Leaving Korea-Part 1 (Jeremy writing) It has been an interesting few weeks to say the least, and there is much to chronicle. I will start by saying that we are making this post from Japan. Our teaching job in Korea became untenable, so we made the move to the place where we had originally intended to come. How we got here is a story in itself that will require several posts. So I will begin in the beginning: our gradual slide into extreme dislike for our job. (Jen writing) My slide was not gradual and it started long ago. Everything you [View Full Entry]

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Beijing… (Jen) In Korea we had three days off work to celebrate the Chuseok Holiday. Chuseok is a lunar festival used as a time to honor loved ones who have passed. During these three days the moon is at its biggest and brightest. Many refer to it as the “harvest moon” and they treat is like our Thanksgiving. Everyone stays home with their families and eats lots. Jeremy and I decided we would take this opportunity to get out of town. We booked a group tour to Beijing. I had never been on a group tour before. It had always carried [View Full Entry]

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l (Jeremy writing) Jen loves travel, and so do I, so I thought a great birthday present for her would be a trip to Seoul. I did some research, booked a train there for Friday night, got a hotel in Itaewon (a suburb of Seoul), and booked a tour of the Demilitarized Zone. Seoul is just a three hour train ride north, so right after work we grabbed our pre-packed bags and took the one hour subway ride to Busan Station. We arrived in plenty of time and shortly boarded our train. Jen had packed ham sandwiches, Dr. Peppers, and beer. [View Full Entry]

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Our trip to Jeju: July 31-August 4 We were unable to access our live journal for so long there is some more catching up to do. Our school was generous enough to allot three entire days of summer vacation from August 2-4, so we decided to use that bountiful block of time to take some sort of trip. Our wise employers rightly decided to only give us about a month head start on planning-they were right in that because they knew about the vacation time long before we did and were able to book their trips without worrying about us taking [View Full Entry]

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(Jen writing…) Well, it has been a very long time since we’ve been able to login and update this journal. I assure you it was not because we’re lacking stories to talk about. There have been a bunch of hysterical things that have happened to us over the last two months so we will try our best to recollect them now. The Beach: We have spent a good portion of our weekends at the beach since the weather has been so nice. This is a completely different experience from that which we were accustomed to. First of all, because I grew [View Full Entry]

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(Jen writing) Well as many of you have noticed (and commented on) we have not updated our journal in quite some time. The reason for this was actually not pure laziness. We have not been able to access the site from overseas for about a month and a half. We had to wait until I was in the U.S. in order to switch it over. The new site is http://jeren.blogspot.com/ We hope to be updating this one quite often. We hope everyone is doing well. We miss you all and hope to see you soon. School Life (Jen writing) Well, [View Full Entry]

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(Jen writing) Well, I've had quite a bit of fun scaring innocent Korean people. I did it again at school last week. I was headed to class and my students will usually come get me if I'm not there exactly when class starts. I was at the head of the stairs and could hear them running to the stairwell to come down and get me. I stopped at the corner and jumped out toward them to find that it was one of the Korean teachers. I felt so bad that I had scared her! Once she realized what happened she started [View Full Entry]

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(Jeremy writing)-First, a quick story that relates to cultural observations. The people here, as mentioned, think we are quite the novelty. They openly stare and talk about us, although we have no idea what they are saying. I tend to think they are saying, "What a handsome couple. Perhaps they are movie stars shooting a new Hollywood film." At any rate, another thing they are always amazed by is our language. When people hear us before they see us they always kind of jump-as if our English is abrasive to their ears. So bearing that in mind, the story: We live [View Full Entry]

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Alright, my turn. First, let me say that it finally happened. I was waiting for a bus and a high school kid approached me and said hello. I said hello back, and that is as far as it usually goes, but then he asked if he could take a picture with me. I laughed and nodded but had to ask why. He spewed some excuse about having homework requiring him to talk to a foreigner and needing photographic evidence, but I knew better-if you have the Loch Ness monster or an ET standing five feet away from you-you get out the [View Full Entry]

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(Jen writing) This week really flew by. Now that I've gotten to know my students better and I have a better grasp of their abilities, time is flying by. I'm really enjoying teaching and I really like my kids. Now that we've had six weeks to get to know each other, classes are a lot more fun. When we have behavior problems, we're told to stick the children out in the hallway and have them stand up against the wall with their hands over their head. This is what all the Korean teachers do and it appears this and calling their [View Full Entry]

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