Sunday was the epically awesome Korean Lunar New Year, also known as Seollal (설날). As such, I was lucky enough to get a three-day-weekend in honor of the festivities. I would have forgotten about the holiday, except for the cheerful children half-filing, half-prancing out of my classroom calling back to me "Happy New Year, Katie Teacher" (or Olleh KT teacher... or KTX teacher...) Also, my branch manager was nice enough to a) let us cut out of work 1.5 hours early and b) gave us Pantene Pro-V gift sets in honor of the biggest holiday in Korea. Naturally, my Korean coworkers got some chamchi (tuna - 참치) instead. Which brings me to a slightly random point. Chuseok, Korean "Thanksgiving," and Seollal have a really funny commonality. For Chuseok, it is completely normal for Koreans to give ... read more

It's kind of remarkable how much I've learned from my students. Each student in each of my classes seems to want to take on the unofficial role of "Cultural Instructor" in an attempt to get me in-the-know in Korea. No, really. I can honestly say that without my Korean kids, I would have no idea how to count in Korean. Now I can count from 0 - 100 without any problems, though sometimes it takes me a minute to remember 5, 6, and 9. Don't believe me? 영 일 이 삼 사 오 역 칠 팔 구 십 십일 십이 십삼 십사 십오 십역 십칠 십팔 십구 이십... and so on. That's right. I can count. I also learn some really random Korean words from them. They try so hard to teach me! lol For example: ... read more

Okay. Now that all my blathering about classes is out of the way (sort of), I can tell you all about the wonders of KCulture which I've experienced here. I suppose I should start with coffee. If any of you at home had hope coming to Korea would stop me from drinking coffee and coffee beverages-- THINK AGAIN. Coffee shops are MADD prevalent around here. And not only that, but many of them are cheaper and more freshly made than at home. Stop right there. Are you thinking, "Woah, woah, woah! Did this girl seriously just diss her old M-town Starbucks hang-out where she spent upwards of 5 hours a day in the month before leaving for Korea?" The answer: not quite. But what I am trying to say is that coffee is effing everywhere. You ... read more

I am more than halfway through my second week of teaching English in Daegu, South Korea. I am exhausted, but I am having a blast! I should probably fill in a few blanks. After we passed training, Parker, Alisha, and I were dropped off at the train station in Seoul with KTX tickets. We waited around (caffeinated and ate some Korean Micky D's) for our train to Daegu. Some man came and bound up all of our luggage-- I guess we were in the way. When it was time to actually move it though, he never came back, so we dismantled the dolly he had set up, and I used my super German farm girl strength to bind our four largest suitcases together. Parker and Alisha took the other bags, and we made our way onto ... read more

I am officially in Korea. Right. Now. As you all may know, my flight was on Thanksgiving. I left out of JFK airport in NYC at 12:40 that afternoon. I arrived at the airport with two super heavy roll-on luggage, a duffel bag, and a backpack. Thankfully, the man who helped me with my bags was super nice and didn't weigh them. I proceeded through the metal detector without any problems, and got to my gate about two hours early. I hung around the airport, had an iced tea, and bought an hour's worth of wireless so I could e-mail Steven and let him know that I survived the departure gate. There was this cute little bird there that I wanted to grab-- I guess living in an airport doesn't allow for the proper wear-and-tear of ... read more