One...Whole...Year!

I have officially lived in Korea for a whole year! Can you believe it? It seems like it was a totally different Kayla who, a year ago, decided to go for it, leaving everything behind, job, family, car, boyfriend... and boarded a plane headed halfway across the globe, nearly as far away as possible, with nothing but 2 suitcases and a desire for adventure. A year seemed like such a long time to be in Korea and yet it has passed so quickly.

A year ago I had never lived in a foreign country, I had never been to Asia, and I couldn't have identified the Korean language written or spoken. I had never lived on my own let alone lived in a city. I had never tasted kimchi or relied on public transportation. I had never taught a day in my life. Now, I am getting ready to start a second year in Korea. I live here - Here in the 7th most populated city in the world, bigger than New York, Tokyo, or Shanghai. I know where things are and how to get there. I don't have to use a subway map and when signs aren't in English it's ok because I can read Korean. I know enough words and phrases to get my point across. I teach about 100 students, know all their names, and what their English skills are like. I know my school's procedures and curriculum like the back of my hand and have become the person new people come to with questions or for help.

I love living here and this month has kind of been like a Korea "Renaissance" for me. I had been in a pretty set routine of hanging out with the same people and doing the same things week to week. But things have been changing and I've been meeting a lot of new people lately and trying to shake things up a bit. I think my second year will be different than the first and also better. There are some things I want to do differently - save more money, meet more people, travel more, exercise more, get more involved at church, and start volunteering somewhere. I feel exactly right about deciding to stay and am really looking forward to what this next year brings. I have grown and changed so much over the past 12 months and I believe there is plenty more of that to come during my time here.

I will be back in NJ from October 31st until November 29th. In there will be a wedding, a birthday (Meri's!), Thanksgiving, and mostly just time spent catching up with family and friends. When I come home it will have been 9 months since I was in the States and 13 months since I lived there. Strange...

In other news, teaching is better than ever. I'm at such a comfortable place with all of my classes. I've been teaching the majority of my students for somewhere between 8 months and a year and we've settled into a nice rhythm. Teaching comes naturally to me now, in a way I could never have imagined a year ago. I mean, in some ways it makes sense, I do enjoy speaking in front of people and I tend to be a leader rather than a follower. But, still it's hard to believe that a couple of years ago I was sitting in lecture halls, daydreaming about weddings, and now here I am in Asia, living on my own and teaching as though it's my true calling.

I am giving a lot of thought right now to where I'll be going at Christmas time. I'll be quite alone at Christmas since most of my friends will be away in various corners of the world. I have 10 days off of work though so I plan on using that time for some kind of incredible adventure, even if it is by myself (don't worry, I'll join a tour so I'm not completely alone!). Right now I'm considering Northern India. No plans yet, just looking into it. Every inquiry gets me more and more excited though, and I'm really starting to think it could work out. I'll keep you posted as things unfold...

Still can't believe it.

A whole year.

:)

Hong Kong

Wow, Hong Kong was amazing! I had such a wonderful time.

The trip started early Saturday morning, when I met my friends Marie and Sarah at the airport. I have never traveled with them before so I didn't exactly know how it was going to go. Just because you're friends with people doesn't mean they are necessarily good travel buddies - you might have different tastes, schedules, and priorities on the trip which could get messy. Thankfully, the girls were really easy going about everything and we all had the same basic idea of what we wanted to see and do on the trip.

The flight to Hong Kong from Seoul took about 3 1/2 hours. We arrived in Hong Kong at around 2pm and got to the hotel around 4. We took a bus from the airport to our hotel. We stayed in an area called Wan Chai which was a really central location. Hong Kong's main areas are Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula, Lantau Island, and the New Territories. We didn't visit any of the New Territories as they are farther north, closer to China, and there was nothing of interest to us there.

So, we stayed on Hong Kong Island, right in the middle of everything. The first thing we did was settle into our hotel which was really really nice. It was less than $100 a night per room (we got 2 rooms for the 3 of us and took turns having our own room) and it had a lot more than I expected which was great. After we got settled we went and bought Octopus Cards which are the transportation cards for the city. They're called Octopus cards because you can use them for so many different things which we quickly found out was no exaggeration. The money you put on them can be used for the subway, bus, ferries, trams, boats, and even at some tourist attractions throughout the city. You can even use them at convenience stores to make purchases.

