Cheeseball Saturday

Dear inventor of cheeseballs,
In my book, you are right up there with Edison!

It's Wednesday and I'm finally sitting down to do some blogging from last week...as I sit here, my 4 pm students are munching on their homemade ice pops that we made yesterday...I forgot how delicious those things are..and how easy..take a cup put some sort of drink in it, place a 1/2 of a wooden chopstick in the drink, put in the freezer overnight and bada bing bada boom, a popsicle!

So anyway, I'm not here to talk about this week, I'm here to tell you of the events from last week. I was ready for a fresh start after my previous week of computer mayhem, however, this past week proved to be a continuation of mayhem. I think my previous week of stress, made this week seem like child's play and I was able to handle these situations better.

Monday I decided to ride my bike to work. I just LOVE riding my bike to work, cuts the time in half and I don't feel as sweaty when I get to work...it's also nice to take a bike ride home at the end of the day..a good stress reliever. However, regarding my bike, Monday night was quite unusual.

I parked my bike in the back of the building with the other bikes, locked her up at her back tire, and headed upstairs to start a full day of teaching. After my last class finished at 9pm, I was more than ready to ride back to the apt. I walked outside, unlocked my bike, and attempted to pull it out from the rack...problem...my bike's front tire was locked to the rack. WHAT? yes, someone put their lock on MY bike. I was extremely perplexed. As I sat staring at my bike I realized that the bike next to mine had no lock. Then it came to me..someone got off their bike, put it in the rack, walked around to the front, and then proceeded to put their lock on my front tire thinking it was theirs..however, their bike was much nicer. So, I unlocked my bike and decided to just do the ole switcharoo...j.k. I went upstairs to tell Jemal of my situation. Together we debated what to do, and we decided to take a picture of the bikes and then try to explain to the people in the building about the situation. However, there are many businesses, and after this idea failed miserably at our first stop in the gym due to the language barrier and lack of proaction of most people here, Jemal took me home in his car and we hoped the person would realize his/her mistake and free my bike. Next morning, I came in and I realized Rousseau had been freed! Bet that person felt pretty silly when they were unlocking their lock...or not, I could see them not even realizing it.

So, Tuesday came and it was a HOT one. The rainy season has ended but it's been very very hot and humid here on the peninsula. My apt's A/C was acting funny on monday night, and the location of my apt is pretty terrible..corner room + no windows directly in the apt+one window on the porch area where the washing machine is = a jimjilbang (Korean word for "sauna"). Tuesday night I came home to an apt that was near 100 degrees Fahrenheit, I immediately turn on the A/C and fan and just stand in front of the fan. As I was trying to cool off, I happened to glance over at Lily's cage.

Lily was laying flat on her stomach with all four limbs spread out. Her eyes were squinted and her reaction to my "LILY!" and shaking the cage was very delayed. I realized all her water had evaporated...she was one thirsty rodent. I aimed the fan at her, filled her water, and tried to squirt water into her mouth...I wasn't sure if she was going to make it through the night, but that resilient little thing pulled through like a true champ. I came to the realization that there was a major problem with the A/C.

Not only was the air conditioner not spouting out cool air, it would shut off at random times and I'd have to wait for 20 minutes until I could turn it back on. On Wednesday, I was supposed to come home an hour early to meet the A/C guy...from past experiences, I understood that by "meeting" him that would serve zero purpose since we don't speak the same language. So, I had my neighbor come over (he's also a student at the school in one of the adult classes) and help translate. So, I raced home on Wednesday night to quickly clean up my apt...my "unmentionables" were all over the place (give me a break, I don't have a dryer). I quickly cleaned up and thankfully, my neighbor got to my apt first. So, I explained to him the problem and he understood and we were ready to talk to the a/c guy. We waited..and waited..and waited..and waited. He never came. An hour later, my school calls and says, yeah, he already came earlier in the day. My thought: "Oh shoot, he saw just about every piece of my "unmentionables." And of course he didn't fix anything...But, he did order a part and finally on Sunday night he came to install it. So, these past several nights have been full of much needed all night sleep! And although Wednesday night was a failure since I spent 2 hours waiting for this a/c guy, it was nice to get to know my neighbor more :)

As for my classes, it was a pretty usual week. I'm sure there were funny moments, but I can't really think of them. At one point in my morning class I had three students in three different countries. Mrs. Ko left for a month long backpacking trip to South America with her husband (she would), Mrs. Nam went to China for a little vaca with her family, and one of my newer students headed to Australia for the next 8 months to study English. This past week was the beginning of summer vacation for all the public schools and this next week many of the companies in the area give their employees a week long vacation, so alot of people are taking vacations and what not...I too will be taking a vacation starting TOMORROW! I'm headed South..you'll hear all about it next week's blog.

