Day 417 - Students' "About Me" Poems

For this first week of classes, I'm giving my kids a break from self introductions. I hammered that into them last year and I didn't want to get the same canned responses as I did in the spring semester. Instead I'm having them write "About Me" poems, acrostics with their names or a short fill-in-the-blank style. Here's some of my favorites, whether due to creativity, impressiveness (is that even a word?), or hilarity.



JURI
Juri is very lovely.
U love me?
Really?
I have boyfriend.


MINJI
My name is Min-Ji!
Is from Korea!!
Not married!!
Join in ITGL ((editor's note: one of the two majors at my school))
I love Korea <3


YEONSOO
Yadong is very good.
English is very good.
Oh, my God!
Nonsan is not good
Starcraft2 is very good.
Oh!
Oh, my eyes!


SEULKI
Speaks Korean
English is very hard ㅠㅠ
Unbelievable development!!
Lives in Korea
Korea!!
I love you!!~ <3


Yuri
cool, hot, people, smart
sister of no (only one)
Lover of Super Junior
Fears school
Needs money
Gives love
Wants to see people
Lives in Yeonsan, Korea
Yuri


JONGMIN
Joker
Ork [sic]
Nice
Guy
Monster
Ice cream eater
Needs something


HYEANSU
Hi
Yeah
Enjoy my life
A boy
Need a sexy girl
So so
Um....


KIM SUNGBONG
Korea is god, I think....
I don't like many eating
Money is very very good
Skin is Hm..... brown?
Unique
No married
Boy
Orange
Name is SunBongKim
Good game (g.g)


KANG SARANG
Korean! I'm Korean.
And my
Name is Saran.
Girl! I'm Girl
Sexy girl ~ wo ~
Ah~ I'm sexy?
Real I'm Korean sexy girl. actually....
A-->
Ngel I'm
God!


GUNWOO
Good boy
Ugly but good boy ^^
Now. i'm so tired.
Wear a school uniform
O M G ...
Orange...

INBEOM
I'm In Beom
Now! My introduce.
Brother is a little boy
Energy full!!!
Oh my god.
My Mom call me....


KONG TAEHEONG
Korea is my nation
Oing?
Needs money
Going university for my dream
Turn it up loud~
Age of 21th
E~ EEEgg
Have a good time?
Egg
Oing?
Not married
GOGOSING MY future


YOUNSOO
You like me
Oh my God
Unbelievable
No I don't like you
Sorry but you like me
One day, we will like each other
Oh~

Day 412 - Back in Korea

I'm back in Korea now, and have decided that I'll be continuing my day-numbering instead of starting over again. Big news, right?

I've started moving into my apartment, but there's still 6 or 7 boxes at my old homestay. Tomorrow night when DY gets off of work we'll go over and grab those and my hands will be officially cleaned of all that. Hurray!

So far, I've been back in Nonsan for about 2 days -- yesterday I met up with Bora, a Korean who teaches English at the local university. She's going to be a big factor in whether my dreams of a Korean-English exchange club at the university works out or not, so I was really encouraged that she was still enthusiastic about things like that.

Today I was a giant load and did absolutely nothing. I've already unpacked, but my TV's at school and my plug converter for my (battery-dead) laptop is packed away in a box at the homestay. Which leaves me nothing to do but stare at the walls in my apartment. Gooood times.

Other than that, I'm just waiting for school to start on Monday. I already prepped my lesson back in America, so I just need to decide what kind of punishment/reward system I want to use this semester and print out some bingo cards.

21 days until I take the Test of Proficiency in Korean. I should be spending all this free time studying...

A Month In America Condensed into Lists

10 Things I Did

1. ate way too much food
2. shopped
3. watched lots of TV and movies
4. cooked
5. went to the beach
6. went to Boston
7. went clubbing
8. met friends
9. spent time with family
10. regrouped

10 Things I'll Miss

1. variety (e.g., people, food, TV shows, music)

2. driving a car

3. shower curtains

4. tanning

5. English everywhere

6. fluffy mattresses

7. vibrant colors

8. shopping malls

9. giant ovens

10. family and friends and my doggie (obvs)

10 Random Things I'm Bringing Back To Korea

1. dry soup mixes

2. bouillon cubes

3. shake'n'bake

4. spices (e.g., garlic powder, nutmeg)

5. cranberry sauce and stuffing

6. gum

7. toothpaste

8. mac and cheese

9. jello and pudding

10. quick-cook oatmeal

Hiatus

Since arriving safely and with all my luggage accounted for, I've been thoroughly enjoying my time in America. I haven't, however, bothered writing about it and between blissfully doing nothing and stuffing my face, I probably will not write until I'm back in Korea mid-August.


Until then, take care!

A Look Back...

A little over a week before I go back to America, here's a look back on the people I met, the places I went, and some of the things I did during this first year.

Day 367 -- A Short Conversation with Doyup

Doyup and I went to the LG Twins (Seoul) vs Hanwha Eagles (Daejeon) baseball game yesterday. Doyup was really excited because the crowd was pretty small, so we had a good chance of being on TV due to the "wtf" factor of crazily-acting fan with his foreigner girlfriend. We did end up on TV sometime during the 3/4 inning. We know because Doyup started getting a billion messages and calls from people who were watching the game: his dad, cousins, co-workers. This conversation took place today, the morning after the game.

"Every soldier are asking me of you. They watched the baseball game. So surprise!"
"Haha, I hope I didn't look stupid!!"
"You are always stupid."



womp womp -.-

Day 366 -- One Year Anniversary in Korea!

Yesterday marked my one year anniversary of living in Korea. That means it's also been one year since I've seen my friends and family back home, so I'm really excited to jump on that plane next week and see everyone again.

That said, I'm also very excited to start a brand new year in Korea. Most of the things that caused me the most distress will be changing -- soon I'll have my own apartment and last week my fantastic co-teacher returned from her fight with cancer. I feel like this past year has just been the trial-year where I figured out how things work and got my feet under me. Kind of like freshman year in college where you learn from your mistakes during sophomore year.

Sincccce I'm on another computer, how about some pictures?

Last North Korean refugee class. One of my students (the mother) helping her daughter make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

An example of the amazing delivery service in Korea. This entire box was brought to the apartment. Inside was everything required to make a beef-and-mushroom stew, fresh right at your table. The pot with all the ingredients, a water bottle full of broth...

... a table-top burner, rice, and all the usual Korean sides (kimchi, etc)

Light up the burner, pour in the broth, and you are on your way to some really good beef-and-mushroom stew, bubbling at your table.

Yummm

Korea, besides having awesome delivery service, also has some wicked bars. A lot of bars have some kind of gimmick, for example one of my favorite bars in Seoul serves their pitchers of beer with dry ice, so the beer is super super cold and also awesome looking. This bar serves apple-flavored soju (like weak vodka) in apple cups.

So cool!

And this here is a source of constant shame for me. I go to coffee shops a lot because I think I work better in that kind of environment -- less distractions, more coffee. Here at a coffee shop in Daejeon's city hall, I order an iced cafe mocha with a slice of cheesecake. The barista kindly gives me two forks because what kind of fatty would eat a piece of cheesecake all by herself, amiright? ...ooohhh the shameeee...

An example of something Korea doesn't do well: English. It's usually just close enough that you can figure it out, but still... Nuddle isn't even a word, did nobody check that out before they made a sign?!