Blogs from Dalseo-Gu, Daegu, South Korea, Asia

I finished my scuba diving training course for novices in a diving pool, Dae-gu city. In the water pools, I was tested by my coach, whether I have an ability to exhale waters in my water mask(a scuba diving goggle) or not and to fix the regulator missed in my mouth in 5-meter-depth or not. I completed this skills perfectly and naturally. now, I am a novice of a scuba diving in the diving pool. In this summer vaction, I will try to be a real scuba diver who dive in a real sea world. anyway, I really enjoyed this training course . :)... read more

Lately I've been trying to identify what it is about Korea that makes it different from the US. This is for friends/family/anyone else who's curious about what it's like for an American living here. I thought first I would tell you about my students' English speaking tests. Their presentations illuminate their lives a bit. The students were supposed to speak for one minute on whichever topic they chose. Then the teacher would make up one question. Brenton and I graded (for the first time!). I only graded first and half of second grade, but the tests were in my office, so I actually heard almost all of the speeches. In some ways, their speeches were like Eugene Hutz’s character in Everything is Illuminated. They often used English words that conveyed meaning but do not actually fit. ... read more

I can’t believe I’ve been in Korea for over 2 months now. At first I was counting by days, then weeks, and now suddenly I’m counting in months. I’m keeping busy in general so time is going quickly. A couple of weeks ago I had the revelation that I no longer care that I am the 'foreigner'. I used to feel really strange getting on the subway and knowing that I was the person who didn't belong. I guess I felt Koreans analyzing me. It's not that now I feel Korean--it's more that I live here and this is my home. So there's no reason for me to feel so strange. It's like a small weight has been lifted off. I’m still enjoying teaching. After about a month, I was really starting to get the hang ... read more

I know I'm overdue to tell you all about my “Korean life”. I bet you want to know about my apartment, the area where I'm living, my school and school life, food, The Korean Person, and everything else new that's going on. If you don't, then just stop reading now. Stop. Okay you kept reading, so let me get started. Don't expect to find out about everything in this one post. I will write it and then probably think of 100 more things I could tell you. One of the biggest problems already is how familiar things are that were strange at first. I think this post will just be about school, city, and apartment, and the rest will have to wait. It all begins with my school. I wrote before that I was placed at ... read more

hello all, It's been two weeks since I've arrived in Korea. At this point I would like to stress a certain point that has been raised among certain members of my family. This blog space will in NO way measure up to even a fraction of how witty and philosophical Carolyn's letters home are. So, if you were expecting something like that than you will be disappointed. You will only find hard data, facts and mundane figures in what follows.........that being said...so Korea. IS AWESOME!!!!! Where to start. Everything is really really cheap. I can go to a Kimbab place 2 minutes from my house, have a full dinner and pay like $4 CAN. People for the most part are really friendly. They are really curious about you and like to come up to you and ... read more