Although we didn't leave Gunsan, the weekend held a classic Korean experience. Elizabeth and I decided that Saturday would be our one day of summer. On top of that, we got this enormous tub of cheeseballs from Costco and designated Saturday to be "Cheeseball Saturday." So, our plan was to eat cheeseballs, go swimming, eat cheeseballs, ride bikes, eat cheeseballs, have dinner at my favorite Chinese restaurant, and eat as many cheeseballs as possible. And we did just that. The swimming experience had "classic Korea" written all over it.

We knew of two places to go swimming in Gunsan. Apparently there aren't many places to swim outside, which makes sense since many of their lotions have "white flour" as an ingredient to give themselves a more pale appearance. So, we got directions to one of the places and rode our bikes there. It was a solid 20 minute ride. So, after circling the place and finding the entrance we were showed around the lockerroom area by one of the workers. She was very nice. So, this is what you do if you ever want to go swimming at Wolmyeong Sports Complex. First you must pay the 1,280 won. Then you receive a key. Then you remove your shoes and go into the first part of the locker room. Here you open your first locker that is your shoe locker. Stick your shoes in there and take the lockerroom shoes they provide. Slip those babys on and move onto the next stage of the lockerroom. Use your key to open your clothes locker. Change into your swimming suit. Then go into the shower room. Rinse. You're ready to go swimming.

So, we did everything like good foreigners and then walked on into the pool area. Now, of course we knew we'd be stared at, but we quickly realized we would REALLY be stared at. The first thing Elizabeth says to me, "I don't want to jump into this swimmeet." We were told it was "free swim" but what we saw was one big pool that had 6 lanes and then a pretty jumpin kiddie pool in the corner...naturally, we felt drawn to the chaos that was in the kiddie pool...so we walked over towards the kiddie pool and observed the big pool for awhile. The men were either in speedos or those tight swimming spandex suits (you know, the one the professional swimmers use) and the women were all in black one pieces (also very similar to what professional swimmers wear). They were swimming in a very organized fashion and all had goggles and swimcaps. Here Elizabeth and I stood, next to the Kiddie pool in our blue polka dot tankinis, goggle and swimcapless ready for some good ole American pool fun..I mean where was the splashing, the dunking, the chicken fights?

I KNOW we looked out of place, and finally the lifeguard approached us. Her English was wonderful and she says, "do you have swim caps?" We said no, she looked a little shocked, but she graciously let us borrow one silver swim cap and one golden swim cap. I was reliving those Dixon Dolphin swim team days when I pulled that cap over my head. We noticed the first lane was the relaxed lane and then from there the lanes got more intense. We chose lane #2, seemed to be intense, but not too intense, so we spent the next hour or so swimming laps during this "free swim." There was nothing "free" about that swim.

I have noticed something here. Whenever someone wants to go swimming, go for a bike ride, go hiking, or pretty much anything recreational, they don't just slap on their old camp tshirt and mesh shorts..they dress in all the brand names, buy all the accessories, and do their best to mimic the professionals. It's quite interesting and it seems their idea of "fun" is pretty intense...but understandable since at a young age in school, they never really have fun during school or even after school. The schools do have designated "sports days." So, I'm thankful for my past recesses, getting off at 3pm everyday, playing sports after school, swimming outside on hot summer days wearing whatever you find in your top drawer, and throwing random kids around in the pool. I love America :)

Well, I hope you are having a good week! It's already Wednesday, woot woot! Until next time...

A Very Lengthy Week

Dear Landlord,
May you never try to solve another computer problem again.


This week...this week...this week..it was a very very very HARD week. I'm going to go ahead and say it was probably the worst week I've had in maybe 4 or 5 years. On Wednesday someone asked me, "What can I do for you?" and I said, "Buy me a one way ticket to Chicago, Illinois." However, now that it's Monday and I'm looking back, it still was difficult but at the same time, I felt alot of love from most of my classes.


Although this week will forever be burned in my memory as a week of computer mayhem, there was surprisingly some very great moments. But let me just tell you first about the frustrations and then I will cheer you up with stories from my ever entertaining students.