We quickly found out the public transportation system in Hong Kong was incredible. The subway systems in Hong Kong were so clean - even cleaner than Korea which is impressive and they were significantly easier to navigate than they are here as well. I have to say, Asian public transportation systems put Western ones to shame. They are so much cleaner, easier to use, and more logically laid out from what I've seen. You'd really have to work at it to get lost in Hong Kong, I think.

The first thing we did was a bit of exploring. We took the ferry to Kowloon and saw some of the buildings over there like the Hong Kong cultural center. We walked along the bottom of the peninsula which is where the Avenue of the Stars is. The entire walk affords you a spectacular, panoramic view of the Hong Kong Island skyline. On the Avenue of the Stars we saw lots of Hong Kong actors and actress's names including Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Bruce Lee, and Chow Yun Fat.

We were there during the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival so we saw some giant displays of lanterns in all shapes and sizes. In Kowloon there was an ocean display with lanterns in the shape of sea animals, kelp, bubbles, etc. It was really beautiful. We walked a long way north in Kowloon, taking in the city and scouting out potential restaurants. After months of Korean food and limited choice of Western fare, the one thing we knew on this trip was that everything we ate would be something we couldn't get (at least not easily) in Korea. We discovered an outside night market in Kowloon which took us hours to walk through and contained tons of local people selling literally all kinds of things: from art and clothing, to DVDs and toys. It was very busy and very hot - we decided to come back the next day to do our shopping.

That night we went back to Hong Kong Island and ate a delicious Thai dinner at a restaurant close to our hotel. It was amazing - they even had my favorite type of Thai curry. We called it a night early, planning to get a good start the following day to do some shopping. The next day we went from mall to market to market stopping for a smoothie or cold coffee drink here and there, in between. The outside markets were my favorite, they took hours to walk through, were full of sweaty people haggling for goods and we found lots of great deals. I got presents for my family which I had a lot of fun picking out and haggling for. My haggling skills have improved significantly since I first came to Korea - I had a hard time at first because I kept thinking I was doing something wrong, or ripping them off, but now I realize it's all part of the business and people aren't going to sell things to you at a price they're not making a profit on so I don't worry anymore.

That night we ate at an amazing Italian restaurant in an area called SoHo which is where a lot of the good restaurants and nightlife are. It was so nice to have real Italian food. There are some mediocre Italian chains in Korea but the food is "Koreanized" and not authentic which is disappointing. After dinner we went up the peak on Victoria Mountain which is a big tourist attraction in Hong Kong because you can see the entire skyline on both sides of the water from the top. We took a taxi up and a tram down, both of which were terrifying experiences. After the peak we went to Causeway Bay, an area West of Wan Chai where they had a Lantern Festival Carnival. We saw a variety of impressive lantern displays in the park there.

The next day we found a place that made real breakfast. Eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, omelets. There is no place in Korea that serves anything like that except maybe right in Central Seoul which would be over an hour away, a ridiculous trip to make for breakfast. We really enjoyed that meal!

After breakfast Sarah and I went to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha there. It took us an hour on the ferry and then 30 minutes on a bus going up a windy, bumpy road to reach the monastery which was up in the mountains. Once there we climbed 268 steps to go up to the largest Bronze Buddha in the world. It was huge and the views from the top were breathtaking.

That night we ate at a wonderful Egyptian restaurant that had the most amazing falafel and I ordered the grilled lamb which was cooked so well it practically melted in my mouth. Just thinking about that meal is making me hungry again! After dinner we took the hour ferry right over to Macau to experience the casino scene there.

Macau brings in more revenue than Vegas and has 28 casinos including The Venetian which is the biggest casino in the world and the third largest building (sq. ft.) in the world. We mainly just wanted to experience the scene and walk through the Venetian - it is an incredible building, renaissance themed, and indescribably luxurious. It has actual canals running through it with gondola rides. The total size of The Venetian in Macau is equivalent to 56 football fields. It's big enough to park 100 Boeing 747 jumbo jets. Anyway it was incredible to see and we got the last gondola ride of the day. Our guide was from Northern Italy and he sang songs to us in Italian. It was lovely. We visited a few other casinos before heading back on the ferry. The next day we just finished up some last minute shopping and headed to the airport. It was a really fun, relaxing trip and I'm so glad I went. Hong Kong was such a fun place!

