one month!

after work on friday, my boss had all the teachers over for dinner at her new apartment. some of my co-workers and i got her a gift. we gave fruit (which is a traditional korean gift to give to a dinner hostess) and a plant (which i think is a good housewarming gift). while we were discussing gift options, one of the korean teachers said "laundry detergent" which i first thought was really strange. apparently it's a popular housewarming gift here...

today i went shopping in sheenay with kirsten and jesseca. it was fun, although it was raining and everybody had umbrellas. i stopped by starbucks because i hadn't had it yet here, but they don't have the drink i like over here. i don't know how i will survive without berry chai's for the eleven months, this may be hard!! since they don't have the option of soy milk in s.korea, i got an americano instead. i started drinking them a few weeks ago and i finally like the taste without the creamy taste.

while shopping we also realized that koreans really do not like americans shopping at their stores. kirsten asked a lady if she could use the fitting room and the lady refused to let her. it happened to me earlier that day at a different store, but i blankly stared at the guy who wouldn't let me use it until he opened the fitting room for me. we're not quite sure why, but they didn't even seem that happy to see us in their store.

in the taxi on the way home, our driver was trying to speak english with us. this was fine, although it made for some interesting conversation. he asked us if we were from america. then he assumed we were from new york. jesseca said "georgia" but he had no idea where that was. kirsten said california (where she last worked) which he understood. i said "south dakota" and he kept saying "michael jordan" which at first confunsed us until we realized he thought i said north carolina (although i'm sure everybody knows this, considering i do, michael jordan played for unc). so i let him think i was from north carolina...he then proceeded to ask us about the song "hotel california," so i sang a few lines of it for him. he asked if ABBA sang it and i said, "no, the eagles" and he also asked "how old?". i told him around 30 years. who knows if he understood. i've noticed that many koreans will want to talk about what they know about the states. it's really weird because they will usually mention hollywood, sports, or obama.

as for teaching, it's still going very well. on friday, i received a card from one of my students that said "to erin: i love you very much" awww, so cute! my kids here are so sweet and i really do enjoy working with them. i never imagined ever singing or dancing for them, but i'm that teacher now. they think it's so funny and they tell me, "teacher, you're crazy crazy crazy, so silly!" on friday, since it was the end of the week, i let them have a "snowball fight" for a minute before class was over. they were learning different regions of the world (dry place, wet place, cold place) and they read about snowball fights in the arctic (it was in their book...) so it fit in.

after one month, i feel like i've only been here a few weeks. i'm lucky i made friends quickly and i'm at a school that takes good care of me. it's mostly been a breeze getting situated and trained in teaching, but it hasn't all been easy. although i realized this before i left, being in south korea means missing out on events at home, both happy and sad. a friend of mine from high school was killed in a car accident and i had to miss her funeral. liz was a beautiful girl with a unique and quirky personality. i was fortunate enough to have hung out with liz right before i left for korea. she was so happy and loving her life. the lord used her in great ways and you could see his love shining through her.