So, last Sunday, I got home to an apartment that had no internet connection. This has happened before when it's been rainy, so I didn't think much of it. I spent my Sunday night watching a documentary on sharks..pretty interesting..I even thought to myself, "wow, it's kind of nice not having internet." But then Monday came and still no internet. So, I told my school and they were supposedly going to take care of it. I'm pretty sure they thought the internet would somehow miraculously fix itself. Monday night came and still no internet connection. This is when I started to get a little irked. I hadn't realized how much I depend on the internet. It's my lifeline for keeping up relationships back home and without it, my world felt much more isolated and lonely. Tuesday came..Oh Tuesday, this is when it all went down. I did everything as usual, I walked into school around 3 pm..ready to eat some lunch and relax a little before my class at 4. But my director tells me I need to go home and drop off a key for the internet guy to come. I was a little peeved. I wish they would have told me the night before when they had talked to the guy, but nonetheless, I jumped in a taxi and ran back home.


I debated bringing my computer with me for this short run home, but decided I should bring it so I could check one last time if it was working. I also tried to explain to my director that the internet guy needed to know the problem was with the IP address for my computer, not the internet connection. I'm pretty sure she didn't tell him. So, I got home and quickly tried plugging the internet in...nada. I put my computer on my bed and decided I needed to just chill for a bit. So, in attempt to put my legs out in front of me, I leaned a little too much on my computer and heard a "pop." My heart immediately dropped. I opened the computer to find a huge spider like crack on the glass (not the LCD). My immediate thoughts, "eeeeeeee...it's ok...it's ok...Natalee, only 4 hours north of you there are children starving, people dying from cureable diseases, people's homes being washed away in this heavy heavy rain, and a whole nation is being oppressed by a man named Kim Jong Il." Putting it in perspective like that really helped, but it was still beyond frustrating.


So, I came back to school, but not before I almost forgot to leave the key for the internet guy...the whole purpose for this visit. I got back to school feeling pretty low. My students were so sweet though. They would say, "teacher, it's ok, look at my cell phone" showing me their cell phone that's screen was completely shattered. Or one student just patted my back for like 30 seconds saying, "teacha, it's ok...it's ok.."


Finally I was on my way home and apparently the internet guy had called and said it was a really easy fix that my landlord could do. He just needed to change the IP address for the apartment and enter the information into the computer. So, the landlord met me at the door when I got back. He came in, he seemed nice, but still very Korean in his actions...a little pushy, trying to do everything so quickly, didn't speak a lick of English, and I'm pretty sure he'd never seen an Apple computer before...and maybe he'd never seen a computer before? But I knew I was in trouble when I look over and see he had only succeeded to magnify the font on the computer to about 250%. I tried calling Yogita and having her explain it to him in Korean but he wasn't listening to her and ended up just hanging up the phone. This was beyond frustrating. He spent 40 minutes in my apartment messing with the display and lighting settings, and I kept saying, "change the IP address," and then we would just stare at each other and recognize that large language wall between us.


He finally left, and I tried for another half hour to fix it myself, while talking to my coworker Jemal. But Jemal decided he needed to come look at it on Wednesday afternoon. Tuesday ended..the internet not fixed and the computer screen broken, so I went to bed feeling hungry, frustrated, and homesick. On Wednesday morning, I think my students were pretty concerned for me..I must have looked pretty war torned because my adult students said, "oh..um..are you sick?" and then I semi broke down and just told them about the computer screen, the internet problem, the frustrations with the landlord, and how I hadn't talked to my mom or anyone else for that matter in over a week and was feeling pretty lonely...I didn't cry, but I could feel the ducts filling up. They really care about me, even though we have this language barrier, I could feel their sympathy and concern for me. Those students really kept me encouraged all week..whenever I walk in that classroom, it feels so comfortable and homey.


Wednesday afternoon Jemal spent his whole break trying to fix my internet issue, but we concluded this was something the landlord needed to fix..but since that was such a success the night before, we decided we needed to get the internet company to just come directly when I was home. Unfortunately, they couldn't come until Friday afternoon, so I had to survive another few days with no internet. Finally Friday came and so did the internet guy. It took maybe 5 minutes, and the internet was back up...unfortunately, he couldn't perform a miracle and fix my broken computer screen as well.


I know this story doesn't sound like it would create such a terrible week, and it probably really isn't that big of deal to anyone else, but in the moment, it was difficult to be in this country where businesses don't really do their best to please their customers, and people "want" to help, but just aren't very proactive about doing anything. I really could go on and on about this ordeal and about how not having internet would have changed this whole experience of living in a foreign country, but let's get to the good stuff.