Sarah and me in front of a lantern display

Skyline

Hong Kong Cultural Center - it completely lights up and changes colors at night


View from the ferry to Kowloon

Light Show at night

Busy streets




Night Market stall

Night Market

Shopping!

Dinner at a Thai Restaurant

Light Show again

Dinner at an Italian Restaurant

On the way to dinner

Sarah and Marie


Love the reflections in the water

glow sticks

Lantern Festival

Waiting for the subway on the way to Lantau Island

At the bottom of the Big Buddha stairs

At the top

Gorgeous views from the top

Last dinner in Hong Kong - it was the most amazing Egyptian food!

Traveling...

I'm in Hong Kong for 4 days!!!! Look for pics and stories next week!

School Days

My students working on their penpal letters

The teacher's room, where all the teachers have their desks. That is my manager Lisa.

My desk. I proudly display more "desk flair" than anyone else in the office. That's a stack of English diaries waiting to be graded on the right. Note the artwork/photography of my precious nieces and nephews and some notes from students displayed prominently. That's a picture of my niece Violet as well. There's more artwork on the side of my desk.

There have been some interesting things happening at work lately...

First, I have started a penpal project between some of my Korean students and some American students from a co-op which my sister Mishael's family belongs to. My students are so enthusiastic about the project. They are thrilled about the idea of communicating with American students and the ideas about what to write just keep coming. It's a bit hard actually, because I see them coming up with so many topics and questions and things they want to say but their vocabularies are quite limited at this level and they get a bit frustrated. Which is where I come in of course, trying to help them figure out how to say what they want to say in a way the other students will understand. It takes a number of drafts and rewrites before the letters are suitable to send out but it's worth it for them to have such a hands-on, worthwhile experience. My goal is for both the American students and the Korean students to come away knowing at least a little bit more about each other's culture than they do now. If there is one lesson I've learned since moving here, it's that it's critical to realize that there are many different ways of doing things around the world and the one you are familiar with isn't necessarily the best.

The second new thing happening around the office is that I am, for the first time since I came here, teaching a Level 1 class. Level 1 basically means that it is a brand new class of very young students who do not know a word of English. I have taught all kinds of levels since I started this job but I have never taught a complete beginner class. My kids have always known the basics - their names, the alphabet, "hello", "thank you", "yes", "no". Most of these students are starting from scratch. When I found out I was being given this new class, I was really excited. It seemed like such an exciting challenge - like a blank slate! No previous teachers, no previous books, just them and me and me teaching them English. Teaching them to read and write! I don't know why, it just struck me as really special. 

So, as I tend to do when new exciting projects are before me, I got really into it. Fruit shaped name tags, funny games, creative discipline systems. There's something special about a class that is, in a way, all yours from the beginning. I want it to go well. The first day of class was a complete whirlwind. I taught them the alphabet and completely left out the letter "G". Suddenly I looked at the board and realized it was completely missing and we'd been practicing without it. I guess I was nervous. Poor kids. They probably understood 10% of what I said to them. I had to really get creative in how I communicated. I had been explaining basic greetings as in, "hello, how are you, I'm fine thank you, what's your name, my name is...." etc. So then it was time to see what they'd gained from this lesson. I walk up to the closest student, a tiny, wide-eyed, little boy who looked absolutely terrified that I might actually talk to him. I start to shake his hand.

"Hello", I say cheerfully.

....silence...... I think I can see him shaking. He looks around to his fellow classmates for help.

"Hello", I say again, smiling as big as my facial muscles will allow.

He looks very pale and doesn't appear to be breathing. The boy sitting next to him whispers something in his ear.

"hello" he whispers, barely audible.

"What's your name?" I ask slowly and deliberately.

A long pause. His eyes suddenly light up as he recites,
"I'm fine, thank you, and you?" 

Hmmm let's try this again.

"What's...your...NAME?"

He ponders and then says, 

"What's your name!"

Ok. New tactic. I point to myself.

"My...name...is...KAYLA" - I carefully enunciate. I point to him.

"What's...your...NAME?" I ask again.

He obediently points to himself.

"My name is Kayla!"

Ok. ok. This isn't working. Let's try something different.

"How are you today?" I ask.

"My name is Soo-Min."

Sigh... :)