warning, this song might be the easiest and one of the most annoying songs to get stuck in your head.

Living Strong in Korea

This title was suggested by Matt. We are "living strong in Korea" though we are not managing to update our blog like we thought we would. We had a relaxing weekend and were able to get caught up. We spent some time searching for the very best in regards to Halloween costumes and Eileen has once again resorted to wearing a costume intended for someone under the age of 4. We cannot openly speak about our costumes as we are saving that for Halloween and someone from work might be reading this. (They're not that good...)

Some fun/funny little happenings from this past couple of weeks:
Tonight Matt was excited by using his advanced Korean skills to ask where to buy kimbab. Our two chapters of Korean from the Korean book we bought have served us well. He came back with his prize although we still are not sure what the meat was. It was probably ham with Krab or crab. Kimbab is the Korean form of sushi, except nothing is raw. Here is a picture that looks surprising like the one we ate tonight. We are both presently surprised how much we like the seaweed. We especially enjoy the kind we get at lunch where you can sprinkle it on top of your rice. It kind of tastes like pumpkin seeds.


One funny thing we keep running into at the subway are these electrified racquets. To the left is a picture of a lady selling them in the subway. They show them off by brushing something across the surface. They sound like those blue bug zapper lights. Imagine having a blue bug zapper that you can just wave around in the air and looks surprisingly like something a child would like to touch. We can't believe you don't hear about people getting hurt with these things (not that we could understand if people were talking about them) They kind of scare Eileen and seem like the most hazardous thing you could keep lying around your house. However, as we are nearing the end of November and still being woken up at night be mosquitoes, we are understanding how they can come in handy. The mosquitoes are absolutely ridiculous here! And they fly like 20 times faster than US mosquitoes so you have to try and chase them around. They especially love to bite Matt. While we just got our apartment re-wallpapered, there are already the stains of our nightly battles with the most annoying little creatures on the planet. Note: they do not wipe off the walls even with cleaner.

Another exciting adventure of this past couple of weeks is that Eileen made a pie from scratch! (Eileen writing this now) I feel very accomplished having made a pie from scratch. It kind of feels like I've passed some kind of test of benchmark. It was pretty good pie although I was really worried about the crust. It is kind of hard to use ingredients when you don't really know what you are putting in. Most just said the English word on the front and had the rest in Korean. So I knew it was some kind of flour or butter. Also, there is no shortening around so we borrowed some from a friend who found it in a foreign market. It is pretty tasty and good taste of home.

A little bit more from Eileen:
We are enjoying working at our school and liking that it is a really professional environment. I am really excited to be teaching what they call extra class. It is a time for the 9 lowest preschoolers to get a little bit of extra help. While everything else follows a pretty tight curriculum, I am able to have a lot more flexabilitly to help improve their language. I can pull out a lot more activities and ideas that I have from deaf ed and other teaching experience. They are cute but a pretty wiggly bunch, especially because they have to stay so much later then they are used to. It is fun and I am still figuring out what works with them. I really enjoy that the school has given me some of the younger and lower level students. Even though they aren't deaf, I feel like I am working a lot more with language and I like it.

Last week we also survived open class and pto. Open class is when the parents come and watch their students while you teach them a lesson. The room isn't very big and the children all sit around a central table. The parents sit behind the children and watch you. It can make you a little nervous. Parents are also watching to see if we call on their children equally and whether they get just as many turns as the children next to them. Our experience was that the moms don't really smile (we think it might be cultural as it happened to everyone) and they just stare at you. Anyway, we then had pto where we spoke to the parents about what we are doing with their kids. This wasn't too bad it was just a little awkward as you had to sit there while they translated what you just said. It is hard to know whether you are supposed to keep looking at the parents and nod like you have any clue what the translator is saying, or if you are supposed to look at the translator. Oh well, it went smoothly and we survived. In such a high pressured and competitive society even this early education is very important to them. (Eileen comment) I think it is great that parents are involved, though I feel like some are a little too involved. In the US you could never get all the parents there, especially for preschool.

All is well in Seoul. We miss all our family and friends back home. Keep in touch and remember if you have a webcam and/or a mic, we have Skype!