Let's start with Monday before chaotic Tuesday began. My 4pm class of elementary students finally finished their book. They didn't just finish it, they killed it. They are so good at English. I feel like when I'm in that class, I'm in an elementary class in the U.S. So, in the book, one of the questions was "Have you ever eaten Ravioli?" They were all so curious about Ravioli. So, for the finishing the book party I decided to get some frozen ravioli from base and introduce these kids to some good eatin. They LOVED it! When I was cleaning up, they came into the teacher's lounge and asked for a bag to bring home to "show their mom, dad, sister, and cousins," I was like, "but Charlie, you have two raviolis left." They somehow made it work.

Oh Sharon, my English All-Star:

Getting in touch with my Italian side.


Of course my morning class contributed to the humorous moments of the week. On Tuesday we were talking about things we've tried, and someone asks the class, "have you ever tried drugs?" Not surprisingly Mrs. Nam says, "I have." Mrs. Nam, what a daredevil! Turns out she misunderstood and reneged on her confession...I'm still skeptical.

Also, in that class, there is a newer student who is about my age and is very serious about studying English. Anyways, we were all talking and one of the questions in the book was, "who was the last person you kissed?" I felt like it was a little too personal so I edited "kissed" out and replaced it with "hugged." One of the ladies asked the guy, "When did you last hug your mother?" His response: "I've never." Everybody let out a little gasp and then the "mothers" in the room turn to me and say, "You say his homework is hug his mother." I totally agreed, but he came in the next day and said he couldn't do it...it's too strange to hug her now that he's grown. All the "mothers" were disappointed and demanded he be punished...I didn't punish him.

During one of the company classes this week, I walked in and one of the students says to me, "Teacher, you are dressed to kill me." My response, "Jim 1)It's "You're dressed to kill." 2) Who taught you this? and 3) You are a married man! :) :) :)

I had been waiting for Thursday to come for awhile. According the Lunar Calendar (whatever that means) July 14 was supposed to be the hottest day of the year. Here in Korea we celebrate 3 of the hottest days of the year by eating a hot bowl of Sumgyetong (boiled chicken soup) and watermelon. So, after our company class on Thursday, we were able to eat in the company's cafeteria and participate in this tradition. They say Sumgyetong gives you special amount of energy and improves your skin...I did notice that my workout that day was abnormally awesome and I was complimented by a Korean on my appearance the next day..I guess it really works..Asia's best kept secret.

I couldn't have wanted a weekend to come more than I wanted this one. I just needed to unwind from the absurdity of the week. On Saturday, I went to see Harry Potter 7 part 2 with one of my favorite students! Her name is Seul Gi, which means "wisdom" in Korean. She is so sweet, she's 17 and just recently moved to Gunsan. So we saw Harry Potter in the afternoon, did some shopping, and hung out at a coffee shop for most of Saturday evening.

It's funny because I was a little nervous that her mom and dad would think it's weird that this 2o something foreigner wanted to see a movie with their daughter since they've never met me, but it was the total opposite. We were talking and her mom called her, Seul Gi laughed and said, "my mother says she loves you!" I'm telling you, people love English here and they love foreigners. It was sweet.

On Sunday after church, I had plans with a couple girls from my company class. They semi invited themselves over the week before, but I was excited to have guests. I haven't really entertained people in my apartment since it's a little tight in my one roomer. But, they came on over and I cooked up some of the frozen ravioli that I had, did my best at attempting my mother's amazing bruschetta, made a quick tossed salad, and threw some chicken, noodles, and (canned) alfredo sauce together for the second Italian feast of the week!

If you notice it's a little smoky in the background, it could be that I burned the rest of the bruschetta...I'm not my mother yet.

So, we ate, played this awesome game that I will surely bring back to the U.S. with me, and it was a really good night! I forgot how much I enjoy having people over and playing games, even if there is a pretty large language barrier...food and games break all sorts of barriers :)

And there you have it. I know it was a little lengthy, but that's how my week felt..lengthy. Hope you are doing well and enjoying the summer heat, remember sunscreen or as we call it in Korea, suncream!

Seoul Souvenirs

Dear souvenir shops in Seoul,
You are welcome for all the money you made this weekend because of me.

Another week, another blog. I just did the calculations. I've been here for about 42 weeks and I have a mere 12 weeks until my contract is up. I wanna say time has been flying by, but when I think about when I said "see you in a year" to mom last September, I can definitely feel each week of those 42 weeks, if not more.