We finally have internet

This past week we finally got internet! Hooray! Despite the fact that the world wide web is at our fingertips we have not had time to update our blog. A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks. We are still enjoying teaching and are beginning to settle into a bit more of a routine. This weekend we are tackling report cards and writing report card comments. Seoul is absolutely beautiful this weekend with crisp cool weather and beautiful blue skies. We spent Saturday in the park with friends having a picnic and trying out some traditional Korean games, including the ever popular badminton.
Today, which is Sunday, we joined our coworkers for a wonderful Canadian Thanksgiving meal. It was delicious! We did it potluck style with a main course of pork tenderloin cooked with apples and cranberries, pirogies (which we thought we wouldn't get to eat for a year!!), meatballs, and other tasty things. It is good to have a belly full of good western food. We ended with apple pie a la mode and pumpkin pie (both thanks to the chefs at Costco). We are now sitting back feeling very full, sleepy, and not wanting to look at the report cards that we left for tonight.
Last weekend we trekked down to Gyeongju, which is in southeast Korea. It was the capital of the Silla kingdom for a long time. It is full of historical Korean things and large grassy mounds where the Silla kings are buried. We had a good time but it was one of those experiences when you really feel the pressure of not knowing the language. In Seoul, while everything is still in Korean it just seems much easier to find what you need. We had Friday off so we spent two nights there. We saw a Korean craft village (and returned with souvenirs), one of the most well known Buddhist temples in Korea, mounds, a national museum and some other cool sites along the way. The last day we were there we rented a tandem bike. It was both of our first times on one and took a little bit to get the hang down. Our pictures are posted although we are still working on labeling them.

Busy Week in Korea

Even though we had Monday off, it still seemed to be a busy and full week. We are still staying late everyday and trying to fall into a routine, but we are really enjoying our school. This weekend we had to go to school on Saturday for professional development. It was an interesting day. We learned more about how to grade assignments and the importance of grading for the sake of aiding the student in the future and demonstrating to the parents that we are getting involved with every student. We also had breakout sessions about team building, the preschool and kindergarten programs, technology, and cultural differences. The cultural differences seminar was interesting as their are many small things that we didn't even know about. They started off talking about things Koreans do that we might find odd or offensive, but are just part of the culture here. Some we could relate too. On the subways, if you want to get off you have to push and make it known. Also, it is not odd here to bump into someone and just keep going. Personal space is not such a big deal. We learned that we should not point at our students (which we do all the time like when calling on them), write their names in red (as only people who are dead have their names written in red), toss or throw things to students, and few other little things. Korea is a very communal society and values that highly. It is also a highly competitive society. We know that our kids take a lot of tests, but we also learned that tests will continue throughout their lives. The college entrance test is about the biggest things ever. So big and important that planes are rerouted and traffic is redirected to make sure the students can concentrate. In their jobs, Koreans will often have to take a standardized test to get promoted or even before they will look at a resume.
After our workshop, the school took us all out to a big lunch/dinner at On the Border. It is an American restaurant chain with Mexican food. It was delicious!! We left very full and happy.
We are spending our Sunday at a local coffee shop, updating our blog, writing September report cards, and making some travel plans for this winter.

Happy Chuseok!

Hello to all our friends and family. It seems to have been a couple of weeks since we last posted. We have been having difficulty with the internet as we still do not have our Alien Registration Cards and so cannot get our own. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will get it in the next week or so. We
Life has been good and busy. We started off our first week with a little bit of stress. It is always hard to learn a new routine and figure out all the ins and outs of a new system. Since all the classes in our school must make sure they stick to the same curriculum and be at the same place at the same time, it is a pretty structured school. This past week, or second of full time teaching, was a little bit less stressful. Matt was able to get a little bit ahead although with a lot of grading to do over the weekend and the next week. Eileen had a bit of a chaotic start as her schedule changed two times on Monday alone. We are enjoying the classes and students as we are beginning to get to know them better. It is interesting to teach second language learners as you are always having to find a new and different way to word or teach something so that it makes sense. It is also different having students from a different culture as they have a different set of background knowledge then kids would in the United States.
On Friday at school we had a good taste of Korean culture. This weekend, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday is Chuseok. This holiday is referred to as the Korean Thanksgiving. It is a time when families travel back to the hometown of their relatives, visit their ancestors' graves, offer food, play games, and do other traditional things that we are still finding out about. So, on Friday morning our preschool and kindergarten classes celebrated Chuseok. First, all of our classes made song peyong. (We are sure we not spelling any of the Korean words right as we am going off of pronunciation) This is a type of rice cake that is filled with sweet sesame seeds or red beans. When we say rice cakes, it is not the crisy cake like Quaker Oats makes in the US. These rice cakes are made from this rice dough called dok. The process is somewhat like making pirogies. The kids took the dough, rolled it into a ball and flattened it with their thumbs to make a little bowl like shape. Then they added a pinch of the filling (try getting preschoolers to add a pinch of anything) and then you close them up into a half moon shape. These are then taken and steamed. Check out our pictures to see what this process looks like when preschoolers attempt it. From Eileen's perspective: It was really fun but a total mess. There was dok every where and all over the place. Some of it was not wet enough and became really crumbly. They were probably also the saddest looking song peyong that I have ever seen. The kids were all adorable because they were wearing the traditional clothes called hanbok. They are very beautiful but also very hot and most hanbok is made out of silk. It was a fun morning.
This past weekend we decided to have an adventure for Chuseok. We packed a couple of bags and headed out on the subway to find a beach. Several hours later after multiple subway lines and bus ride, we ended up at Eulwangni Beach. We hung out on the beach for a while and when low tide suddenly started to take all the water away we decided to stay the night and look for a hotel. Because it is Chuseok, there were not many people at all there. The hotel gave us their "honeymoon" suite, which was very nice, for about half price. We then set off to find a restaurant to eat dinner at. There were tons along this road. They were all seafood and so we just picked one. We had a mollusk dinner which was very good. We ate something that was clear and looked like Jell-o french fries. Our best guess is that it was aloe. We also ate conch, clams, and scallops. The next morning we woke up and hung out at the beach all day while exploring the rocks around. We got a bit of sun but had a really good time. On the way back we decided to change subways and stop in Iteawon which is the foreign section of town. We treated ourselves to a very nice dinner and Eileen was super excited to eat salad for the first time since coming to Korea! After a bit of exploring around that area we also got ice cream from Baskin Robins. Real ice cream too! Korea seems to have a lot of what we call icy cream. It more like what you think a fudgesicle is made out of. It was a very fun and exciting weekend.

Settling In

This post is being written from our rooftop as it seems to be the best place to get a wireless signal. It is a beautiful night, perfect temperature, and a little bit of a breeze. We can look out over the rooftops and red neon crosses of Seoul towards the mountains in the background.

This week we are beginning to settle into our lives here in Seoul. We are both getting comfortable using a little more Korean, well Matt is probably the most comfortable. We spent time substituting and getting ready for the start of the new semester this week. We received a list of our classes that we will be teaching. As mentioned before, Matt will be teaching kindergarten in the mornings and Eileen will be teaching preschool. In the afternoon, while we both have a range of classes, Matt ended up with much more of a range. We teach classes like writing, reading, vocabulary, phonics, listening, speaking, science and a few others. Monday, tomorrow, is the start of the new semester. We have a feeling that it is going to be a very busy week.
We had the experiences this week of trying out a few new Korean restaurants in the area. Some of this was done with our co-workers, and some was with our friends Justin and Joy. While Matt worked with Justin one summer in Cleveland, we now found out that we live about 10 minutes apart. It is a very small world.
On Saturday, we had a very adventurous and tiring day. First, we got up early and took a subway to downtown Seoul to get a health check so that we can get our Alien Registration cards. It was interesting. Everybody changes into these little robes and you get sandals to wear around. There were 4 of us that went together, and we were the only foreigners. Matt looked great in a robe that was much too short and sandals that could have been a couple of inches longer. It was almost like visiting a luxury hotel. We kept expecting them to take us to the spa. You waited around on these comfy little couches and benches while they sent up and down between two floors to little stations. They drew blood, checked our eyes, took an EKG, did a chest X-ray, and a few other tests. The only one that we really couldn't figure out was that they took a chest measurement. None of us could figure out what this could possibly tell them or how they could deport someone for having a chest that was not the right size.
Afterwards we explored an area called Insadong. This is an area full of great traditional shops and teahouses. We ate lunch in a little out of the way place and enjoyed some tea at a cute little shop. There is also a temple and palace in the area, but we were all pretty exhausted and decided that we would have to come back another day. Eileen was on the look out for good souvenirs, and made note of where to return to. We spent an hour getting back home on the subway and then took a much needed nap. In the afternoon we experienced Korean baseball. You get off the subway to be greeted by numerous vendors selling squid jerky, bibimbap (Korean sushi), beer and water. Then you get your tickets, ours cost $4, and find a seat anywhere you like. It is held in what we think was an old Olympic stadium. The fans cheer constantly for the whole game. When their team is up to bat, they cheer the loudest. There is a cheer master leading all of these cheers that everyone knows, and cheerleaders to help as well. I hardly watched the game, and mostly watched the crowd. It also made it interesting that this game's theme was Christmas. It was quite the experience.
Sunday has been spent recuperating, grocery shopping, cleaning, and doing some much needed things around the house. Please check out the link on the right hand side of this page to look at all our new photos. Every time we take more, we will do our best to get them up.