So this past week was really nothing too special. On Monday it was the Fourth of July. I wanted to see some sort of firework, but there was nada. Come on, Korea, if it wasn't for General MacArthur... Nonetheless, we will celebrate Korea's independence day in August and then this gap of not having a day off will be somewhat filled.

It was interesting talking to my adult students about the 4th. They asked me, "Do you hate the British?" I said I never had even put thought into having hard feelings toward the British. Korea's independence from Japan was only 66 years ago, so there is definitely still some animosity towards the Japanese. Plus, I'm pretty sure the British who appreciate a good cup o' tea are much less harsh than the Japanese who appreciate a good Samurai sword.

So, here I am in the morning before my first class wishing you a "Happy Fourth" in true Korean fashion. Thanks for the shirt mom!


The week was surprisingly dry. Sprinkles here and there, but for the most part I was able to get to and from work without being drenched. But then the weekend came. I actually went out of town for the weekend but apparently my little Gunsan got poured on. Here's a newspaper article I just found and the picture is not far from my apartment. It's a quick read. I know it's all in mm and you and I are so confused by the metric system, but it's basically saying this Monsoon season is bringing the most rain Korea has seen in awhile.

Actually, I was coming back on the bus from Seoul on Sunday around 7 and as we were driving I noticed these rice fields completely covered in water and even a few roads were covered by water. I thought to myself, "wow, this poor city, glad we're not back in Gunsan yet." Three minutes later I realize we ARE in Gunsan and about 5 minutes from the bus terminal. So, from the looks of things and the news article there has been some massive flooding. As for Myeong San shi jeong, everything is somewhat dry. However, I did notice when leaving this morning, a puddle accumulating outside my door...maybe more on that in next week's blog.

This weekend, I decided I needed to get all my souvenir shopping out of the way since I'll be sending a suitcase home with THE Ga Young in a few weeks when I meet up with her and her family. All I can say is if you are of the Anderson or Maritato clan, you have a lil somethin' somethin' coming your way this Christmas :)

I had two goals this weekend. 1) Buy all the souvenirs so that I'll never have to buy another souvenir again. and 2) Eat at Subway

I accomplished number one with a few visits to Namdaemun but number two was a bit more complicated. I couldn't find the Subway in a certain part of the city and my second attempt I was in mad search for this particular Subway, only to find out it had been closed not too long ago. However, on Sunday, after we visited the world's largest church, Yoido Church, we headed over to Itaewon. Itaewon is a part of Seoul that is very near a large American Army base, so this area is crawling with foreigners and Koreans are few and far between. So, when the little information lady dressed in red told us that we were a 30 second walk from Subway, the hallelujah chorus went off in my head! That Teriyaki sandwich is seriously a taste of heaven.

Like I said, Esther and I went to the world's largest church called Yoido. We went to one of the 6 services on Sunday morning. It was definitely very large and having a little headset that translated the Korean into English was pretty neat. However, I'm pretty sure our translator was either a newbie or some things just don't translate.

Sunday late afternoon, I got on the bus and got back into rainy Gunsan. There's something about coming back to this city that always gives me this warm and welcoming feeling. What a good little city.

Sweat update: On Tuesday I was running and sweating my usual yet large amount of sweat when the owner of the gym gets on the treadmill next to me, takes my towel, and then proceeds to wipe off my sweaty arm. If I was anywhere else in the world, I would have been very surprised, but for some reason I totally expected something like this to happen. All the ajummas laughed and I stayed dry for about 1 minute. The Fall season can't come soon enough!

Hope you are well and in a better state than me right now...it's only Tuesday and I've already got some stories for next week's blog. I can tell, it's going to be a long rest of the week...

Little High Little Low

Dear gym owners,
You only have yourself to blame.

Well, this past week was a week of highs and lows. I should have written this on Friday when I was thinking about what I'd write for this week's blog because now all I can remember is that I wanted to say "this past week was a week of highs and lows." So let me try and jog this ole memory.

High: Mrs. Nam made Korean pancakes and potatoes and we had a rainy day party.
Low: It was very dreary and humid

Apparently, when it rains in Korea, it is tradition to stay home, drink rice wine (makoli), and eat Korean pancakes (pajeon). Pajeon is one of my favorite Korean food. It's not really at all similar to a western style pancake, but I guess you could imagine a non-fluffy, slightly undercooked pancake filled with vegetables, squid, shrimp, oysters, and sometimes Kimchi...I bet you think that sounds delicious right? It seriously is.