A guided tour

Here is a movie of our apartment. We have been trying for days to get it up and this is the best we have found so far. You have to copy and paste the URL into address bar. Enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=1026070815104

After 1 Week

We have officially been here one week. On Monday we started our training. We have been meeting with some of our supervisors during parts of the day and observing other teachers the rest of the time. We still don't know what classes we will be teaching, but we should find out this week. We do know that in the morning Eileen will be teaching preschoolers and Matt will be teaching kindergarteners. As far as our school goes, we feel blessed to be where we are. It is a great school that is very professional and high quality. We use North American curriculum and textbooks, as well as, many books that the school has published themselves. Over 1000 students from the surrounding area, a very nice area of Seoul, attend our school, or hagwon, throughout the week. In the mornings there are preschool and kindergarten classes done in English only from 9:30 - 1:30, including lunch. The evening school program, for elementary to middle school age students, runs from 3:00 until 10:00. We only teach until 7:30 and kids only go for up to 3 of those hours. Students in Korea go to public school for what we would think of as "regular" school hours, then they attend a multitude of academies throughout the week. We are an English language academy which is important as English is needed to get into the best middle schools, high schools, and universities.

One thing that surprised Eileen about the schools was the amount of tracking. By tracking we mean, kids are labeled from the best to the worst and placed in classes accordingly. Every child is tracked down to the very class. No two classes are labeled the same. Giving out homework is very important to parents and they will complain if there is not enough. We were told that if we do not give out enough homework, even if we feel bad, we are really doing a dishonor to the students as they need that to keep up with their peers. We have been very surprised by the abilities of our students. Preschoolers, who enter in March not knowing any English, are by now reading out of a first grade text book. Almost all students seem to be advanced compared to their American peers, and this is their second language! Preschoolers are not just ordering the months of the year, but are also spelling them correctly! We enjoy the staff and the students at Kangnam Poly.
We also had other adventures this week that included going to get a pizza (which apparently Koreans love) that had the only toppings we could make out, pepperoni. We are learning that it is probably a good idea here not to order something unless you know what is in it. We are very fortunate to be able to eat both lunch and a light dinner at school. This has allowed us to try a lot of different Korean foods. The staple, kimchee, takes some getting used to. Matt is trying to like it and Eileen is wondering whether she should even keep trying. It usually consists of pickled cabbage in a spicy bean sauce. In fact a lot of things have cabbage. And if they don't have cabbage there's a good chance they have squid. But we have found some things we do enjoy. On our first full day in Seoul, Mark, a director at the school, took us out for a type of spicy grilled pork called Galbi. You really only order a main dish in Korea, but you are served 7 or 8 side dishes. Later in the week on Thursday, we even got to try some yummy Korean lamb kabobs at one teacher's going away dinner. It is pretty cool that at a lot of restaurants the food finishes cooking right in front of you at your table.
We have posted pictures so that you can follow our adventures! The link is on the right hand side of this page under our picture. We will try and update more often so that the posts will not be as long, but we only have internet every once in a while. That will hopefully change in the future.

We made a list because there are so many cool things that we see all the time and wonder, "why don't we do that?":
Cool things that we see in Korea that we don't have in America

1. Side mirrors that fold in on cars (to make for close parking and maneuvering while driving)
2. Mirrors on the backs of all vans and SUV's for easier backing up

3. Lights all around parking garages to tell you where there are spaces so you don't have to drive around for an hour looking for a spot.
4. Escalators in grocery and department stores that are magnetized to hold onto the magnetized wheels of the shopping cart so that it doesn't move as you go up and down a floor.
5. Sidewalks and even subway floors that are designed with the visually impaired in mind.

6. McDonald's delivery

7. Lots of stuff that saves energy.
8. Driving ranges that fit in between city buildings

9. These plastic accordion things on all the hinges of the doors in our school to stop fingers from being smashed, and foamy stuff on the other side for the same purpose.

10. Korean "crayons" that are in a plastic pencil like case and you just turn to push up the crayon. It saves crayons from breaking and kids from complaining that they need to sharpen their colored pencils.

Stuff that we haven't seen that we miss from America
1. Separate showers and bathrooms
2. Dryers
3. "Normal" pillow cases
4. "Normal" fitted sheets and top sheets
5. Mattresses that don't only come in super extra firm
6. Skim milk
7. Deodorant

We're Here!

While we only have a short while to update, we will let you all know that we are here and arrived safely. We luckily had a weekend to get over jet lag and get somewhat accomadated to our new home. It has rained every day, we got here right at the end of the rainy season but luckily the guy who owned our apartment left like seven umbrellas so we are staying dry. We will have to update more later when we get another break. We are keeping a list of all the cool things we have seen so far in Korea that we are suprised are not being used in America.

It's Official!

It is official!! We are moving to Seoul, South Korea. We won't be leaving until August and will get a chance to see friends and family over the summer. We are so excited to share our experiences and adventures with you!