Anyhow, on Tuesday Mrs. Nam made some (we ixnayed on the alcohol :) ) for the whole class, and ironically, it was the one sunny day of the week. Also, half the class was missing, which really wasn't too bad since Mrs. Nam gave me the leftovers :)

My three favorite ajummas in all of Korea:

We love Pajeon!

High: My middle schoolers had testing all week so I got off an hour early everyday
Low: My elementary students drove me a little bonkers!

Two or three times a year, the public schools in Korea have these massive tests. They mean the WORLD to these kids, and the results mean getting into a good high school which will later means doing better on the college entrance exam and getting into a good university which will later mean getting a good job which will FINALLY mean you can actually afford to buy watermelon priced at 18,000 won ( 16 dollars)! You catch my drift right? #1 these tests are very important and #2 someone please send me some watermelon.

So, because these students were vigorously studying the whole week, I was able to get off at 8 pm instead of 9 pm. I had forgotten the joyous feeling of finishing at that time. I spent that free hour going shopping, visiting lizer (what Mr. Oh calls Elizabeth), working out a little on the roof, talking to friends, etc. It was wonderful.

On the other hand, my elementary students just seemed abnormally squirly. I think it's because their summer vacation is coming up, but they were just not focusing at all, whatsoever.

Don't they look so sweet playing Upwords and smiling so innocently?


Don't let that fool you..this is how you feel inside if you spend more than a week with them:

High: I got a package on Friday from Grandma!
Med: We played hide and seek tag on Friday in my 7 oclock class.
Low: I was told I should stop sweating in the gym.

Let's start with the Medium. So, for the past 3 weeks, my middle school 7oclock class has been pestering me to play hide and seek tag with them on a Friday. The first week, they were not well behaved at all so they didn't deserve to do what they wanted to do. The second and third week, it was pouring rain. But, this past Friday rolled around and the weather was probably the most humid it had been, but it wasn't raining. I couldn't avoid it any longer. I asked our director in hopes that she'd say, "no, you can't leave this academy." Instead she said, "sure." So, we spent 40 minutes running around outside playing "cops and robbers." When we were walking back to class, Lina says to me, "Teacha, you very good." That's right, I knew these past 6 months at the gym would pay off somehow.

Speaking of the gym, that brings me to my low. I know I sweat alot and definitely significantly more than the ladies who never go above a 3 mph pace on the treadmill. I've been trying to figure out why it seems I've been sweating more than usual. I mean I'm in much better shape than I was 6 months ago, so why have I been sweating so much? I guess it COULD be that this gym refuses to turn on their a/c and it's close to 100% humidity and in the 80's. So, not only does my white skin, absurdly curly hair, and blue eyes make me stand out like a sore thumb, but now my fellow exercise partners are beginning to understand how we differ in amounts of perspiration. Well, on Friday during my run, the owner came up to me and motioned to me that I needed to stop sweating. I was only slightly embarrassed. I didn't know how to respond to that with gestures and I was half way through so I just tried to wipe off with a towel. But SERIOUSLY, if you aren't going to turn on the a/c because of your stinginess, then really, you only have yourself to blame for my excessive sweating. It's a little frustrating. I wish I could understand why they care so much.

Speaking of people who care, my wonderful and beautiful grandmother sent me a box and I just got it on Friday! It was perfect timing. At the end of the week if the students do their homework and were obedient in class, they get to choose from the prize bag. My grandma included some goodies and those students who were not obedient and did not do their homework regretted it very much after seeing all the awesome things in the prize bag! So, thank you Grandma, here are a few of my classes that also say "thank you!"... or in Korean: Kamsamnida.


Say Grandma on 3..1,2,3 "GRANDMA!"


We love these toys and we WILL do our homework next week so we can choose one!

So much personality, thanks again Grandma!


High: I spent Saturday eating pizza, solving riddles, walking around Eunpa Park, listening to an acapela concert, eating chicken and hanging out with other Americans to celebrate the 4th of July.
Low: I missed the Petunia Festival in all it's glory.

Basically, that "high" is my weekend in a nutshell. It was fun and there was great company. I didn't think I'd really miss the 4th of July too much, but as the weekend came to a close, there was a huge void since I wasn't able to see any fireworks or cookout or eat dip n dots or see a parade or walk through a carnival observing those Dixonites that seem to be hiding all other weeks of the year...so let us not take the Petunia Festival for granted :)

Hope you had a fun-filled weekend! God Bless America :)